D&D 5e: A Better Game

I've previously stated that 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is good enough to sway me from my 3.5e ways, but discussing what makes this new ruleset so great while telling my D&D history just didn't gel. The latter was personal, while the former is analytical.

In case it has any relevance, here's the short version of that post:
*I've been running 3rd Edition/3.5e D&D since 2001, modding it and otherwise investing in it for years.
*4th Edition D&D was trying too hard to be World of Warcraft, ruining the depth of the franchise.
*Pathfinder was trying too hard to be 3.5e, creating a system too similar to abandon my investment for a marginally different product.
*Playing through Baldur's Gate recently showed me that dice have too much power over D&D, often causing poor experiences for all involved. (Note: Of course the Dungeon Master can override the players' dice, but doing so still marrs the memory of that moment.)
*5th Edition D&D succeeds at pushing the rules as far out of the core experience, encouraging memorable sessions. For these reasons, I'm finally packing up my 3.5e books and moving on.

Simplicity is the beating heart of 5th Edition. Much in the way you don't think about breathing (until some jerk on the internet mentions it), the core rules of 5e quickly become second nature, fading into the background of the game. How? The common rules between characters are lean, offering a minimal amount to memorize in order to get the game rolling.

Combat is broken into a small set of immutable actions, and each action can only be used once per round. During your turn, you get to Move, perform an Action, and perform a Bonus Action if your character has one available. Outside of your turn, you have a single Reaction. Simple so far, but what if we dig deeper?

Characters are assumed to have a much higher combat competency in 5th Edition, so fewer questions come up about what sort of action some task will take. During movement, which may be split up however you see fit during your turn (without the need for three feats and a decent dexterity score), your character can do many small things that would slow the pace of 3.5e (opening doors, drawing weapons, handing off a potion, etc.). Your Action includes the basics like attacking, casting a standard spell, aiding an ally, or just moving again. Actions are enumerated in the Player's Handbook, but that list is short and sweet, with only a few options left to list (why not list them here: Use an item, Hide, Disengage, and Dodge). Gone are all the tricky combat maneuvers that required reference, instead available only to the fancy Fighter or Feat-bearer, allowing the rest of the table to concern themselves with rules more relevant to their characters, like how magic always seemed to go in previous editions.

On magic, we have a lovely development in the way spells are listed. Instead having collections of spells that cause the same effect (Cure Minor Wounds, Cure Lights Wounds, Cure Square-Shaped Wounds, etc.), only a single spell is listed which may be cast at a higher level spell slot for a more potent effect (Cure Wounds adds dice to the roll). This allows a boon for casters that prepare spells: Instead of preparing spells in the spell slot they will be cast at, the player has some number of spells prepared from which they choose what to cast in the heat of the moment. It's a simple additional step that offers greater versatility, encouraging more auxilary-flavored spells to come into play (for example, having Charm Person on hand while traveling the wilderness). Altogether, it's a much more fluid experience for magic-users, who no longer have to dote over their spell list at every moment.

So players get to focus on what's actually going on in game instead of reading and cross-referencing rules, but what about the DM? This is where 5th Edition really shines for me. The 3.5e rules stated that a +2/+4/+6 circumstance bonus was the DM's best friend, then immediately showed off tables of various bounses and penalties ranging from -10 to +10. 5e's circumstance bonuses and penalties contain just four possiblities: Disadvantage, +2, +5, and Advantage. That's it. Firing at an enemy with partial concealment? Disadvantage. AC bonus for half cover? +2. Three-quarters cover? +5. Attacking an enemy unaware of your presence? Advantage. (Disadvantage/Advantage: roll 2d20, keep the lower/higher value.) Despite having played 3.5e for 13 years, I constantly need to reference these examples, yet I know the rules for 5th Edition with only 2 months under my belt.

That's the key to 5e's simplicity - the rules don't contain tables and charts of information to reference as needed, only a few pages of basic rules that everyone needs to know. Once you have that core down, you only need to reference the book for equipment, spells, or class features - the stuff that only pertains to your character. This democratizes reference, allowing the DM to focus on running the game while that single player looks up the details on whatever special action they're about to attempt.

5th Edition has also done it's best to do away with calculations on the fly. 3.5e often turned into a pop quiz: What is the attack bonus for a melee attack made from high ground while flanking and under the effects of a level 1 bard's Inspire Courage, the Haste spell, and Bull's Strength? Answer: +1 for high ground, +2 for flanking, +1 for Inspire Courage, +2 for Haste, +2 for Bull's Strength + the character's precalculated melee attack bonus. Six variables. That's a lot of numbers to juggle, and that's the sort of mental hurdles that slow the game down. Yes, it's simple addition, but it still takes bandwidth to keep it all in mind. 5th Edition cuts all this circumstantial math out - no more bonuses for high ground or flanking - because it doesn't need it (more on that soon). Rolls are quite simply this: result = roll dice + precalculated bonus. Most circumstances boil down to granting Advantage or Disadvantage on the roll instead of giving some small bonus or penalty, and many class features offer additional dice instead of some obscure constant to look up. The numbers are on the character sheet and the dice, not hidden in some book.

