One of the announcements at Gen Con was that with the release of essentials  items will now come in three rarities: common, uncommon, and rare. To summarize:

• Rare items can’t be created by players. They’re very special, and the general idea is that a player will have maybe one of these in their possession at any given time.
• Uncommon items also can’t be created by players, and are the purview of the DM with maybe a few exceptions. Pretty much all magic items currently available are going to fall into this category (though I suspect your basic “magic item +X” will be common.
• Common: These are easily purchasable and can be created by players. Again, my suspicion is that these are things like a basic magic item with no frills.

Revisiting items has gotten me thinking about the philosophy change behind items from 3.5 to 4th edition:

• Christmas Tree Effect: 3.5 suffered from the Christmas tree effect, where players were often more defined by their items than by their abilities. A mid to high level character had a long list of items for boosting various defenses and stats that they basically had to go through to have a viable character. 4e is supposed to solve this by condensing the items a player HAS to take to just a few. Everything else is supposed to be supplementary, adding a cool power or property here or there but not overwhelming anything.
• Items are special: An added bonus of this is supposed to be that items now feel more special. A +3 flaming sword is a lot cooler if it’s one of my three major magic items rather than one out of twelve or thirteen items I have on my check list as must haves.

So the question is, has 4e succeeded in this noble goal of cutting down the number of items a player needs and making them feel more unique?

My Answer: Yes, but only because the bar was set pretty low by 3.5. A character not only basically require a lot more items than it might appear at first glance, but certain items can dramatically effect the balance of a character, favoring certain builds more than they probably should.

I go through the goods and bads of items in 4e below: Read the rest of this entry »

Starter set and counters

I speculate that D&D is changing its name to “Hobos & Moonshine.” D&D will now be about booze runners during the American prohibition.

As a reminder, my previous guess, that Rogue would change its name to Thief, was correct. In line with this new direction for the game, I predict that Fighter will change its name to Flatfoot, Cleric to Fed, and Wizard to Flapper.

So you built a badass character using my previous advice in Character Creation. Good job! But now you’ve got to actually play the game. What should you do? How should you roleplay your character?
Roleplaying

1. Be Selfish: In D&D, your primary goal as a player is to bath in your own glory and generally show off how awesome, interesting, or tragically heroic you are. At least that’s what I think. If you see an opportunity for your character to shine, take it! If you’re a good thief, be on the lookout for chances to scout ahead of the party and provide information, steal the king’s crown, and bluff the hell out of every Angel of Truth you come across. It’s a simple rule, but one that should always be in the forefront of your mind: how can I turn this situation to make my character appear more awesome and interesting?
2. You’re the player, damn it, not your character: I get so annoyed when I see players say things like “Wilhelm would never go for this crazy scheme. He’ll stay behind in the inn while you guys seek out the Dragon of Death and then descend into the Sewers of Time to rescue the lost Prince of Sorrow.” Dude! You just wrote yourself out of several sessions! Not only have you made the game less fun for yourself, but you’ve made everyone else feel guilty for not including you. Read the rest of this entry »