The Secret Lair

I have no idea how this happened. While my attention was occupied elsewhere, Mr. Kenneth Newquist somehow managed to reverse the polarity¹ on our hypnotronic attitude adjustment visor and bamboozled Chris and I into talking about—of all things—Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. You will pay for this, Newquist, and The Secret Lair does not accept the Discover card.

Note: We experienced some technical difficulties during the first seven minutes or so of this episode and Chris’ “clever way to edit [it] all together” turned out to be “just leave the whole unfortunate mess in”. If you really don’t want to hear me yawning and Chris talking about how unpretentious his Google Android phone makes him feel, skip from 2:53 to about 7:14. 

Discussion: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

• This is not your older brother’s D&D.
• The Forgotten Realms campaign setting has been fast-forwarded 100 years into the future and otherwise revamped in order to make the setting work with the new rules.
• What’s gonna work? Teamwork!
• The system seems to limit players in some respects.
• Technical difficulties abound! Edit, schmedit!
• Fighters are a melee combat class! Melee, melee, melee!
• So long, multi-class characters, hello Dragonborn.
• Less math = faster game prep.
• Want to hear more about 4th Edition? Try Mr. Newquist’s Radio Active #72.
• When all else fails, play Star Wars Saga Edition.

Lair Keeping

• Our theme song is “Skullcrusher Mountain” by Jonathan Coulton, who lives high on a mountain of crushed skulls.
• We can be contacted, should you wish to leave us feedback (at the Secret Lair. Dot com), but the means by which this is accomplished are dark and mysterious. And occasionally smell of formaldehyde.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:51 — 37.4MB)

1. We hate it when that happens. [↩]