I've finally got my books in. I'm not sure what I think yet. Art is great and from what I can tell everything is definitely an improvement, but I don't think it's going to be knocking Call of Cthulhu off the primary campaign slot for my group. I do already have a rough idea for a series of roughly tied one shots though that I'm already itching to try out.
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D&D Age: 4.0 Is Coming - Official Thread of Nerdom and Mother's Basements
- Thread starter sorryaboutdresden
- Start date
sorryaboutdresden
Member
Ship my books Amazon, ship my books..
sorryaboutdresden
Member
sk3tch said:
Thats awesome dude! My books shipped today, I should be getting them soon. I'm pumped.
Confusatron
Member
Here in Seattle, Wizards put on a preview event Saturday. My buddy and I went and picked up the books. They were also running mini-adventures to get people familiar with the system. One was a full on dungeon crawl that lasted 3 hours. We didn't have 3 hours, so we went with the 1.5 hour "Kill the White Dragon" scenario. In it, you kill a white dragon. :lol
Even with just that brief intro to the new system, I liked it. Everything flowed very smoothly. I think my favorite change is the save system. I hated the old save system, more than it deserved to be hated. In the new system, you just roll a d20 and try to beat a 10. When the DM first told me this, I thought he was kidding. "No really, what SHOULD I be rolling against?" Just a 10. Brilliant.
Even with just that brief intro to the new system, I liked it. Everything flowed very smoothly. I think my favorite change is the save system. I hated the old save system, more than it deserved to be hated. In the new system, you just roll a d20 and try to beat a 10. When the DM first told me this, I thought he was kidding. "No really, what SHOULD I be rolling against?" Just a 10. Brilliant.
Reading through the books currently, but just going through them it looks like classes aren't going to have much in the way of diversity. All the at will stuff seems to conform your character into cookie cutter paths. Oh well, currently working on my current campaign I hope to run for some friends.
sk3tch said:What do you guys think are good race/class combinations for a beginning player?
In RPGs in general, I prefer a healer role. From the classes listed in the 4e Player Handbook, I am liking cleric, ranger, rogue, warlock, and wizard.
Help?
Humans will make a decent anything, especially if you pick a class that only gives a small number of skills.
Dwarves seem to still make excellent clerics, elves for rangers, halflings for rogues, tieflings or half elves for warlocks, and eladrin for wizards.
These are old school D&D archetypes. There are still races that dovetail nicely into certain classes.
sk3tch said:What do you guys think are good race/class combinations for a beginning player?
In RPGs in general, I prefer a healer role. From the classes listed in the 4e Player Handbook, I am liking cleric, ranger, rogue, warlock, and wizard.
Help?
My sis would be termed a casual DND player. She had a great time with the warlock class, mix it with human and it looks like your done!!
EDIT: I'd suggest strikers in general for beginners, they focus on damage to one gut mostly and stay way from the tactical heavy defense...
Banjo Tango
Member
For anyone who's looked at the tactical rules... would you see any problem in adapting the grid system to a hexagonal one?
A friend gave me a ton of these hexagonal plastic snap-together "terrain tiles" - they'd be great for minis.
A friend gave me a ton of these hexagonal plastic snap-together "terrain tiles" - they'd be great for minis.
Banjo Tango said:
Not really a problem but it will require a bit of work on your part beforehand. You're going to have to slightly modify the area of effect for certain powers to account for the hexes but once that is done you will use those shapes over and over. To keep things simple in the beginning I suggest you cut out the proper shaped for all of the blast and burst sizes.
You're going to have to do the same for the bases of big monsters too. The standard squares that D&D games use is going to mean a bunch of half filled hexes on your tiles.
Banjo Tango
Member
Doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for the info!Dyno said:
shoplifter
Member
I'm using hexes. I prefer the more 'organic' feel it gives compared to squares.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/hexGrid.htm - not for 4e, but it should give you a pretty good set of ideas from what you might want to use.
My current plan is to make blasts cones with distance equal to the number of squares, so Close Blast 3 = 15' cone. It'll change the effectiveness a bit, but it's going to be across the board, so I don't see it really hurting the pcs too much. This may be on a case by case basis, probably done on flavor.
Bursts will remain unchanged, aside from being hexes. I haven't made my mind up on what I'm doing with wall effects yet. I might reduce the effect number by 2 or something...or I might just leave them alone until I decide.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/hexGrid.htm - not for 4e, but it should give you a pretty good set of ideas from what you might want to use.
