Orcus Previews the 4e Core Rulebooks

[Campbell]

I think some people are taking Orcus' use of 'review' a little too seriously. He's basically just relaying what he thought of the books and not doing an in-depth analysis of the books. That's fine. Do we really need to get into a word parsing battle over a message board post that was obviously written in a fairly casual matter?

 

[Mister Doug]

I think some people are taking Orcus' use of 'review' a little too seriously. He's basically just relaying what he thought of the books and not doing an in-depth analysis of the books. That's fine. Do we really need to get into a word parsing battle over a message board post that was obviously written in a fairly casual matter?

Yes, we must. This is the internet, after all.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I can see some stuff to steal from 4e. The first thing I would steal (for any iteration of D&D) are the monster 'concepts'. Minions, Standard, Elite, and Solo. This is one of the few 'innovations' that I have never really thought about.

I think assigning roles to existing monsters might also prove helpful for further encounter design in 3E. It's not always easy to "extract" the role, but once you've done it, it might become easier to figure out how a monster will affect an encounter, how to run it during the encounter and whether using it plays to your partys strengths or weaknesses.

 

[PoeticJustice]

ignore

 

[theredrobedwizard]

When I saw the thread title, I was filled with both hope and dread.

I figured it was another one of those animated shorts, ala the Gnome&Tiefling, the Beholder, and the Mindflayer.

I was expecting, within a few seconds, to hear "Hi, I'm Orcus, and these are my minions. Say hello, little minions!"...

I was thinking the same thing, except I want more of those videos. MOAR!

-TRRW

 

[lutecius]

Can we stop hearing about "The designers are shoving their fluff down our throats and treating my homebrew like toilet paper" now?

Sure, if none of this 99% crunch presupposes or reflects the new fluff.

 

[Henry]

I find myself rather unflapped by the comments in this thread. However, It's good to know at least one old-schooler finds as much interest in the new rules as he does, and it being Clark, specifically, is significant.

One question I do have for Clark, if he reads this at some point: Do you, like Ari and myself, find a bit of retro in some of the elements when you look at them? Or do you get the "no retro at all" feeling when you take them as a whole?

 

[Arnwyn]

They are startlingly unashamed in the changes they made. This is where the books, at first glance, will bother people who are predisposed to not liking 4E. The books dont at first glance seem "comfortable and similar and familiar." They used a new layout and new organization. Looking back on all the PHBs since the first AD&D PHB the format has been about the same. This one changes it all up. And that first impression is a bit startling. Plus, some of the new stuff is front and center. Heck, dragonborn are the first player race.

Alphabetical order is "startling", Clark? Huh.

 

[Serensius]

I like that the PHB is crunchy. DMG, maybe. MM... Monsters need a little fluff.

Indeed. I have this nightmare that I'll crack open the MM, only to be met by "Felldemon Daggerstab" and the likes, presented only by their noun-noun names and (admittedly easy-to-use) stat blocks without any semblance of flavour.

EDIT:

Alphabetical order is "startling", Clark? Huh.

Everyone's saying "aah, alphabetic this and that", but compare it to 3.5: Which is the first race? Human. The rest are in alphabetical order. Also, I think what he's getting at is that they could easily have arranged it in a different way so as to appeal to grognards, but didn't.

 

[glass]

I like that they are doing a 4e Tome with 'Fell' versions of classic powers. That means those Grognards are going to be getting some of my money. Startling.

Is cool startling the new startling cool?


glass.