Speaking of numbers, one of my favorite changes for 5e is the compressed numerical system. You don't need to orchestrate a +8 bonus from various small benefits because +8 is huge in 5th Edition. Proficiency, 5e's singular replacement for base attack bonus and skill points, varies from +2 to +6. Ability scores are capped at 20 for player characters. That means a high level character is only rolling at a +11 bonus (compared to 3.5e's +25), whereas a low level character should be rolling with a +5 bonus. There are only about 6 points of difference between level 1 and level 20, meaning that an Armor Class of 18 is always good, a +2 bonus is always decent, a +5 bonus is always great, and the usual number you need to roll to actually hit in combat or succeed at a skill check lands in the realm of 7 or better. Compared to 3.5e's need to roll mostly 12 or better, there's roughly a 25% lower chance that a player will consistently roll failure. That is just a mathematically superior playing experience.

Instead of just having numbers that go up every level, characters get more interesting options and inherent (precalculated) bonuses, which unlocks more choices based on your chosen class and specialty. You get to do more with every level, not just do slightly better at the same few things you've been doing since first level. That's not to say that you end up with an overwhelming set of loosely related abilities - they do all play to the same tune. For example, the Rogue gets a slew of abilities focused on movement so that they can get into position to roll with Advantage and add their deadly Sneak Attack damage.

5th Edition plays fast and deep, offering a greater focus on the storytelling aspects of D&D than previous versions. The rules are built very intentionally to support this, with very little to remember in the core rules, clearing up mental bandwidth so players and DMs alike can focus on what's happening in game. While we have yet to see the Monster Manual and have some time to wait for the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Player's Handbook has shown a tremendous amount of love went into crafting this purposely simple ruleset. It's a conduit for fun and stories from the table, and is more than good enough to sway me from my 13 year history of 3rd Edition and 3.5e. If you're at all on the fence about 5e, check out the Starter Kit or free basic rules online. Even if you play another system entirely, there is some incredible design work well-worth reading.

In a word, 5e is intuitive. It is sufficient. Extraneous rules were purposely removed or transmuted into simpler forms. 5th Edition is a distilled and purified ruleset, cutting the chaff while honing the truly important themes of the game. It is the finest version of Dungeons & Dragons, acting both as a "best of" album and the comeback tour.

Yet of all the reasons I've argued that 5th Edition is superior to it's predecessors, one key theme throughout the Player's Handbook truly does make it a better game. D&D, and gaming in general, is for everyone, and Wizards of the Coast has made that exceptionally clear in the flagship of tabletop roleplaying. The core rulebook for players clearly states that the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons are vast and diverse. All manner of peoples, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, and genders are found in these realms, and your character can be whatever you want it to be. These rules are welcoming, not just to the diehards or some schmuck that stuck with 3rd Edition for the last 13 years, but to everyone, for whoever they may be. 5th Edition is for everyone, and that's really all that matters.

Fifth Edition

The adventure notes from the first time I ran Dungeons & Dragons read, "4 spitters, 1 starched opal." Rob's poor spelling only adds to the story of that short session, which ended early upon discovering the sample dungeon in the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide only detailed three rooms on the map. The adventure was a generic mess, with spiders and rats attacking the bard and barbarian. One rat went down in legend when it dealt negative damage to the bard, spawning a minor artifact that would appear in each of my campaigns, the Lucky Rat Tail (+1 to all d20 rolls). Of course, had we fully understood the rules, this never would have happened.

We were doing everything wrong, but we were playing DnD exactly as it was meant to be played. Just from that first day, we walked away with a pile of stories to tell.

Over the years, we figured out the way the rules were meant to work, advanced relunctantly-at-first on to DnD 3.5e. We played through two major homebrewed campaigns and countless one-nighters. We acquired more books, more dice (losing some along the way), and worked our way up to higher quality components. In a word, we became invested.

By the time 4th Edition appeared like some random encounter, I'd gone off to college and found a new group of players to DM for. I expected that my experience with 3.5e would be repeated with 4e, feigned disinterest leading to picking through the rules, absorbing piecemeal bits before adopting it altogether. Then I got the Player's Handbook for Christmas.

Here was something that read and felt and looked like it wanted to be World of Warcraft, which I had just broken up with for the first time. My beloved Dungeons & Dragons, with its rich beauty of unlimited possibilities, had become the game I hated for its failure to embrace options, cutting what could be millions of choices down to three - "What talent tree will you play?" I retreated into the warm embrace of 3.5e like a child rushing home to mother after being tricked by the older kids, my trust in the world shaken. I invested further into my "home" edition.

Word of Pathfinder found me eventually. All news was positive, but the key selling point compared this version of DnD-but-not-really to a mythical 3.75 Edition. This time, my disinterest wasn't feigned. The first time I opened a Pathfinder book was within the last year in a short campaign run by my roommate. I was underwhelmed and glad to have continued my investment in 3.5e.

