It was during the summer of 2008 that Wizards of the Coast, famous for such products as Magic: the Gathering, finally dropped the axe on Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5. What they brought out afterwards, Dungeons and Dragons 4.0,
has some good points to it. However, this is also like saying that a child's coloring book has some good points to it when one has just finished contemplating the Mona Lisa for several hours.
For those who haven't grown up with tabletop roleplaying games, allow me to begin at the beginning. Decades ago, Dungeons and Dragons was released to the public as a tabletop roleplaying game. The purpose of a roleplaying game is
not to win, or to beat your friends, but to tell a story. It is to that end that each player controls and takes on the persona of a character of their creation, whose abilities and skills are determined by the game rules. One person acts as the Dungeon Master, or DM. It is the DM who plays all the Non-player characters, controls the actions of the villains and monsters, and generally adds depth to the world the players are acting in, and moves the plot line along.
Now, this system started out fairly simple as far as roleplaying games go. However, every half dozen years, Wizards of the Coast would make additions to the rules and change things around in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. This led to a version 2.0, a version 3.0, and a version 3.5. To keep things simple, I will be reviewing the latest version by comparing it to the last one, which was 3.5.
Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 brings a lot to the table. The system is a great deal simpler than previous ones, requiring little more than a 20 sided
die to play most of the time. Many facets such as character skills were streamlined, and other aspects such as feats and prestige classes were completely eliminated. What 4.0 put in their place are paragon paths, a sort of changing point for each class when they become more powerful (tired of being a plain old fighter with a sword? Put on this leather codpiece and become a gladiator instead!), and character powers.
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