Sensible Erection | Unboxing the New D&D Red Box

Thursday, 9 September 2010

quote [ The new 4th Edition Red Box has everything that you need to run and play a game of Dungeons & Dragons, from dice to maps to character sheets and tokens. Wizards was kind enough to send along some Funyons and Cheetos, as well as a few miniatures and graph paper, all essential tools to any good tabletop game. ]

[games] [by f00m@nB@r@2:08amGMT] [+10 Good]

Comments

Chop-Logik said @ 1:20am GMT on 9th Sep [Score:1 WTF]

If you truly loved me, you'd love all of me.

Narrenschiff said @ 5:54pm GMT on 10th Sep
How is he breathing?

sanepride said @ 2:16am GMT on 9th Sep
How charmingly analogue.

KropperPrime said @ 2:16am GMT on 9th Sep
When I saw that today at the hobby shop, I thought I traveled in time for a moment.

NinjasAreMammalsToo said @ 2:23am GMT on 9th Sep

swiggy said @ 2:29am GMT on 9th Sep
it seems that with every iteration of D&D WOTC puts out, they pare down more and more of the substance of the game in an attempt to make it more appealing to the masses.

That having been said, battles in 3.5 take entirely too fucking long

panthera said @ 2:30am GMT on 9th Sep
I recently went from 3.5e to 1e and never looked back.

panthera said @ 2:31am GMT on 9th Sep
By which I mean,OSRIC is a great retro-clone of AD&D.

VictorTyne said @ 3:23am GMT on 9th Sep
Pretty much every game manufacturer (specifically but not limited to roleplaying games) is doing this. We call it "D&D-izing" because that's where it started.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Ed. did this to a frightening extreme. You open that box and take out little cardboard pieces you arrange in front of you like the pieces of WoW's user interface.

VG Cats said it better. People who buy the new D&D and WHFRP aren't really roleplaying. Those games belong on the shelf next to Monopoly and Sorry.

Incidentally, if you're sick of battles taking too long in D&D 3.5, try picking up Warhammer FRP 2nd Ed. A 5-hour melee in D&D takes about 10min there. Cackle with glee as your d&d-tard players scream with horror "But I'm the fighter! How come I only have 13 hit points??"

arrowhen said @ 6:50am GMT on 9th Sep [Score:1 Insightful]
People who buy the new D&D and WHFRP aren't really roleplaying. Those games belong on the shelf next to Monopoly and Sorry.

When I was a kid, we used to roleplay the hell out of Car Wars, which was essentially a wargame about cars with guns mounted on them beating the crap out of each other. The rules suggested to us that it was OK to roleplay our characters and didn't do anything to stop us from doing so, so that was all we needed.

smoug said @ 11:11am GMT on 9th Sep [Score:1 Insightful]
It's funny, after AD&D 2nd Ed was released (and into 3/3.5) people were saying that the game had been ruined. I think any new edition or rules update tends to bring out people who call back to 'the good old days' before the most recent edition destroyed roleplaying forever.

I think there's more nostalgia at play here than the actual corruption of some beloved and ancient set of rules. Hell, anyone that started with Chainmail probably thinks D&D was a corruption of their beloved wargame adaptation.

arrowhen said @ 6:42am GMT on 9th Sep
Seriously? Of all the criticisms one could level against WotC, "paring D&D down for the masses" would be the last on my list.

3.5 had something like forty "base classes", scattered among dozens of books. Original D&D had, what, three?

EPT said @ 8:04am GMT on 9th Sep
Dunno about original D&D, but Basic had seven, three of which were races (the Elf class...)

Krutz said @ 3:15am GMT on 9th Sep [Score:2 Insightful]
It's not a true starter set for D&D unless the dice come with a white crayon to fill in the numbers and the dice themselves are made of a kind of plastic that slowly disintegrates over the course of about a month.

b said @ 4:48am GMT on 9th Sep
fuck, i remember those crazy dice. they didn't disintegrate for me, but i had to resort to regular crayons to keep the numbers legible.

MindNinja said @ 5:03am GMT on 9th Sep
I still have my 12 dice (I really want to say die here) from the Basic and Expert sets, although I'm not sure if the crayons have survived the past 26 years or so. Eventually, though, I used a black crayon on some of the dice, just to be different.

EPT said @ 8:01am GMT on 9th Sep
DAMN YOUR EYES, NOSTALGIA!

kang said @ 11:39am GMT on 9th Sep
My original white twenty-sider is almost perfectly round now. It came in the D&D blue box in the left in the pic below. Maybe when the kids are around 10, we'll RPG the oldschool way again.

