The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Let's see where to start? How about this. I have been playing D&D for thirteen years now. Starting with the red box basic D&D set to 1st edition AD&D and 2nd edition AD&D. So I've seen this game evolve on many levels and to be quite frank, I've always been disappointed with the system. Sure me and my frieds had alot of great stories and adventures with the game, but if your like me you've found things like Armor Class, Lots of Hit Points, Saving Throws, Speed Factor, Classes, a poorly explained Alingment system, and Levels to be either clunky, unrealistic, or just obsolete gaming ideas, which has always made me search for a more perfect fantasy Rpg.

So with great skeptism, and curiosity I was greatly awaiting release of the 3RD Edition D&D rules to see if the changes made were worth shelling out yet more cash for this old RPG. So with this in mind this review will not explain how the game works so much as the major changes that have been made and how they affect the game. BTW, just for the curious the game is now called Dungeons and Dragons instead of Advandced Dungeons and Dragons because T$R said that since nothing has been printed for D&D in years, and the name Dungeons and Dragons is so widely known that it just made more since to simply call it Dungeons and Dragons. So now on with the review.

For starters let's start with character creation. All the attributes Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are still there, but instead of rolling 3d6 the new, improved, super-duper system is 4d6 minus the lowest die. Gee like which house rules haven't been using this already, but at least TSR made it "official"; also the ranges are still 3-18, without modifiers, but now scores staring at 12-13 receive bonuses, instead of the higher scores like 15 or 16 with the old system. This is a plus since now I don't have to have a character with consistentaly unrealistic numbers like 18 strength, 17 dexterity, and 16 constitution to survive because a 12, 13, or 15 will now provide some much needed bonuses. Likewise exceptional strength has been removed with a linear scale of 1-44. One for small creatures, 18-19 for a maxed out human like character, and 20 and beyond for various creatures like giants, dragons, and the like.

Player selectable races include the venerable Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Half-elves, Gnomes, and yes now Half-Orcs. Each race is given a detailed description concerning, Personality, Physical Description, Relations to other races, Alignment, common names for both male and female characters, and religion plus with the usual statistical info on their special abilities and weaknesses. I like this level of background detail because it helps both new and experienced players know how and what makes a dwarf a dwarf, and an elf and elf, besides just special abilities, and statistical modifiers.

The same character classes as before are still here except now we have the monk (a resurrected character class), the Sorcerer, and another resurrected class the Barbarian. As before each classes has their own special abilities that make them unique but now instead of having "Proficiences" characters have actual "Skills" that they use from a pool of points, usually 20, to buy skills with. Non-weapon and weapon profiiences no longer exist with points buying skills in in both weapon and non-weapon skills. Also players no longer have to spend points on each and every individual weapon they want to use. Now weapon proficiencies are divided into three simple classes Simple, Martial and Exotic. For example experience in Simple weapons gives me access to all the weapons in that category which include clubs, daggers, maces, and quarter staves. In 3RD D&D I am now equally proficent in each weapon in that category. This is cool. Not only is book keeping made easier, but now the game takes on a more heroric tone. After all in most films or books, does the hero in a pinch say "Gee, I can't use that short sword laying next to me on the ground, because I'm only proficent with a long sword." The answer is no and it's this way in the game also. To help create starting characters, each class has a simple premade "package" that includes starting equipment, and a narrow list of skills that places emphasis on maxed out stats on a few skills and not a Jack of All Trades approach to skill selection. Think Alternity on this one.

To finish this review game mechanics and combat have been streamlined. In dice rolling, rolling higher is better for everything. Thank God, no more rolling low for an Ability check, and high for a THAC0 roll. The game mechanics are now consistant. This also applies to Armor Class, the higher the AC number the better compared with the old system of the lower the AC number the better. This also means THAC0 is gone. Instead you have a Difficulty Class, or difficulty number in most RPGs, which is affected by AC, dexterity and other modifers. Roll that number or higher and you have successfully hit your target. This same mechanic applies for rolling skill checks to. In combat Speed Factor, for weapons and magic are gone along with damage for Small, Medium, and Large creatures. You now roll one dice for damage no matter what size the creature is. So a two hand sword now does 2d6 points of damage instead of 1d10 for small and medium creatures, and 3d6 for large creatures. Like stated before Speed Factor for magic is gone, many spells like Fireball, or Magic Missle are now instantaneous, instead of having a number like 1 or 2 being added to the initiative roll.

In conclusion the changes are so many that I could literally write for days on them, yet some thing like AC, Lots of Hit Points, and Saving Throws are still unfortunatly still their, but this edition has done alot to add flexability, and fun to an otherwise very outdated game that I believe D&D has the potential to once again become an innovative RPG that's flexable enough for the worlds and characters that I want to create.

On a side note, I have not played the game yet. TSR in their infinite wisdom are releasing each core book ONE at a time. So it will be a while before I have everyting I need to play, but at least The PHB comes with with a free character creator CD-ROM with starting adventure.

P.S. I forgot ot mention that Greyhawk is the default world provided in the book, for things like Gods, and sample characters. The book is alot more user friendly with many illustrations and better explained text on Player Character races, alignment(marginally better), weapons, equipment, and combat. All which I whole hardily approve of. Please let me know what you think of the new D&D game.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, 3rd Edition
Author: Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skkp Williams Category: game Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Line: D&D Cost: $20.00 Page count: 285 ISBN: 0-7869-1550-1 SKU: TSR11550 CapsuleReview by Robert J Hisle on 08/15/00 Genre tags: Fantasy Generic	Let's see where to start? How about this. I have been playing D&D for thirteen years now. Starting with the red box basic D&D set to 1st edition AD&D and 2nd edition AD&D. So I've seen this game evolve on many levels and to be quite frank, I've always been disappointed with the system. Sure me and my frieds had alot of great stories and adventures with the game, but if your like me you've found things like Armor Class, Lots of Hit Points, Saving Throws, Speed Factor, Classes, a poorly explained Alingment system, and Levels to be either clunky, unrealistic, or just obsolete gaming ideas, which has always made me search for a more perfect fantasy Rpg. So with great skeptism, and curiosity I was greatly awaiting release of the 3RD Edition D&D rules to see if the changes made were worth shelling out yet more cash for this old RPG. So with this in mind this review will not explain how the game works so much as the major changes that have been made and how they affect the game. BTW, just for the curious the game is now called Dungeons and Dragons instead of Advandced Dungeons and Dragons because T$R said that since nothing has been printed for D&D in years, and the name Dungeons and Dragons is so widely known that it just made more since to simply call it Dungeons and Dragons. So now on with the review. For starters let's start with character creation. All the attributes Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are still there, but instead of rolling 3d6 the new, improved, super-duper system is 4d6 minus the lowest die. Gee like which house rules haven't been using this already, but at least TSR made it "official"; also the ranges are still 3-18, without modifiers, but now scores staring at 12-13 receive bonuses, instead of the higher scores like 15 or 16 with the old system. This is a plus since now I don't have to have a character with consistentaly unrealistic numbers like 18 strength, 17 dexterity, and 16 constitution to survive because a 12, 13, or 15 will now provide some much needed bonuses. Likewise exceptional strength has been removed with a linear scale of 1-44. One for small creatures, 18-19 for a maxed out human like character, and 20 and beyond for various creatures like giants, dragons, and the like. Player selectable races include the venerable Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Half-elves, Gnomes, and yes now Half-Orcs. