The recent news about a beginner's line of products for D&D 4e has done the impossible: it rekindled my interest in 4e. What that's you say? Crazy talk? Yeah, more than likely, but the new boxed set they are proposing sounds a lot like what I wanted from 4e in the first place. It's simplified. Only four races and only four classes. That's really all I ever want in a campaign. My tastes in D&D and fantasy literature are both very Tolkienish in flavor. I never wanted Dragonborn or Eladrin or the other bizarro races that they pump out on a monthly basis. And I never wanted the Warlords or Warlocks or Warwhatever classes they thought up to fill some rule niche- they don't fit into my world and I don't want them.
A large part of the reason 4e didn't resonate with me (I played around 4 sessions in an aborted campaign and also played in a couple of RPGA games at the local con) was that too much of the familiar flavor of D&D was changed. New races, new classes, spells gone or drastically altered, system changes, background changes, etc., - it was all just too much change and much of it was unwanted change. I wanted better rules, not new weird pc races or classes.
Another reason for my rejection of 4e was it's presentation. I didn't like the way the rulebooks were laid out and I found the writing to be uninspiring. Also, and probably most importantly, the campaign I played in was using the first module "Keep on the Shadowfell". After spending way too many hours fighting kobolds in the most linear and boardgame-like module imaginable, I wrote off 4e.
So I bounced off of 4e and went on playing 3.5 and running other games like Traveller and HackMaster Basic. I've flamed 4e and served my tour in the edition war trenches, but I'm a complete sucker for D&D boxed basic sets. Hell, I'm pretty sure I've owned nearly all the ones that were ever made. Let's see, I've owned- Holmes Basic, Moldvay Basic, Menzter Basic, Classic Dungeons and Dragons Boxed Set, Introduction to AD&D Boxed Set, D&D 3 Adventure Game, and the D&D 3 Basic set. What little info I've seen about this new boxed set and supporting material makes me optimistic that perhaps, just perhaps, WotC has learned some lessons. Maybe this will be a 4e game that I can enjoy.
Unfortunately, the new boxed set isn't due out until September (hmm, might make a good birthday present). In the meantime, I decided to forgo my embargo of WotC products and went out and bought the D&D Starter Kit today. I want to try a fresh start with 4e and this will at least give me something to compare the new boxed set to when it comes out. In any case, I'll get my money's worth of dice, counters, and dungeon tiles that are in the starter kit. I love the smell of a freshly opened game...
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I think the Dungeon Master’s Book is worth the price of the Starter Kit alone. Add in the dungeon tiles and the counters, and it’s a bargain.
That’s my humble opinion, anyhow. I look forward to hearing what you think
I think it’s going to be great. One thing that the OSR doesn’t get is that there are a lot of people who like the power options and beefier heroes at first level. Not everyone wants to go down into a dungeon to get killed by a kobold with a pointed stick. That sucked in 1982 and it sucks now.
I definitely agree that first level pc’s in older editions are too feeble. That’s one of my main problems with Basic D&D. Yeah, I know all the tricks about keeping them alive with hirelings and what not but nobody I’ve ever played with liked to do that. It is a decidedly unheroic way to play.
I doubt the “essentials” line are going to be the products that bring you back to the fold – in many ways, they’re just repackaging the existing stuff in to scaled down forms that will end up costing people a lot more $$$ because the same info is spread over multiple books. For example, the new “box set” covers only levels 1 & 2. That means within a couple of weeks of buying it, you’re going to have to go out and buy more stuff if you want to keep playing. The essential line also likely won’t change the terrible “encounter-encounter-rest, rinse-repeat” cycle that WotC has used in almost all of its prepublished adventures. KotS is a perfect example of it.
I can completely identify with everything you wrote about your 4E experiences. However, I will tell you a secret: You can get exactly the experience you want (i.e., a more focused game with fewer options and weird stuff) simply by creating a campaign where you restrict player options. Don’t like Eladrin? Just don’t allow them. Same goes for Tielfling. Warlocks not to your liking? Dump them too.
I had the same experience you did with my first attempt at running 4E and wrote the game off. Then I picked up the DMG2 on a lark (well, I won it on Ebay for about $12) and I really liked what I read in it. At that point I decided to give the game another shot but to do so by creating a setting for us to play in that jettisoned the goofy “million & one options.” I did so by simply eliminating stuff I didn’t like, as well as asking my players what they wanted to play. In the end we decided that there would be no “real” gods and so all divine power-based classes were banned. We also made all of the fey races (gnomes & eladrin) off-limits as PCs (the fey are a major NPC influence though), and eliminated a bunch of other player races that no one was interested in playing or didn’t fit (goliaths, tiefling, devas, and anything introduced outside the PHB 1 & 2). The results have been a LOT more satisfying and the game has a focus now.
Of course this isn’t going to solve all the issues with 4E some people have, but by narrowing the scope of what’s available in the world you can really improve the coherency and uniqueness of what is present, and make the whole thing feel a lot more “old school.” Best yet, you don’t need to get suckered in to spending another $20 for a box set which is basically going to do that for you, only in a way that you can’t control and which will only last you for a couple of weeks of play.
I guess I am a sucker. I will be buying this.