Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition
by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Released March 17, 2009

So, the last time I told you about the Second Player’s handbook, this time I’m going to go into what it feels like to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons in it’s new style, that we like to call 4th edition. I’m also going to go into what you need to start a game of your own, and where the best resources are, and if there are any good places I don’t mention, feel free to leave a comment, because I can always use them myself.

The first thing you’ll notice when actually playing a game of 4th ed is the strategic and board game elements that have been added to the game. This is the first time that the D&D miniatures game has been fully integrated into the game-play of the RPG, and I kind of enjoy it, but I can see the problems. Gone are the days when you had to picture the entire scenario of battle in your head, and then move and attack according to that picture. Now all the players have a pseudo-3D representation of where the enemies are, exactly how many there are, and where they are in relation to the players. You might say that half of the fun of the game was the imagination you put into creating the environments in your head, and I’d be forced to agree with you. However, what you get for more reliance on the miniatures is an increase in strategic elements for battles. Positioning has become very important as there are many bonuses that come from being certain distances from characters, bonuses for flanking enemies, you have to be aware of how many spaces you are away from enemies, and so on. If you’ve ever played a collectible mini-game such as Heroclix or Mage Knight, you’ll have a good understanding of what battle looks like now. Getting back to the player’s use of imagination to establish the action, I’d say you still use it to a certain degree, just that some of the heavy thinking has been removed. This is going to be a recurring element in 4th edition.