Feb 09 2009
An extra layer
After re-reading my previous post, I had another one of those mini-epiphanies: Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons can never play like older editions of Dungeons and Dragons because they’ve added a layer of rules in order to give players options during certain situations.
Let me explain, older games, and I’m talking second edition and older (I wouldn’t include the Player’s Options books near the end of 2e btw.), had only a few things listed in the rules that a PC could do in any given situation. And the further you go back in the rules, the fewer things you’re going to find. Now, I’m a UX designer by trade (User Experience) and I’m a HUGE fan of simple. If you can hit the mark with a simple solution without adding extra layers of complexity then you’ve done your job.
I’m not trying to rip on Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons here but it’s where WotC (Wizards of the Coast) has taken the game and as such, it’s a perfect comparison and example of what I’m talking about. Now in the recent iteration of the game you have a slew of powers that you can perform as a character. These powers are really your actions in a combat situation.
A sixth level character has on average about 8 powers. Some of these powers can be performed as many times in an encounter as they like, others can be utilized only once an encounter or once a day. Here’s the odd thing, ALL characters have this many powers at this level. In other words, there’s no differentiation between how many powers a wizard has versus, say a fighter. In previous versions a wizard might have (I’m guessing here…) one 3rd level spell, three 2nd level spells and five 1st level spells, where a fighter has only a few abilities, like being able to wield any weapon and wear any type of armor. A huge difference in my book.
Now, some might say that this addition of powers adds the ability to totally tailor your character. I beg to differ. I might suggest that it adds an extra layer of superfluous rules in the attempt to create, I don’t know, balance I suppose. In this I think they’ve done a great disservice to most players. It is no longer a game of imagination so much as an exercise in memorization and tactical thinking. Now don’t get me wrong, this is kinda fun stuff, but it’s just not what I grew up playing. It’s not the game I loved.
So you’ve got a fighter that now has all sorts of powers that they can exercise during a battle, and many of these powers have purposely been set up to work in conjunction with other the other character’s powers. As a DM, there’s a lot of thought put into building an encounter, into how to run an encounter and as a PC, how to survive an encounter. As a player you’re best served by paying very close attention to the battle mat and how things are unfolding. Movement, terrain and how a character utilizes their powers play a huge role in the outcome of a battle. There has been a LOT of effort put into how melee occurs in 4E. Not a bad thing, we all like fights in DnD. But this game is ALL about battle. It’s sort of like a squad level based Melee game.
In older versions you knew what your fighter could do when he entered a battle, basically just whack the heck out of things and try to keep your spell casters safe. It was more about your creativity in a certain situation and less about the twiddly bits (powers). As you can see, there were still tactics in the game but it was less about what was given in a rule book and more about what you were capable of imagining. If you wanted options and a little more complexity you looked to the spell casters for that.
I’m not a big fan of that extra layer that 4E has inserted into the game (and I haven’t even touched upon the Skill Challenge mechanic!). Call me old, call me antiquated, call me simple…whatever, I just know that I was perfectly happy with Dungeons and Dragons as an “imagination” game, not some fiddly-bit war-game.