My games

Menchi said @ 8:38am GMT on 10th Sep
I've still got that old plastic-case Car Wars in a box in my closet somewhere too!

foobar said @ 3:21am GMT on 9th Sep
I don't like all these shiny tokens, printed maps and whatnot. Give me random mismatched Warhammer figurines, Monopoly pieces, and mixed and worn dice please.

Also, it's not "everything you need" if it doesn't include cheetos, soda, and weed.

VictorTyne said @ 3:25am GMT on 9th Sep
I don't like all these shiny tokens, printed maps and whatnot. Give me random mismatched Warhammer figurines, Monopoly pieces, and mixed and worn dice please.

Random figures, mixed and worn dice, assorted Lego pieces, hastily-cut cardboard, and the half-dozen votive candles stacked on a tissue box to represent the warehouse your elf just lit on fire to provide a distraction.

f00m@nB@r said @ 3:49am GMT on 9th Sep
CHEETOS AND FUNYONS!

Ubie said @ 4:16am GMT on 9th Sep
Play 2nd ed. with some co-workers every few weeks. Decided on that for two reasons:
1) we had all played it before
and more importantly
2) we picked up two copies of the players handbook, individual books for dwarves, humans, elves and halflings, individual books for Ranger, Warrior, Mage, Priest and a few other classes i can't think of right now, a Monsterous Manual, a DM book, and the Magic Tome for under $70.

The single most expensive thing was a 100-sided die. Not because we needed one, but because I had wanted one since i was 9 years old dammit.

rndmnmbr said @ 4:47am GMT on 9th Sep
My DM in high school had a brass d6, about 2" a side, that he threw at players who annoyed him. It also did d6 damage to the character of the person he threw it at.

swiggy said @ 6:33am GMT on 9th Sep [Score:1 Interesting]
i'ma just nostalgia out here a sec.

crom said @ 2:26pm GMT on 9th Sep
WHAT IS WORD #7
OF JOURNAL ENTRY # 12
(JOURNAL, PAGE 28)?

That takes me right back.

cold_water said @ 2:53pm GMT on 9th Sep
Amazing how far gaming has come in 20 years!

MindNinja said @ 8:10pm GMT on 9th Sep
Yeah, and I'm still waiting for a good DragonLance game.

EPT said @ 8:05am GMT on 9th Sep
Mage? It ain't 2e unless it's Magic-user, the dumbest class name (and class mechanic!) in all roleplayingdom!

Barnabas_Truman said @ 1:42am GMT on 10th Sep
Dumber than "Fighting Man"?

Baron said @ 4:28am GMT on 9th Sep [Score:-1]
We need a -Who Cares

pumpei said @ 5:20am GMT on 9th Sep
You must have cared a bit to post that.

arrowhen said @ 6:42am GMT on 9th Sep
We already have that. It's called not moderating or commenting on a post at all.

EPT said @ 8:06am GMT on 9th Sep
That would be -1 Boring.

Sheesh, people, try a little sometimes.

Chop-Logik said @ 3:44pm GMT on 9th Sep
HOLD MY HAND

EPT said @ 12:04pm GMT on 10th Sep
Eurgh, it's all... sticky...

I hope you brought enough for everybody

pumpei said @ 5:20am GMT on 9th Sep
Every time I see that stupid, red, cardboard box, I am instantly transported back to Christmas Morning, 1983. I actually ignored my new Star Wars toys that year in favor of reading the Player's Book, filling in the dice with the shitty, white crayon, and playing the solo adventure multiple times.

arrowhen said @ 6:52am GMT on 9th Sep
+1 RPG post. These always bring the RPG geeks out of hiding, and that's a good thing.

SenorGordo said @ 8:53am GMT on 9th Sep
Heh at pax WOTC had a big background where you could take the place of the fighter. Sadly I don't have pictures as my brother, who enjoyed the "GMs vs. Rules Lawyers" panel refused to join me in a photo as it was "lame." Oh and they even had prop armor and swords and the dragon's head was popping out of the background.

Wish they had the beholder statue there.

oddzer said @ 2:16pm GMT on 9th Sep
REH REH REH

EVERYTHING USED TO BE BETTER BEFORE CHANGE HAPPENED

oddzer said @ 2:18pm GMT on 9th Sep
And what's up with ignorant kids? There wasn't an ignorant younger generation when I was a kid!

oddzer said @ 2:18pm GMT on 9th Sep
Am I participating in nostalgia right, guys?

Supreme_Coconut said @ 3:23pm GMT on 9th Sep
Spot on.

EPT said @ 2:44pm GMT on 9th Sep
Yeah, all that talking above about the crappy uninked dice you got with the original sets is talking about how much better it was.

oddzer said @ 3:53pm GMT on 9th Sep
REH REH REH

I AM ODDZER

MY INANE COMMENTS REFER TO EVERY COMMENT TO THIS POST WITHOUT EXCEPTION

RedRiverRat said @ 3:21pm GMT on 9th Sep
The SE Mafia games have gotten so complicated that even the players have no idea what the hell is going on. We needs us some SE DND.

