Guilty Measures
Say what you will but gamers are passionate people. We love what we love and we hate what we hate. Very rarely (in my experience) do gamers as a collective not fall into one of the two extremes. Take Essentials for example: A series of supplements touted as the “on-ramp for new D&D players” met with a virtual shit storm from the D&D community. Folks seem to love or hate Essentials and what they stand for. Is it 4.5? Is it good for the game? Is it the beginning of the end? Ask around a convention and you’ll hear all of these theories, rants, complaints, and praises from people who love to roll dice.
Where do I stand? I’ll be honest: I am not a huge fan but don’t let today’s comic fool you. I am giving Essentials a try. I currently have a player running an Essentials Mage in my Underdark campaign and I am reading the material presented to date. I like to make an informed decision.
I hope to meet Mike Mearls one day and shake his hand. From everything I’ve read, he’s a Greyhawk guy like me and I love his design philosophy.
Granted, this comic could deter such a meeting. If you know Mike, pass this along. I’d love to read his comments on the comic.
I’m in the ‘love’ camp, along with my DM and our group of players. I’ve been lucky enough to be isolated from any real physical contact with the nerd rage, though the controversy got me interested enough to read them. Once I saw the books in person I was sold.
Still, this comic cracked me up. I just had to take a moment and let you know how much I’m enjoying d20monkey; every update gives me a new reason to smile and laugh. Thanks for doing this, Brian. Thanks a lot. 😀
I’m definitely in the hate it camp. I was in the dislike-but-to-each-their-own camp until I we gave a couple of the classes a shot (Executioner and Hexblade). Now I’m like an inquisitor seeking to purge the blight upon our game.
Today’s comic was beyond awesome.
I like them as much as any other class. I especially like them for high level 1 shots, when I don’t want to spend the time figuring out a dozen powers for a single session. In my group we have one person playing a slayer, works great for him since it speeds up his turns, and isn’t as complicated for a more casual player. I had one player who was playing a knight for months, and just recently decided to recreate him as a battlerager fighter to have more variety. I played an essential mage during this time, and am changing only because he recently bit the dust (but looking to replace with the hunter). Rest of the group plays Artificer, Warlord, Invoker, Warlock…
Basically everyone deserves a class that they can enjoy.
Was not a fan of “WotC’s Fanatasy Role Playing Game” (I refuse sully the name). But did give it a second chance with Essentials, plus someone had scanned all the books to 4Shared, so no money out of my pocket. I got the hang of it, but it led me to 4E Gamma World; and I love it (after a lot of modifications. Then reskinned 4EGW into a super hero game and we’ve been playing a campaign since April and the kids are having a blast. And that’s what its all about, right? Having fun?
I think they’re pretty cool classes. Especially the core fighter, cleric, thief, mage. To me it brings back a bit of the old school, with new school mechanics. Want to be a fighter? Great, swing your sword. Want to be a wizard? Flip through all these spells and choose something awesome out of your arsenal. After playing non-essentials it felt like everybody was a re-flavored wizard. I think it was a brilliant move.
You left out the inevitable third group: “What? Only real dorks argue about stupid things like THAT!” Which is kind of where I fall, only less with the insults. I still haven’t taken a look at 4e, so the Essentials fight is right over my head. So is the 4e/Pathfinder fight. I’m over here playing REAL RPGs! (Did I say “less” with the insults?)
I like the idea behind Essentials, but I think I’d like it a little more if they’d done like OD&D Rules Cyclopedia: The basic classes plus the rules, then additional books to expand on it. I would totally get it that way.
However, you have one book that only shows you how to build the basic four, then a second book that shows you how to build paladins, rangers, druids and warlock, and if you want the rules to actually play the game, you have to buy a third book. Each of these books runs $20 a piece! That’s $60 in books, $80 if you include the Red Box.
Now, if you get the Red Box ($20) plus the Player’s Handbook ($35), you get a great intro to the game, plus you have a book with all the rules and all eight classes (with suggested builds, mind you) for a total of $55 – all the essentials needed to actually play. And you have less books to lug around.
Sometimes I wish I played 4e just so I could have a legitimate opinion about what has been going on with the game but then I would most likely be part of “the problem.” :-p
I don’t play any of the newer stuff, and looking at the books on the shelve I wouldn’t know where to start. As an outsider I think the biggest problem with Essentials is that it ‘muddied the water’ so to speak. Having ‘Core’ and ” Essential’ books seem to make it confusing for old and especially New players
More options for players that seemed to focus on making things easier to get into the game at the cost of variety from the Essential line itself. When couped iwth the rest of the game, just more bs to wade through. The problem isn’t with 4e or with Essentials, its with the sheer weight of options. More books, strangely enough, will not solve this problem.
I don’t play essentials, but from what I’ve heard the Monster Vault from the essentials line really is essential. Apparently it makes monsters more of a threat and less of a drag, with typically lower hp but higher damage, so combat progresses at a faster pace, which was one of the major sticking points in 4e, where even a simple on level encounter would take hours to resolve.
I bet he dies tomorrow. wink!