If the people who created Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition had half the creativity of this fellow, the game would have been genius.
Age of Ravens proves what I have been saying for some time now and shows just what some 'out of the box', indie game thinking can do for a classic old school concept.
D&D 4E isn't a poor RPG because it added MMO elements to it's make up. It's a poor RPG (IMHO of course) because it did so without including enough of those elements that make table-top gaming unique and special. All fighting and little dramatic role play interaction can be done online. No dice needed.
Also, its developers initially couldn't decide whether or not to deny the inspiration of the MMOs or make it a focal point of why the game would appeal to more people.
The problem I find with the latter is, the game they created doesn't go far enough if they really intended to bring in popular MMO elements. A number of Japanese TRPGs do this and they rock because they do it in a way that blends it more seemlessly into the table top experience.
This brings me back to the real reason for this post, which is to get as many people as possible to check out Age of Ravens notes for his crazy cool Last Fleet campaign. He has created a system where the he and the players develop powers and abilities along a 'Talent Tree' of sorts which resembles WoW, D&D 4E and in a weird way my own Talent system for my D&D-But-Not game. Definitely something more people should be checking out. Awesome stuff.
Laters,
AD
Barking Alien
I'm a big fan of Age of Ravens and really hope to see the full Action Cards system at some point.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious as to how 4e stops you roleplaying. I'd better tell my players that they've been "doin it rong". There seems to be the same roleplaying that I've had in any other game I've run.
ReplyDelete@Fabian: 4E can't stop you roleplaying of course. Nothing can. You can roleplay chess if you want to.
ReplyDeleteBut 4E is less 'fertile' than many other equivalent games.
Dan nails it. I never said 'stops you from role playing'. Wait, I reread it and check. Nope, never did.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it puts a major emphasis on combat and does little to encourage it IMHO. Those initials do appear in the second line of the third paragraph. This is all just my feelings on the subject.
I don't feel you're doing it wrong. Do you?