Rich Baker Blog on Monsters

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

When I asked David Noonan about alignment over here in London on Open Game Day, he told me a DM doesn't really need to deal with alignment, but a player might have it on his character's sheet.

I would expect tha things like "Detect Alignament" or "Protection from Evil" will go and we will see "Detect Intention" and "Protection from adversary" or the like

alignament on the character shee will be a reminder for the player and not an instrument to say "you cannot do that you are Lawful Good" or "you must do this because you are Chaotic Evil"

 

[Sammael]

Despite Eric Noah and everyone else actually collecting and reprinting the data back then saying otherwise?

We didn't know more back then. It's a trick of memory. Three months since the announcement of 3E, we knew pretty much squat.

It cannot be a trick of memory. I damn well know I ran a campaign in the winter of 1999/2000 (that's 8 months prior to the release) with AC going up rather than down, no THAC0, and three saves instead of five. And I am pretty damn sure I wasn't one of the playtesters.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It cannot be a trick of memory. I damn well know I ran a campaign in the winter of 1999/2000 (that's 8 months prior to the release) with AC going up rather than down, no THAC0, and three saves instead of five. And I am pretty damn sure I wasn't one of the playtesters.

I'm pretty sure we know more than three facts about 4E.

 

[Wormwood]

We didn't know more back then. It's a trick of memory.

I'm convinced that the term "trick of memory" could well describe most arguments on these boards.

 

[Sammael]

I'm pretty sure we know more than three facts about 4E.

Three such major facts, that directly and precisely tell me how 4E playstyle will be different? Give it a shot.

 

[pawsplay]

IEven in Moorcock's Elric saga, Chaos was nothing more than a different way of saying evil.

Whoa, there. In Elric's saga, both Chaos and Law can seem evil to humans. Elric represents the Balance. In that milieu, alignments roughly correspond to CE -> CN -> NG -> LN -> LE.

 

[Bishmon]

Three such major facts, that directly and precisely tell me how 4E playstyle will be different? Give it a shot.

1) The bloodied condition and that there will be abilities that will only work depending on whether or not the affected character is or isn't bloodied.
2) Spells can critical.
3) There will be more reliance on per-encounter abilities.
4) The core game goes from level 1-30 now.
5) A vast reduction in the use of save-or-dies.
6) The cosmology has been pretty significantly changed.
7) Devils and demons now have more of a distinction.
8) Fighters will get abilities based on what weapons they use.

I think each of these things will easily affect the 4e playstyle more than counting AC in the opposite direction affected the 3e playstyle.

 

[Mouseferatu]

OD&D only had Law, Neutrality, and Chaos - same as Basic D&D - but Eldritch Wizardry (supplement III) actually noted for Mind Flayers "highly evil but otherwise lawful". However, Good and Evil weren't turned into alignments until AD&D Monster Manual came out in 1977.

(You actually got me to open up my crumbling OD&D box to make sure.)

So which version had the LG, LE, N, CG, CE continuum? I know I saw it somewhere, in one of the various editions...

Me so confused now...

 

[Baby Samurai]

1) The bloodied condition and that there will be abilities that will only work depending on whether or not the affected character is or isn't bloodied.
2) Spells can critical.
3) There will be more reliance on per-encounter abilities.
4) The core game goes from level 1-30 now.
5) A vast reduction in the use of save-or-dies.
6) The cosmology has been pretty significantly changed.
7) Devils and demons now have more of a distinction.
8) Fighters will get abilities based on what weapons they use.

Yes, but how do you implement those in a campaign as of now?

 

[Baby Samurai]

We didn't know more back then. It's a trick of memory. Three months since the announcement of 3E, we knew pretty much squat.

Yeah, I'm calling massive amounts of doggy doo doo on that.

Maybe your memory is playing tricks on you, but not me, and apparently some of the other posters who remember what actually happened.

Even by early 2000 we had a boatload more info for 3rd Ed than we have as of now for 4th Ed.