Mea Culpa

So, I sit around corrected. Granted, this is not the first time that I have been wrong about something, even with regards to gaming. However, in this case, I believe that the confusion is justified.

On page 7 of the 4th edition Player’s Handbook, it states that this really is the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, not the 4th edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with the word “Advanced” dropped as I had previously assumed. In my defense, the Dungeons & Dragons books had always been thin paperbacks while Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had larger hardcover source books. Also, the scope of the material and options provided in 3rd, 3.5, and 4th edition is much more extensive than in classic D&D and is more in line with AD&D.

For instance, in classic D&D, there were only three alignments: lawful, neutral, and chaotic. By contrast, AD&D had nine alignments: lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful evil, neutral good, (true) neutral, neutral evil, chaotic good, chaotic neutral, and chaotic evil. Third edition was identical to AD&D in this regard, and 4th edition is closer to AD&ampD than it is to older versions of D&D.

On the other hand the rules – in many ways – are more simplistic than in AD&D 2nd edition. For instance, there are fewer saving throws that each cover more types of things. In fairness though, the AD&D rules were a bit confusing sometimes; for instance, if a wand was used to cast “finger of death” did one attempt to save versus wand/staff/rod or against death magic? The rules simplification was my biggest complaint against 3rd edition when I first started reading it, although I liked the expanded customization that this version offered in other areas.

This newest edition seems to be simplified even more and there seems to be less customization and variability than in 3rd edition. For instance, as I mentioned in my first impressions post, hit points are now a set amount for each character at each level instead of rolled. While this keeps people from rolling a series of low dice, this removes much of the chance from the game of chance.

I am much less upset about the changes though now that I realize that 4th edition truly is an update to Dungeons & Dragons and not an update to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This version (as well as the 3rd edition) have many improvements over the old paperbacks. The rules are more in-depth and clear up many of the “what if” scenarios. Also, there are many more classes and races to play than in the early editions of D&D. I do still miss THAC0 though.

The best change with 3rd edition and higher is that elves, dwarves, and halflings are no longer classes. This made absolutely no sense. So, how does one apprentice to become and elf? To be fair, this may have been elaborated in the Expert set (or one of the others), I only ever had the Basic set.

Also, best of all, I can still play AD&D 2nd edition and say that I am playing the most recent version!