Massawyrm, one of the reviewers on Ain’t It Cool News, the premier geek media review site, was a playtester for 4e. Now that “D&D Experience” has happened, there’s huge amounts of 4e rules info available out there and also the playtesters are released to speak.
The review is maniacally positive. I hate to be negative, but I worry about the subtext in a lot of the bits he talks about. From flavor (is it appropriate to call one of the monster roles “artillery” in a medieval fantasy game?) to too-obvious WoWisms (“elite” monsters?) to game mechanics (at epic levels you rez all the time and have powers like “once per day when you die, you…”)? Well, I hope he’s right I reckon.
The WoWisms are killing me as well. I REALLY REALLY hate the way the WOW-Kiddie vocabulary has entered my beloved D&D. “Solo” monsters, “roles” such as “artillery” “Controller”, etc….they are really wasting page space on spelling things out for people who are too lazy or whiny to just figure things out. To experience the joy of figuring out how to best play a game or what strategies and tactics work. I suppose I just have to accept that they are now having to make games for a generation who are used to buying the “Strategy Guide” for their new game at the same time they buy it on the day it comes out. No exploring…no trial and error. Just gimme gimme gimme….
BLAH