Great Deal!
This is really an amazing deal. The individual books run at $35 for their glossy full color pages and hard covers. So chopping off $12 for each book and throwing in a pact to carry them all is great. You will find the same product at the full $104 price in bookstores, so get it here!
A Balanced, Fast Paced RPG
As a longtime "hobbyist" gamer, I've dabbled in a number of game systems over the years. While I have found many RPGs that I love to play, my group often comes back to the original: Dungeons and Dragons.
My first taste of D&D came with AD&D 2nd edition, a fine enough game, though rather complicated, especially when all the many, many volumes worth of extra content are considered. 3.x represented a major shift towards increased playability, and many years of good fun were had playing by my friends and I, though my bouts as a DM could be a bit painful. The system was still needlessly complex, much of the ruleset being an artifact of the previous editions.
That brings us to 4th Edition. This game is seriously well thought out, and instead of clinging to the mechanics of the previous edition, the rules appear to have been built from scratch around the core idea of 3.x: the 20-sided die. I find that the rules are comprehensive, balanced, and best of all, work together. The mechanics no longer feel like a random collection of thoughts and ideas, as previous editions seemed to me. Classes and races are balanced with each other, the emphasis of character roles in a party is an excellent addition, and combat really works. The learning curve is not nearly as steep this time around, and the sheer functionality of the basic ruleset really makes the game faster to run and play.
Compared to most other RPGs I've played, including versions of itself, this new Dungeons and Dragons is slick, easy to play and DM, and leaves plenty of room for actual role-playing. Easily one of the better table top gaming experiences on the market currently.
Second edition still rules
4 edition is for those who like their path chosen for them. Their actions limited to what some one else dictates. There is no freedom here. All charicters are created equal. No skill need to play.
A Fantastic New Edition
I enjoyed reading the books for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but I never felt the need to play a game with the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Time past, and I heard mutterings of a 4th edition, and I thought to myself, "Why so soon?" Wasn't their 3rd edition good enough?
As it turns out, their 3rd edition wasn't good enough, because where that edition had me reading the core books and supplements out of idle interest, the 4th edition sprang from the page and insisted to be purchased. The ability to pick feats based on race or class made those selections have a little more of an impact on the final product i.e. your character. Also their new power system, which rewards a player like me that enjoyed getting new spells for my wizard in games like Baldur's Gate except that every class gets cool new things on pretty much every level.
Add to that the strong visual representation of the game in action (i.e. a bit more of a board representation for the battle and dungeon system) and the Tables to help make your own content fit more comfortably in a game of this system, and you have a wonderful game system that mixes the openness of a pen and paper system, the nigh-instant gratification of a role-playing video game and the visual representation of a board game that tie everything together so well. Anyone who is skeptical or "old school" should at least give it a try, and anyone reading this as a means of considering a purchase should ask themselves this: do you like role-playing video games? Board games? Were you the kid making sticks and pinecones into swords and grenades when you played outside? Did you use your nerf toys to "hunt" the other "team"? In short, did you love to use your imagination? Do you still like to use your imagination? If so, then buy this, find some friends, and don't let the possible stigma of geek deter you. This is fun, contained simply and efficiently in three unassuming books.
Complete lack of imagination. A power gamer's system.
This system is terrible. Wizards of the Coast has made a system modeled after an MMO gaming experience, built for MMO gamers. The Players Handbook should be called the "How to Fight in 4th Edition Handbook." I would be very generous to say that there is two pages total that mention role playing at all.
You start out the game as a hero. You can do GREAT things right off them bat. There is no room for emotional and mental growth in this system. Only your guns get bigger, because you are "told" by the books how awesome you are even when you are just starting out.
The computer aspect of the game is horrid. It will fail, and will waste your time and money. It also restricts you to a poorly animated piece on a even more poorly put together virtual "game board" that takes away any shred of imagination you put into the action your party is going through.
My three gaming groups, as well as myself, absolutely detest this product. And that is exactly what it is, a product, a way to make more money.
(187 reviews)