My current plan is to make blasts cones with distance equal to the number of squares, so Close Blast 3 = 15' cone. It'll change the effectiveness a bit, but it's going to be across the board, so I don't see it really hurting the pcs too much. This may be on a case by case basis, probably done on flavor.
Bursts will remain unchanged, aside from being hexes. I haven't made my mind up on what I'm doing with wall effects yet. I might reduce the effect number by 2 or something...or I might just leave them alone until I decide.
sorryaboutdresden
Member
shoplifter said:
I'm still going to use my hex grid, unless I can find cheap Dungeon Tiles.
sorryaboutdresden said:
Heroscape makes some reasonably priced sets with stackable hex tiles. We use them in our weekly Champions game (which I have to get ready for today).
We all pick up one major set each, and that's given us enough tiles. Also, picked up some more on eBay. I've seen 100 tile sets for as cheap as $15.
Amakusa
Member
Alright guys, my Friend came down from ATL and ran 4.0 for us. I have to say, I love it... I mean I'm the guy who wouldn't play 3rd ed for a year because I liked 2nd so much. But my friend talked me into playing and OMFG its great, level 1 human fighter with 30 HP, using a 2h great Axe 18 Str plus 8 to hit. My daily is brute strike 3 [W] + str mod damage. What that means is, once a day in battle I can roll 3D12 damage.
At will I picked up sure strike, Cleave, can't remember the last one (being human you get a extra)
They really gave this game a new meaning and style of play, Warlocks... needless to say Warlocks are the damage dealers. Give it a shot guys and gals, you'll love 4.0
At will I picked up sure strike, Cleave, can't remember the last one (being human you get a extra)
They really gave this game a new meaning and style of play, Warlocks... needless to say Warlocks are the damage dealers. Give it a shot guys and gals, you'll love 4.0
CPaladino said:
I would give them a call. Here's their contact info. They were very good on the phone with me. You get a regular person that works there and knows their stuff. Fast shipping, too!
I bought the reversible megamat with 1" squares and hexes (item 97246) and the wet-erase water soluble markers (item 03154). The shipping is $7 and there's no tax. So all in all it was cheaper than going through a 3rd party on Amazon.
While you're there, might as well throw in a few dice orders. The sets are very reasonable direct from Chessex. I know that my local gamestore charges considerably more.
How is the mat? It looked beige, and the grid lines looked thick.sk3tch said:
I'm worried about drawing a map/room in black pen and being able to see the walls of the dungeon.
I'm also worried about the ink rubbing off while we're moving our minis around the map.
CPaladino said:
I haven't used it, yet (planning on DM'ing in early July) - but I have it laid out (there's a pic that I posted in the previous page of this thread if you want to see). Honestly, I see no potential problems with the square/grid lines. Think of it like graph paper. You can see the boxes and they're very defined, but once you write over them it's easy to see your own grid. The reason I bought it was that I read very positive reviews about the Chessex mats. So I highly doubt the smearing problems will be an issue (assuming you use the right kind of marker).
sorryaboutdresden
Member
Just got my books! I can't wait to start reading this shit
The official errata/updates page for the books is up.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/updates
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/updates
sorryaboutdresden
Member
Anyone try out D&D Insider? I haven't had a chance to yet.
So, I decided to wander into Half Price Books earlier today, assuming that the new edition would mean some people sold their old 3.5 books that I could grab for a good discount and maybe join in on a campaign some people I know are going through.
I noticed a few books on the shelf that I didn't quite recognize. "These can't be what I think they are" I thought as I pulled them out. Even looking at the cover with a Dragonborn on it, knowing full well what I was holding, I had to go into the book and check to see. Sure enough, a full set of all 3 4th edition core books were ripe for the taking, under $50 mint.
When I was checking out, some random guy that works there happened to be walking by and looked at what I was getting. He kind of did a double take, stopped, then moved the receipt out of the way, stared at the cover again, and just said "are these what I think they are?"
"Hell yes they are." I said, with a huge grin.
After paying and him telling me that he hates me "so much," I walked off to the melodious sounds of him talking to another teller about how much he hates me because those books are so new and the discount was so huge.
I noticed a few books on the shelf that I didn't quite recognize. "These can't be what I think they are" I thought as I pulled them out. Even looking at the cover with a Dragonborn on it, knowing full well what I was holding, I had to go into the book and check to see. Sure enough, a full set of all 3 4th edition core books were ripe for the taking, under $50 mint.
