4e

As the time until 4e's release is now better counted in days rather than weeks or months, I thought it appropriate to ramble a bit more about it again. Even if I have very little to say that's new.

4e—or Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition I should say—still fills absolutely zero need for me. I'm reasonably happy with Third Edition still, and don't exactly feel that starting my rather extensive collection all over again from scratch is a good use of my time and resources. Luckily, my gaming group seems to think the same way; if anything, I may be more curious about the new edition than any of us, although my feelings are best described as curiousity only.

That said, I'm going to talk a bit more about the "implied setting" which is where I think the 4e team really got it right. That said; they got it right by doing things that I'm already doing, or at least can easily do myself regardless of ruleset. For the most part, I see what they've done as taking a few somewhat hesitant steps in the same directions I've already gone. Not suggesting for a moment that they copied from me; I see rather a small, subcultural zeitgeist away from "traditional" high fantasy tropes and more towards the often older sword & sorcery conventions and traditions.

Here's a few 4e "innovations" in "implied setting" that match some fairly consistent homebrew things that I do already:

1. Emphasis on "exotic" races; downplay of "standard" races. The addition of the dragonborn, tiefling and eladrin as standard new races (as well as the elimination of the gnome) is seen as a huge change in focus by most gamers. Whenever possible, I eliminate elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes and replace them with something else. I'm also a big fan of the idea of tieflings, although I'm a little unsure of the 4e execution.
2. Magic is a dark and dangerous art, most often practiced by the power hungry and unscrupulous. Although the new warlock class isn't nearly as strong with this vibe as the dangerous and unsettling magic I like to use. I actually prefer a much lower (and more dangerous) type of magic than the D&D default.
3. Although its still unknown how well this will work, a stated design goal of 4e is to extend the "sweet spot" of gameplay. I've done this by adopting the E6 houserules, which keeps gameplay much more firmly in the realm of what you tend to read in fantasy fiction.
4. Outsiders and their realms have been reorganized to make them eaiser and more natural to use, while redundant critters have been eliminated. Although I still believe they hold too firmly on to sacred cows as it is here, too. I prefer to lump all hostile outsiders together and assume that they could come from one of many varied—and relatively easily reached—Hellish courts.