Thursday, July 10, 2014

Interlude: Nitpicking

On my other post, Monkapotomus commented:
"Outside that one overly prosaic description if they have read the rest of the manual up to that point then they should know that they are going to start out as beginner adventurers and work their way up. It shouldn't be much of a surprise.  
"I honestly don't think most people coming in to this would expect to be able to do those crazy things right off the bat."
He goes on to say that folks should have assumed references from video games and whatnot, though that's quite an assumption. I'd let my children play Dungeons & Dragons long before I'd give them access to any computer role-playing game, with their propensities for screen violence and over-sexualized characters.

[they can spend their own money on that when they're adults...if they want]

Look, it's not a "big deal," folks, but it is a "deal." I already posted the description for the fighter class. Here are the Basic D&D descriptions for the cleric and the rogue:

CLERIC

"Clerics are intermediaries between the mortal world and the distant planes of the gods. As varies as the gods they serve, clerics strive to embody the handiwork of their deities. No ordinary priest, a cleric is imbued with divine magic."

Pretty straight and too the point, no? Nothing extra thrown in to "spice it up." No false promises made. Here's the other:

ROGUE

"Rogues rely on skill, stealth, and their foes' vulnerabilities to get the upper hand in any situation. They have a knack for finding the solution to just about any problem, demonstrating a resourcefulness and versatility that is the cornerstone of any successful adventuring party."

A little more hyperbole than the cleric, but still not saying they can turn invisible or read magic scroll or auto-kill the toughest monsters with a single stab of their short sword, right?

Look, it's not a big deal, but the wizard's description IS a damn inconsistency compared to the other class descriptions AND false advertising to boot. To paraphrase Shlominus (who, granted, was speaking mainly to the lack of innovation): we should expect more from the biggest brand name in the RPG industry. Give me some damn consistency.

Okay, we'll now get back to rewriting Mearls's wizard class to match his description. Sorry for the tangent (again).

1 comment:

  1. Hey, if consistency was what you were arguing for or talking about than yeah, I would agree with you, but you weren't. You were arguing that the description was overly misleading.

    There aren't many games out there (boardgame, RPG, or otherwise) that don't involve the build up of power, resources, or influence so I'm not sure why the expectations would be any different here. Besides, the description itself indicates that there is a scale in power for wizards.

    On a side note, I'm not sure why anyone expects that biggest company/the leader in the industry to be innovative. That's not what the leaders in an industry do. They establish standards and baselines. New and small companies innovate, not the big ones. Look at music, technology, and investment.

    ReplyDelete