• rumor
  • THURSDAY AUGUST 16 2007 12:00 PM

Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 Announced...

Submitted by PatrickY

Edited by erin_broadley

Tags: D & D, Gygax, dungeons and dragons



Bush praises Wizards of the Coast's "Bold support of abstinence only initiatives."

Without it there would be no World of Warcraft. Without it Jack Chick would just be a fundamentalist freak, rather than a fundamentalist freak with a cult fandom, and Tom Hanks wouldn't cry in the dark whenever anyone mentions the words mazes and/or monsters. Without it Rivers Cuomo's fan base would have a collective 50% less body fat. Most importantly, without it I would have had a real job between the years 2000 and 2005, when I fed my family (barely) writing books about buried treasures, hideous monsters, and elven maids with improbably large breasts.

Yes, today it was leaked that Wizards of the Coast will be releasing a 4th edition of the venerable Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, which for 30 odd years has lurked in the dankest corners of the pop culture basement, inspiring freaks and geeks to acts of d4 heroism, to songs about of all sorts to swing singlehanded fuel the explosive growth of the Slim Jim, Cheeto, and Mountain Dew brands. Well, they didn't really so much announce 4th ed. as announce they were announcing something, and then forget to hide the new forum they'd cleverly disguised under the name "D&D 4th Edition Forum"

For those of you curious (and bereft of hope) enough to care, here's a screenshot of the now removed forum.

The official announcement is scheduled for tomorrow, at
GenCon Indy 2007, a 4 day celebration of all those things I find far cooler than any 34 year old man ever should.

So if you, like me, felt a strange disturbance in the force today, a tingle in your spider-pants, and a desperate need to hole up in the library with pencil, ruler, crinkled graph paper, and an annotated edition of The Bloody Crown of Conan... now you know why.


Patrick Y invented italics, actually, back in the summer of '02, but traded away the patent for a pack of Wheat Thins, and a favor to be named later.

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Comments
malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

AUG 22, 2007 03:08 AM

I think most people who are complaining about the price have invested in more than just the core rulebooks (which, at least in 3.0, were significantly cheaper than the supplements, presumably to get you hooked before beginning to gouge.) Replacing all that with new edition versions gets expensive fast. Especially if, like me, you don't actually wind up doing much, if any, gaming with those purchases.

But then, that's why I'm not likely to buy into this new edition, as I said previously. I'm not upset about it or anything.

DiamondJoe

DiamondJoe

I'm lost
November 2004

AUG 22, 2007 04:29 AM

All I needed to know was that 4.0 was in works 2 years after 3.5 was released.

#### Them!!!! mad

cklarock

cklarock

Lawrence, KS
August 2004

AUG 22, 2007 10:26 AM

mQx said:
Eberron, for example, while perhaps a labor of love to those who worked on it, was driven by a desire to have a wholly created property for licensing, since the core D&D license was split into several parts.



I think especially in the case of D&D you can see a dove-tailing of business and game interests. In the Eberron example, they wanted a core world for licensing and that drove a search that led to a fan getting his world published.

While Eberron wasn't my cup of tea, it's still a pretty cool concept, and an example of grass-roots up design.

mQx said:
As an aside, I was around there when a very small portion of the 4.0 visual designs were being done. I found them pretty plain and generic, especially after watching all the work that went into 3.0 (Todd Lockwood and Sam Wood.) I don't like the art direction, especially compared to what MtG is coming out with.



I noticed the big panel of concept art for MtG at the Wizards's booth, and it was gorgeous. So far, I'm fairly meh about the 4e concept art that has come out, but some of it is very good, and I am in the "loves Wayne Reynolds" camp, so the cover art is good for me.

mQx

mqx

Seattle, WA
January 2003

AUG 22, 2007 05:13 PM

cklarock said:

mQx said:
Eberron, for example, while perhaps a labor of love to those who worked on it, was driven by a desire to have a wholly created property for licensing, since the core D&D license was split into several parts.



I think especially in the case of D&D you can see a dove-tailing of business and game interests. In the Eberron example, they wanted a core world for licensing and that drove a search that led to a fan getting his world published.

While Eberron wasn't my cup of tea, it's still a pretty cool concept, and an example of grass-roots up design.



The situation is a good example of the mix of corporate politics and people who genuinely love something. The contest was the generally positive result of several departments within a large company unable to agree on who within them could get the job right to the others' satisfaction.

mQx said:
As an aside, I was around there when a very small portion of the 4.0 visual designs were being done. I found them pretty plain and generic, especially after watching all the work that went into 3.0 (Todd Lockwood and Sam Wood.) I don't like the art direction, especially compared to what MtG is coming out with.



cklarock said:
I noticed the big panel of concept art for MtG at the Wizards's booth, and it was gorgeous. So far, I'm fairly meh about the 4e concept art that has come out, but some of it is very good, and I am in the "loves Wayne Reynolds" camp, so the cover art is good for me.



Wayne would certainly not be on my list of average artists. He is a kick-ass draftsman, great to work with, and awesome at parties (him and his wife both.)

The WotC D&D team is in love with him, which is good in the way he's a great illustrator, but bad in the way they want everyone to be him.

Like I said, I haven't seen a lot of the art, but I hope there is a scope of well-rounded concepts and paintings.

But, of course, that's had nothing to do with the game mechanics.

cklarock

cklarock

Lawrence, KS
August 2004

AUG 22, 2007 05:38 PM

mQx said:
The situation is a good example of the mix of corporate politics and people who genuinely love something. The contest was the generally positive result of several departments within a large company unable to agree on who within them could get the job right to the others' satisfaction.



This pleases my perverse sense of human nature more deeply than you can know. smile Of COURSE that's how it went.

Lotus flowers from swamps!

mQx said:
As an aside, I was around there when a very small portion of the 4.0 visual designs were being done. I found them pretty plain and generic, especially after watching all the work that went into 3.0 (Todd Lockwood and Sam Wood.) I don't like the art direction, especially compared to what MtG is coming out with.



cklarock said:
Wayne would certainly not be on my list of average artists. He is a kick-ass draftsman, great to work with, and awesome at parties (him and his wife both.)



I met him at GenCon last weekend, and he is a fool. smile A great illustrator as well.

cklarock said:
The WotC D&D team is in love with him, which is good in the way he's a great illustrator, but bad in the way they want everyone to be him.



I think he's the sweet spot between fantasy art and comic book art, which is also kind of D&D, so it makes sense.


girot

girot

USA
December 2006

AUG 24, 2007 10:12 AM

Towelly said:
If there was no D&D, how could I identify so disturbingly with this little gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmgLOKRl5J0



OMFG
i think i feel my brain hemorrhaging...

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