D&D 4E My compiled list of 4E's WoWisms

[Cam Banks]

White Dwarf was such a cool magazine when it was a general interest one. Their D&D adventures were such a divergent vision of D&D, with characters poor, faced with brutal conditions and likely to die at any moment. Hmmm, come to think of it, most of the adventures in Imagine (Dragon's British counterpart) had a lot of the same flavor. Must be a British fantasy trope.

As a New Zealander by birth, and growing up in NZ during the 80's British fantasy dominance, I cleave closer to those tropes than traditional US fantasy ones.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As a New Zealander by birth, and growing up in NZ during the 80's British fantasy dominance, I cleave closer to those tropes than traditional US fantasy ones.

I don't know that I'd want to play D&D that was quite so miserable as White Dwarf/Imagine depicted it, but I sure like things more grungy than the shiny happy high fantasy of mid-1980s Dragon, that's for sure.

Games Workshop should really take advantage of the OGL and put out a 4E update of the best of the old White Dwarf D&D stuff.

 

[Piratecat]

Incidentally, folks, several people have reported this thread. I agree that the initial concept seems designed to start fights. The discussion, however, has gotten pretty interesting. We've purposely left it open as a result.

That doesn't mean that using a provocative topic is the way to start threads. But we want to thank everyone who has contributed to the conversation.

 

[PeterWeller]

Games Workshop should really take advantage of the OGL and put out a 4E update of the best of the old White Dwarf D&D stuff.

But that wouldn't help sell buckets of miniatures.

 

[teitan]

What I find humourous is that the "WoW roles" originated in Champions with the types of superheroes like "brick/tank" or the "controller" etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What I find humourous is that the "WoW roles" originated in Champions with the types of superheroes like "brick/tank" or the "controller" etc.

Blizzard has so much money now, they have a time machine and went back and inspired Champions with their MMO.

 

[BryonD]

Blizzard has so much money now, they have a time machine and went back and inspired Champions with their MMO.

I think it misses the point to get hung up on where ideas first got thrown out.
Trolls regenerate in virtually every fantasy game going. That isn't because every game designer out there loves Pohl. It is because Gygax based the D&D troll that way and D&D made the idea popular and commonplace. WoW kitbashed a wide range of pre-existing ideas. And then it made them popular assumptions. Some of the long standing ideas that 4E is picking up are not because WoW invented them, but because WoW popularized them.
And there is nothing wrong with that.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Warhammer comes out of the British fantasy gaming scene, which was for the most part D&D and RuneQuest for a good long while.

Yeah. I would argue that Warhammer is a descendant or rip-off of D&D exactly as much as Warcraft is a descendant or rip-off of Warhammer. Even considering Tolkien, I doubt there would have ever been a fantasy wargame with elves and dwarves and orcs and demons and various historical analogues of Europe without Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Again, no, that's not how it works in English.

Investigating a new crime each week isn't a Law & Order-ism, it's a cop show-ism. A Law & Order-ism would be splitting the narrative between the investigating and the prosecution.

Or marking scene transitions with a percussion sting compiled from various sources including a bunch of Catholic monks jumping on a hard wooden floor!

 

[The Little Raven]

Or marking scene transitions with a percussion sting compiled from various sources including a bunch of Catholic monks jumping on a hard wooden floor!

What's funny is that I sometimes use that sound clip to note when a scene has ended in my current nWoD game.