Hmmmmm...
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But we have learned a lot about whats worked and not worked over the last eight years, and were certainly looking to get rid of the slow and bumpy parts and just get to the fun
That's a good start - maybe they've actually done some playtesting of the new rules.
But...
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In essence, what youre going to see mechanically is the d20 system evolved: rebuilding the clunky parts, greasing the wheels and polishing the chrome until you can see your character in it. Part of that polishing includes ramping up the coolness factor on some of the less-popular character classes to make sure that every class has a unique and essential role in a well-balanced party;
...this doesn't fill me with confidence. While "shiny" is important, "well-tested" is more important, and this doesn't give me the impression that they've actually testes the "shiny".
And I suspect I know exactly how to read that "unique and essential role in a well-balanced party" bit: somebody's going to get stuck playing the cleric again, instead of the character type he actually wanted to play.
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Not all of Fourth Editions changes will add to the game by subtraction; many rules tweaks theyve experimented with in books all over Wizards RPGs will show up as well. For example, Slavicsek tells us that The Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords book, which gave fighter-type characters the same types of options spellcasters do by basically giving them spells for fighters, was received very well. That idea has been extremely popular, and were adopting something similar for Fourth Edition.
"Something similiar" - does that mean they playtested the rule and revised it in line with the feedback they got, or did they just add more "shiny" and possibly break the rule? I hope the former is the case, but I'd like to know for sure.
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As always, the Players Handbook, Monster Manual and Dungeon Masters Guide will be the core of the new edition, and youll see them in May, June and July of 2008 respectively,
Oh, wonderful - two months between the players' book and the GM's book. I know this is how AD&D was released; you'd think they'd have learned by now why that's a bad idea.
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So Fourth Edition will be a new rule set based on d20, but not remotely compatible.
Oh, joy - how many supplements need to be re-purchased
this time? (At least GURPS Fourth Edition includes rules for using GURPS Third Edition books, and BESM Third Edition doesn't completely invalidate BESM Second Edition.)
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Today, millions of people go online to pretend theyre elves and orcs and goblins on epic quests in various MMOs, sometimes even in the D&D universe with D&D Online. But we cant help but feel that all those MMOs have just been honing in on D&Ds territory. After all, how many World of Warcraft and EverQuest players started because their D&D group broke up?
Yeah, guys, that recent movie trilogy by Peter Jackson had nothing to do with mainstream popularity of fantasy - it's all because of your niche-market product... This may or may not be a digression. If this is an accurate reflection of how they think, then they're out of touch with the real world; if it isn't, then I apologize. But I suspect it is accurate, because of this bit:
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Itll start with your electronic version of Dungeon magazine and Dragon magazine, which Slavicsek is particularly familiar with because he used to be the editor of Dragon.
Hasn't anybody told him that those two magazines have been cancelled?
I should know by now not to read too much into a press release, which this quite obviously is. But this particular press release doesn't fill me with hope...
-Rob Kelk
"
Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012