|
| 
 enlarge |
Author: Wizards Rpg Team
Brand: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $104.95
Buy New: $56.35
You Save: $48.60 (46%)
New (27) Used (6) from $56.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 349
Format: Box Set
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 832
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.9
Dimensions (in): 11.6 x 8.7 x 2.4
ISBN: 0786950633
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786950638
ASIN: 0786950633
Publication Date: June 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New! Save 30 - 50% off of retail prices on our wide selection of comic book graphic novels, manga and anime, role playing games, DVDS, Osprey military history books, and more!
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Its all in the packaging August 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This product has nice packaging. All 3 basic books in a nice looking box. This is not a review on the content of the books, as it will take a while to review such, and this isnt the place for it. The books are nicely made, and the binding are strong(sometimes this isnt the case). The outer box is durable and looks good on the shelve.
 A good improvement over 3E August 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dungeon and Draongs 4th Edition is a big improvement over 3E. The biggest improvements comes in streamlining the game, and not making the classes so front loaded. This means, that players will be able to better plan for the long running campaign. I also enjoy the paired down skill system, but I am a little unhappy that skills no longer get points but auto level when a character does.
The books are well made, feature fantastic art and binding. The editing has been pretty good and the books are well made. Since it is D&D, the support should be there and I'm glad they reset the line and set it up for the next decade.
 Disappointing August 4, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Character concept options are far more limiting. Multi-classing is essentially gone. The focus of character abilities shifted to a small and generic collection of powers for each class. Character creation for D&D 4e could be viewed as a prototype for a D20 implementation of Exalted.
The game shifts focus away further from simulation into just being a game. It's a conscious shift away from trying to seem real into utter fantasy. You will frequently be left wondering what a mechanic represents. Weapons, armor, economy, and so forth are abstracted even further than any previous version to where they have lost all basis in reality. It simply wasn't a priority in the design of this game to have any basis on anything.
Priority was placed on an unsuccessful attempt at simplication. Gains in streamlining the system in one place are offset by losses to new complications.
I view D&D 4e game play to be more like Warhammer Quest, which can also be used as a roleplaying game, but where the game was clearly designed to be played with minatures. This will complicate some styles of play.
The base power levels don't necessarily change relative to one another, but the numeric representation of them is different. The new system makes it very difficult to play out larger combats between normal soldiers. If that's an important aspect to your game, you will either have to prop up D&D 4e with house rules, switch to another system for mass combat, or just continue to use D&D 3.5.
 Vet Likes 4th Edition: Made for the WoW Gen August 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been playing D&D since 2nd edition. I played my first game in 1994, and DM'd my first game in 1995. While I was a major Skills & Powers fan, I really was glad 3rd Edition came along, and made a massive upgrade of the rules, fixing inconsistencies. By then, however, I had moved on to college, then a rad career, so had little time to really leverage 3.x.
Over 11 years later, I tried to get a group together consisting of younger Y-Gen's; 26 and younger. A lot of this generation grew up playing MMO's, like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Counterstrike type games. The thought of paging through a book to look up rules, or to identify "what they could do" was looked down upon, and seen as a hassle. The rules were definitely thorough, but there was no motivation to learn the majority of them when you're used to a series of GUI panels that show your statistics, abilities, and what your magical inventory positively does to your character.
Thus, the "WoW" generation was really hard to market to, and play with. Delegating game running is challenging for the short attention span.
4th Edition is a nice reprieve, and definitely targeted at this market. The rules, although similiar to 3rd Edition for combat, are much simpler. Additionally, character abilities are a streamlined so that each character has a set of powers to choose from. Most importantly, this includes 1st level; now it's no longer miserable playing a Wizard from 1st level till 3rd. The character classes are meant to work together; the rules make each have an important role in battle.
The Players Handbook & Dungeon Master's Guide are both much more approachable. Bigger headings, brighter colors, and most importantly: smaller in thickness.
There are some things that are weird; healing surges I don't really get, but understand this allows an easy, global healing mechinism and mimic's digital MMO's that allow you to "sit, eat, and gain all your health back after a minute". Rituals (the new spells) are confusing as well; defining where a Power ends and a Ritual begins is challenging. Also, not all classes and races are available yet (at the time of this writing); this makes using existing characters from other campaigns challenging even with the conversion guide they have. Finally, in true D&D fashion, backward compatibility is an afterthought, if that. Converting 2nd & 3rd edition content is hard.
Overall, though, I like it a lot. This version of D&D is easier to learn, more clear to Player Characters on what they can & should do, and clearer to new DM's on how to run a game.
...the only reason I didn't give this rating a 5 is because the digital components that go along with 4th Edition, the dndinsider.com tools, are not ready. I write software for a living so totally respect & understand software not being done on time. Regardless, this target market clearly wants it now to enhance their games.
Just not D&D August 4, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was very disappointed with the dumbing down of this game that I have loved for the last 15 years. I started in 2nd ed and was not excited about the move to 3rd but that turned out alright because they didn't really mess with the overall worlds(other than DragonLance but that is another story) they just streamlined some stuff, remember thac0?
I wouldn't have a problem if it was called D&D junior or something and was marketed to teach kids how to play but if this is the direction that WoTC wants to go they will be going with at least 1 less group and I imagine a lot less.
Unless you are buying this game for a 12 year old I highly suggest that you pass and keep your game in the 3x worlds. It is not D&D.
|
|
|
| |