Roll dem bones.

arrowhen said @ 8:24pm GMT on 9th Sep
How would that work, though? We'd end up with *way* more players than would be feasible for a standard adventuring party.

arrowhen said @ 3:46pm GMT on 9th Sep
I'm thinking of DM-ing a play-by-post E6 Pathfinder game with a deliberately unsophisticated old-school feel to it. Any SE-ers interested?

arrowhen said @ 2:35pm GMT on 10th Sep
I'll take that as a 'no' then.

symmetrian said @ 4:02pm GMT on 9th Sep
I like that the set uses the same Elmore artwork as the boxed sets back in the day.

azazel said @ 5:05pm GMT on 9th Sep
I don't like to call D&D an "RPG", in fact when that guy over at penny arcade started gamemastering it and raved about "RPG" and all that shit and you read about it and they all treated it -- like most seem to do -- like a goddamn boardgame my blood started to boil. The ultimate insult is when he describes his players doing something "out of the ordinary" by actually roleplaying an event instead of relying on boardgame stuff my head nearly exploded.

No, I don't consider D&D a roleplaying game. I consider it a roleplaying game or something. I don't know. A boardgame.

Then again, most RPGs have a similar ruleset that comes with D&D, and they too can succumb to the issue that is boardgaming, but most games seem to focus more on the roleplaying part and less on the gaming part, compared to D&D which practically tells you to go out and get those floor maps and whatnot.

Anyway. I don't like D&D. Maybe I'm misunderstanding everyone who claims it's the best RPG ever -- much like I might misunderstand Tolkien/Star Wars/Star Trek/whatever fans that their thing is the best thing ever -- and there are unprecedented amounts of roleplaying going on in every D&D game. But somehow I doubt it. Personally I don't view it as an RPG, I think the rules and the "layout" of the game is more suited to an advanced form of tabletop/boardgame gaming. But it doesn't matter -- if it can bring more people to the hobby I suppose that's a good thing; at least as long as I don't have to talk to them.

arrowhen said @ 6:06pm GMT on 9th Sep
What RPGs do you prefer?

f00m@nB@r said @ 6:10pm GMT on 9th Sep [Score:1 Funny]
I love Pool Boy and Rich Dowager.

balzac said @ 10:29pm GMT on 9th Sep [Score:1 Funny]
I like cock and vagina, myself. I pretend my cock is a cock and anything I put it into is a vagina.

It's helped me wile away some lonely nights.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 2:00am GMT on 10th Sep
I'm rather fond of GURPS, RISUS, In Nomine, and Kobolds Ate My Baby.

Menchi said @ 8:46am GMT on 10th Sep
I'm curious what you would contrast it with as being a "good roleplaying game". The fact that D&D has combat rules that presume a physical representation of your character and its environment doesn't preclude the act of roleplay in-between, or even during, combats.

azazel said @ 10:30am GMT on 10th Sep
Of course it doesn't, and I'm only speaking from anecdotal evidence, but in all my years of roleplaying, I've not met many groups that actually roleplayed when they played D&D; the rules were too many, too convoluted, and too specific to allow gamemasters any leeway. It's a fault of the group and not the game though, but since I've mostly noticed it with D&D, and much less in other games, I'm blaming the rules. I think they're leaning too much towards boardgaming, and that most groups can't handle that and begins playing a boardgame instead. Roleplaying isn't just saying "I'm a knight of Bartonia, [enter character description here]" and then putting down a miniature on a floor map and moving it around.

Also, from what I remember, the first edition didn't even have any rules regarding going outside the dungeon. Or a description of "outside." It's a footnote, because as a GM you can do whatever the hell you like though.

D&D is to RPGs what Diablo is to CRPGs. In my opinion. It's more to do with defeating monsters than any actual roleplaying.

arrowhen said @ 3:09pm GMT on 10th Sep [Score:1 Informative]
I've been gaming for 27 years and have never been in or seen a D&D group that *didn't* roleplay.

Even in the cheesiest hack n' slash dungeon crawls the PCs still had personalities and players still spoke in character.

azazel said @ 3:27pm GMT on 10th Sep
As I said, anecdotal evidence. I'll also note that I'm still talking about roleplaying in Sweden, not anywhere else. It might be that the D&D culture here is focussed more on dungeonbashing than roleplaying, whereas in the US you might have a better roleplaying culture.

EPT said @ 12:02pm GMT on 10th Sep
The way characters progress isn't as organic for a face-to-face roleplaying session as compared to other systems.

ScoobySnacks said @ 5:40pm GMT on 9th Sep