Episode 0018: Dungeons & Dragons. Wait? What?

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. [↩]

Related posts:

1. The Secret Lair Episode 0006: Interrogation of Ken Newquist
2. Episode 0017: The Sky People by S.M. Stirling
3. Episode 0022: Engage Palladium Geek!
4. Episode 0029: Storygaming
5. Episode 0025: I Need a (Super) Hero

1. 

   taoistpunk says:

   December 8, 2008 at 11:00 am

   Good Show guys…all things 4E make me a bit sick, so I’ve turned to Castles n Crusaders (http://www.trolllord.com/products/index.html)

   wanna get your real role-play on? CnC is the path of truth
2. 

   Selganor says:

   December 15, 2008 at 4:20 pm

   If you want a Mage/Thief just do a Wizard with Thievery, Stealth and/or the other skills you need. No need to really take any Rogue attacks, you’ll be better off with wizard spells.

   As for Pathfinder… Most of the problems that drive me away from high level play of D&D 3.x still aren’t fixed and don’t look like they will be fixed by the final version (otherwise they won’t stay compatible with 3.x)
3. 

   Kenneth Newquist says:

   December 15, 2008 at 6:18 pm

   @Selganor Eh. 4th Edition multiclassing is more of a sampler menu than a buffet. You can dabble in this and that, picking up a stealth for your wizard, magic missile for your fighter, but it’s a far cry from the buffet my group’s used to.

   Personally, I’ll take the buffet … or at least the salad bar that is Saga Edition. Hmmm. Does the Secret Lair even have a cafeteria?

   I’m more skeptical of Pathfinder than I was, mostly because they’ve punted the whole high level thing down the road, when — IMHO — it was the first thing they needed to address.

   I’m still looking forward to our playtest, but I won’t be surprised if we go back to Star Wars in the end.

   @taoistpunk I’ve never tried Castles & Crusades, but from what I’ve heard of it, I suspect it may go too far in the opposite direction.

   And finally, Kris & Chris … thanks for having me on both shows! It was a blast!