When I was checking out, some random guy that works there happened to be walking by and looked at what I was getting. He kind of did a double take, stopped, then moved the receipt out of the way, stared at the cover again, and just said "are these what I think they are?"
"Hell yes they are." I said, with a huge grin.
After paying and him telling me that he hates me "so much," I walked off to the melodious sounds of him talking to another teller about how much he hates me because those books are so new and the discount was so huge.
Under $50 and in your hands already?
Fuck you, mang. :lol
Amazon's $57 boxset still hasn't shipped.
And here I am running Keep on the Shadowfell this weekend. :lol
I've been reading my friend's copy to get ready.
We're going to make different characters than what's in the Quick Start guide (may as well, PHB is out already) and actually take a minute to establish the game narrative and why each character is in the group and how they met; my biggest pet peeve in all of RPGing is the "you all know each other" story fiat.
No, we don't all know each other in-game, and asking us to roleplay that we do is about like everyone acting like they know someone that comes up to them at a party; awkward and lame.
See Flight of the Conchord's "Jenny" for more info.
* * *
@ Dragona: there are alternatives to D&D insider for the price of free; all you've got to do is find a willing group. Also, everyone and their sister is a n00b for 4th.
Fuck you, mang. :lol
Amazon's $57 boxset still hasn't shipped.
And here I am running Keep on the Shadowfell this weekend. :lol
I've been reading my friend's copy to get ready.
We're going to make different characters than what's in the Quick Start guide (may as well, PHB is out already) and actually take a minute to establish the game narrative and why each character is in the group and how they met; my biggest pet peeve in all of RPGing is the "you all know each other" story fiat.
No, we don't all know each other in-game, and asking us to roleplay that we do is about like everyone acting like they know someone that comes up to them at a party; awkward and lame.
See Flight of the Conchord's "Jenny" for more info.
* * *
@ Dragona: there are alternatives to D&D insider for the price of free; all you've got to do is find a willing group. Also, everyone and their sister is a n00b for 4th.
sk3tch said:
Oh for fuck sakes! How come WOTC can't ever edit their books? It was like this throughout 3e/3.5. Every book was loaded with mistakes.
Anyway, my group played their first session last night. I whipped up this gladiator storyline; they fight in the arena and then have all kinds of intrigue when they're put back in the general population. The general consensus was that the game is a hell of a lot of fun.
With those Chessex mats, what are you guys using for minis? A friend of mine suggested using a large dry erase board and using magnets, which doesn't sound bad (though expensive because of the price of the dry erase boards).
I'll be ordering my books soon. I'm very excited about this, especially since I've never played D&D. (Have played Vampire, Werewolf, and Shadowrun).
I'll be ordering my books soon. I'm very excited about this, especially since I've never played D&D. (Have played Vampire, Werewolf, and Shadowrun).
platypotamus
Member
Himuro said:
Depends on what you are interested in. If you are interested in the tactical combat... sort of an SRPG in tabletop form, then 4.0 looks like it'll make you happy.
If you're more interested in free-form storytelling/roleplaying, there's probably better things out there for you.
(the above is said having not actually played 4.0 yet, but having read the source books)
krypt0nian
Banned
Nothing in a tactical focused RPG prevents roleplaying/in depth storytelling.
Eh... I dropped out when WotC bought it out and 3e really just started taking it into directions I wasn't happy with. From the looks of 4e it feels more and more like they're trying to turn it into a pen-and-paper MMORPG. I'm glad some people are enjoying it, but it feels almost totally unrelated to the D&D I grew up with.
Himuro said:
As far as Fantasy settings go, I highly recommend the world of Harn. It has over 20 years of development, and there is a lot of fan made material that is given away for free. You can use whatever rule system you want with it, such as D&D 4th edition.
Harn Pottage is sort of a mini-adventure and some encounters. Fan made so it's is totally free.
http://www.lythia.com/2008/01/review-pottage/
Another example is, Friends, Foes, and Followers 10 which is a collection of characters that GM's can use as they see fit. People like an Innkeeper, Clerics, and so on. It can help give a feel for the world. Once again free.
http://www.lythia.com/2008/02/fff10/
Asolade Hundred. A 84 page PDF describing some of the peoples and locations in the kingdom of Kaldor. Once again totally free like everything at Lythia.com.
http://www.lythia.com/2008/04/asolade-hundred/
This should give you a rough idea of what pen & paper world settings are like without taking any money out of your wallet.