Is it just a weekly, two hour combat? That somehow resolves a "story" over the course of several weeks? Is that what Hasbro passes off as D&D and role-playing these days?
I saw some review on google by a dude praising D&D Encounters but noting not to worry about taking non-combat abilities, and to make sure you min-max your abilities for optimal combat effectiveness.
That's got to be the most retarded thing I've ever read.
This is the kind of bullshit (if it's true) that needs to be punched in the mouth. If this is the state of the hobby, Old Schoolers need to organize some sort of weekly counter-point (or rather, counter-punch) in their local game shops. Does this garbage go down at a particular date and time? I'll set up a table and run a competing game.
Please let me know what this is all about. I hope I am just way off or something and this is just some collectible card game thing. Thanks.
Wednesday nights. Yeah, it's evidence that 4e really isn't the same kind of game as what we're playing anymore ( http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2010/01/dungeons-dragons-roleplaying-is-dead.html ) but it get's people into game stores, so I'm not complaining about it.
ReplyDeleteYoo-Hoo Tom's got a blog where he talks about the season he's running. Apparently it's getting enough gaming buzz happening that people are talking about starting up an AD&D table at the same time. http://thevorpalspork.blogspot.com/
This won't make you happy, but there's a dragon in the starting scenario in the fourth edition core books. ;)
ReplyDeleteThink of it like a straight-up skirmish miniatures game that adds in a little dash of story here and there. Kind of like Song of Blades & Heroes. The unfortunate thing (to you, anyway) is that it accomplishes this by using D&D brand names and likenesses. But really, it's just a skirmish miniatures game that's supported by the D&D brand folks. Hard to complain about a game that gets folks into game stores to play with little painted miniatures.
ReplyDeleteHasbro has decided that HeroScape isn't a good enough game for battles --
ReplyDeleteThey are short session games (1-2 hours I think) that get people introduced to the game and hanging out in game stores. There probably isn't that much role-playing that goes on.
ReplyDeletePathfinder has a good organized play system (Pathfinder Society) with more involved 4-5 hour games. I've read some of these; they have a lot more role-playing opportunities.
If people really want to grow the "old school" movement, having regular games at stores that are open to anyone is a great idea. Depending on the store, you may wish to hold it on a different night than Encounters. On the other hand, if there is the space having a bunch of games of different sorts running at the same time will probably make the store owner very happy.
If you want to start a national old school league or some such, and organize short adventures for people to download and run, that would be pretty awesome. Of course, there are already a fair number of modules available.
Deinol said...
ReplyDelete"If people really want to grow the "old school" movement, having regular games at stores that are open to anyone is a great idea. Depending on the store, you may wish to hold it on a different night than Encounters. On the other hand, if there is the space having a bunch of games of different sorts running at the same time will probably make the store owner very happy."
It is a medium to long-term goal of mine to do this at my LGS. I just need the time to do it on a regular basis. That's the problem of being a middle-aged gamer: families and jobs keep interfering with the important stuff! :-)
I think this clearly demonstrates that not only is 4E old school, it's older than old school. It reaches back so far, it's like you're in 1970 playing wargames, and roleplaying hasn't been invented yet. You can't get more street cred than that.
ReplyDelete...what the hell is D&D Encounters?
ReplyDeleteI'd hazard a guess that it's a new Craigslist category.
Not to open ANOTHER can of worms, but what about this thing I hear about called D&D ESSENTIALS?!?!?! Some rumors about a "new Red Box"??? Has this been in your crosshairs yet? More marketing ploys, bah! Stop the INSANITY!?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a National Old School League with downloadable adventures, it's something I've been thinking about personally. On occasion I attend the local Meetup D&D group. Most people play 4e. August 21 I'm running a B/X game I really hope to get some interest because not even my regular group will commit to an Old School Game. Also to note that the "Living" campaigns are scaling back their 4e adventures. Supposedly there will be fewer games available and less full time staff with an effective budget of zero. Organized play will be handed over to volunteers who follow their rules. If you read between the lines it looks a bit grim for organized play. As I was looking through a lot of these blogs and followers OSR people are everywhere I do believe there's a real potential now to seize some momentum that the big guys of the industry can't muster. We love the game. We can show our players that. Here's a link to Living Forgotten Realms that talks about the changes upcoming http://community.wizards.com/lfr/blog/2010/06/14/a_new_direction_for_lfr unfortunately I think the Encounters series which is quick to produce since you just through creatures together of appropriate level is the "Official" future of organized play. Sorry my head is all over the place with this one.
ReplyDeleteoops throw not through
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it from friends who play 4e, the idea behind Encounters is to hand gaming groups a quick night of D&D that requires next to no prep (even less than prepping a traditional adventure mod did). It's targeting the set of gamers who don't have the time to put into developing campaigns like they used to when younger.
ReplyDeleteI'd venture to say it's also targeting the WoW crowd, though nobody's confirmed that for me yet. It makes sense from a certain standpoint. Not my cup of tea, but not a horrible idea, either.
@ Everyone: Okay, guys...thanks for all the insight. If I read more, my brain might explode right now, so I'm going to save off pondering this till later, perhaps over a very dry gin martini.
ReplyDelete; )
I can't say I'm enthused with the idea of an "old school league" in the sense of the living campaigns. That implies scoring, standardization, and generally sucking the lifeblood out of the DIY aspect.
ReplyDelete"I'd venture to say it's also targeting the WoW crowd"
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps the HeroClix crowd.
4e really doesn't cater to the wow crowd, my son and his friends are all big time wow players and they hate 4e, he would rather play a game of ad&d 2e before 4e d&d.
ReplyDelete