Dungeons and Dragons... A Retrospective..

I was thinking, while trying to determine what I should write about, what a geek column was if there was no Dungeons and Dragons mentioned in it, and I recently thought of the answer... a Tech Blog... So to correct this problem before it happens, I thought I would offer my opinions, as not humble as they are, on the evolutions of D&D...  Let me remind you that this is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of all the features of all the games, just my thoughts..

Dungeons and Dragons... For those of you who remember a pretty red box with small oddly shaped dice and a crayon, that name means something very different than what people think of today.  Back then you could play a Fighter, Magic-User, Wizard, Thief, Dwarf, or Elf.  Death was also something you came to know well.. In original Dungeons and Dragons, you were going to die, and you were going to die a lot.  It's a good thing people like me enjoyed making characters.

Then D&D evolved.  Now you can have both race AND class, and you had skills, and abilities, and more customization options than you ever knew you could have.  Dying was still possible, and likely if you were careless (or your DM was mean) but your survival chances were greatly increased by the vast new skills and proficiencies and talents your characters could have.  D&D had become "Advanced" and everyone celebrated their new, more detailed, and usually longer-lasting lives.

The next change was a minor, but major one, all at the same time.  Player's Option gave you more you could do, and with their three books, Skills and Powers, Spells and Magic, and Combat and Tactics, you had huge new lists of skills, and for the first time you got to increase your abilities after every level.  You could specialize your character at throwing, or even brewing, with weapon proficiencies and specializations for fighters, and other weapon skills for other classes, leaving noone totally behind.  My friends affectionately call this version 'god mod' not to say it's less fun, but to ever so tactfully reference the drastic change the characters can go through level to level, not to mention that even level one characters can be overwhelmingly powerful with only moderate rolls and carefully chosen skills.

Then there was Third Edition.  First I'll note that group third edition to include 3.0 and 3.5 versions, since I see 3.5 more as "repairs and balancing" than a new version.  Third edition is fun, and I won't say that it's not, especially since I run a game every weekend.  The big change going to Third edition was... well... everything.. Nearly every single rule was changed, save the "medieval fantasy" setting.   Powers were ramped up, skills got stronger, feats gave you more things you could do... if D&D made Adventurers, Advanced D&D made Heroes, and Third Edition made Homer's Epics.

But it was fun.  This wasn't your best friend that you grew up with, more like the sneaky cousin who was hiding in your closet, and had heard just enough of your conversations to get the general gist, and can fake it pretty well.  But that's sometimes good enough, right?  But now his brother wants to come play, and he brought his toys...

Enter Fourth Edition... I still don't know what to think about this.  Nearly all the skills, abilities and feats are based around your combat abilities, rolls, or stats.  Distances are now measured in "Squares" no longer feet, and you can't play without your trusty combat grid and miniatures..  You're sitting at a table with your closest friends, looking at a grid with little tables and chairs, or water objects (or colored-on grids) to represent rough terrain, and that's when it hit me, I'm playing a Tabletop Minis game... Now I like Warmachine or Heroclix as much as the next guy (as long as the next guy isn't Dennis, Gary, or Scott) but that's just not D&D... Dungeons and Dragons was all about the mental visualizations, the descriptions, the epic battles...  well ok, the battles are still there, but where's the rest?

I'm not saying it's not fun, rather I play a game every week and do enjoy it, with a few complaints, but I just don't think it's D&D anymore.

At this point I'd almost rather see them make a new name up, and let Dungeons and Dragons die in it's too-shallow, badly mis-named grave...