I heard little of 5th Edition D&D (which returned to the ampersand in its anachronism) until May this year, around the time I sat down to finally finish Baldur's Gate, Bioware's great love letter to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. At this point, I was all but blind to the idea of leaving behind my years of buying into 3.5e. Then I learned something from this computer game nearly as old as my precious ruleset: The dice have too much control over the fun.

It was something I'd just run into as a player in Pathfinder and while running what will likely be my final game of 3.5e. My rogue had been the stealthiest bastard that ever was with his plus bajillion to sneaking around, but every three rolls was a natural 1, resulting in catastrophic failure. It was like the Predator suddenly decloaking and blasting Aqua's Barbie Girl.  In my last 3.5e game, the barbarian never rolled above a 9, nullifying her terrifying stats and rage.

Then I heard of Fifth Edition's advantage rule: Roll 2d20, keep the highest.  I loved this and immediately set to apply this rule to my games. This became the chink in 3.5e's armor, the sliver of opportunity through which my attention was stolen. When the preview characters released, I found myself giddy. Here was a beautiful layout of rules, and just from this single page, I could reverse engineer how Fifth Edition would play. The design was so pure, so utterly compact that I could understand the core from such a small glimpse. I had to try this, and the Starter Kit provided just that possibility.

I was sold from the very first session. The rules do their best to get out of the way and just let stories happen. By the end of the night, we walked away with stories of my blood-hungry dice and the power and terror of ambushing goblins, which still seem to have been the toughest enemy the party has encountered. The second session turned into a slew of tales, in which the party named their group the Chiseled Whistlers and the cleric turned a bandit to shimmering dust. The rogue would roll a series of natural 20s in the next couple sessions, saving the party while going on a murdering spree of the enemies he'd evaded. We're playing the rules right and playing D&D right - at the end of the night, we walk away with stories to tell.

So that's why I'm finally leaving behind DnD 3.5e for D&D 5e. The core rules are crisp and clear and most of all concise, keeping the game in the foreground as the rules take the backseat they were always meant to inhabit. The stories are at the heart of the game again, and though I'm leaving behind my investment in 3.5e, the "spitters" and "starched opal" and that Lucky Rat Tail will follow me wherever I go.

Alien: Isolation

(Apologies for the laziness in this post - I didn't set aside the time to struggle with a digital drawing or to write much more than a rant on the first game announcement to make me this giddy since Dark Souls 2. Also, I wrote this on my phone, so I have no idea where the image will appear...)

With the announcement of Alien: Isolstion, the folks at Creatice Assembly have painted a massive target on themselves. Alien fans and gamers alike were deeply scorned by Aliens: Colonial Marines, a game that fell short of all promises. Now, just enough has been teased about Alien Isolation to kickstart the dreams of gamers, Alien fans, and horror survivalists alike.  We have a glimpse of something that could be truly terrifying.

By focusing on Ellen Ripley's daughter Amanda, the game foregoes the possibility of rewriting the Alien cannon. Instead, we'll fill in the gap between blowing the Alien out of the airlock and Ripley's eventual retrieval. This safe zone gives the developmers room to breathe, and we rabid fans will have no preconceived storyline to follow.  This is something new, something different,  something unknown.

By following the suspense-thriller path of the original movie, we are promised something wonderfully dark and terrifying.  The golden rule of monster movies (never show the entire monster until the final scene) falls well into play here; if you see the xenomorph in full, it is the end (for you).  From what we've seen so far, the game play will play like Silent Hill Shattered Memories (a clear division between safe zones and dangerous areas), or it will play like Slender (you are never safe, always being hunted).  Either case results in a damn fine game.

I'm excited - giddy even - and really looking forward to this game. My biggest complaint is the lack of a Wii U release.  ZombiU proved the Gamepad-as-motion-tracker concept is excellent, and that looking away from the main screen is terrifying when you're being hunted.  Alien: Isolation seems like a concept that could really draw on the Wii U's quirky strengths, and I honestly believe it will be a lesser experience on other consoles.

If anyone at Creative Assembly happens to read this, please look into a Wii U release - perhaps via crowd sourcing to prove a it's worth the investment. I'd back that in a heartbeat.

Off to a Rough Start

Happy New Year and all that jazz.  Starting it out sick as a dog, so any resolutions I may have considered are sitting in the wings, but something I definitely want to stick to is constantly creating things (art, crafts, writing, anything really).  This week, I created a font (seen above) and this little comic (and rambled below - there is no substance beyond this point, just words).

Back before Nintendo shut down Swapnote, I occasionally took part in a self-mandated 30-day Swapnote challenge.  The rules were simple: Create a Swapnote every day for 30 days.  Swapnotes consisted of four panels, which would redraw themselves when received.  From these challenges, I created a few comics and characters, and otherwise had a bit of fun that my friends enjoyed.  Since Swapnote shut down, I've been tossing around the idea of bringing my characters back to life in webcomic format.  Problem is that drawing on the 3DS and using my little Bamboo tablet are rather different and stuff never quite looks right...

Anyway, Happy New Year.  Hope you're avoiding the cold/flu/plague that's been going around.