By
Garrett Fuller, Industry Relations
On Friday at the NY Comicon we were lucky enough to sit down and get an
overview of Dungeons
& Dragons 4th Edition and
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons & Dragons
Interactive. There is definitely an interesting story here
for gamers who have grown up with D&D and made the leap into
computer games. It seems like the latest version of
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons & Dragons
is changing with the tide to give players a more fluid approach to game
play and allow for some online interaction with their old game groups
that have been broken up over the years. Fear not, with
style="font-style: italic;">D&D Interactive,
you’ll be able to play together again.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/30765">
src="/image/view/30765/preview" width="200">
An image of a
Dragonborn character.
Chris Perkins was nice enough to give us a walk through of 4th Edition
D&D at the show and really took time to describe the game make
up and how the game play works. Happily, D&D 4th is
not just a attack, roll initiative, attack again, cast a spell, roll
initiative, attack again etc. We played an encounter as first level
characters and there was a lot of action in one round which was great.
Spells and actions have been broken up into categories so you can do
more than just take one swing in a round. As a cleric I was able to
vocally heal my party, swing my mace, and move a few squares all with
only one initiative roll. It was great to have so much freedom. Also
the goblins we faced at first level were much tougher. No more of this
1d6 hit point stuff, these guys could fight, had armor, and also were
throwing javelins. We survived, but it was not easy.
One of the highlights that showed up in the play session was the stat
called Bloodied. If you lose half your hit points then you fall into
the Bloodied category. There are some players and monsters who can take
great advantage of this stat both on the bad and good side of the
fight. Also many of the skills from the paladin and cleric not only
damaged monsters, they also healed players at the same time. This type
of hybrid system really made the decisions on what to do fun. The game
has become very skill based and deciding when to use those skills is a
critical factor for players and DMs alike.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/30769">
src="/image/view/30769/preview" width="200">
The cover of the
D&D Player's Handbook.
The other addition for players is the use of Action Points. These are
moves or attacks that you can spend on your character to get an extra
boost in a round. Maybe take an extra attack, or an extra few steps in
movement, all these things come from spending an Action Point. You
always start the day with one, but that number can change as you go.
Depending on your race, class, and situation you may get more or less
action points to spend. They do stack throughout the day, but if you do
not use them by the time you rest for the night you lose them all
outright. Fear not, the next morning you start with one again.
Many of the fans we spoke to at NY Comicon started off with doubts
about 4th Edition. After the game play run through with Chris, fans
were coming away with a great sense of game play and were very happy
with the new features added. D&D has come a long way and the
fans seem to be very excited about the upgrades to this classic system.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/30764">
src="/image/view/30764/preview" width="200">
An Angel Warrior
We were also lucky enough to get a sneak peak at Dungeons &
Dragons Interactive while at NY Comicon. The D&D Insider gives
players a lot of interactive tools to help run their game and make life
easier. The days of the never ending notebook are over. Now many of
these resources can be found online. D&D Insider hosts digital
version of Dragon
Magazine and Dungeon
Magazine as well as helping with organized play, community
efforts, and utilities.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/30766">
src="/image/view/30766/preview" width="200">
The cover of the
Dungeon Master's Guide
The character visualizer allows you to make a very customized 3D
version of your character to use in the online Game Table program.
There are loads of armor, skins, weapons, and styles to make your
character look unique. This model is similar to an MMO character
creation screen, however it allows for tons of options. The D&D
game table gives players a place to move their virtual miniatures on
the game board. The game table is designed by the DM in advance with
some very easy to use tools. The interface we saw was an early version,
but looked to give DMs plenty of options on their dungeons. Also the
ease of the tool was really great no one should be intimidated by it.
The DMS have one view, the players get another. They will only see what
the DM wants them to on the screen. The entire system is connected
through voice chat so games can take place online seamlessly for
groups. With this tool it is definitely the time to call your old
D&D group up and start something together again online.
It was great to see Dungeons
& Dragons catching up to the MMO game market with
some new ideas and editions. The best part is they still keep the
classic D&D feel that we all have experienced. We’d
like to thank the team at Wizards of the Coast for taking time to show
us the new edition of the game and all the interactive tools
we’ll have in the future to play.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Dungeons & Dragons Insider Game Page.
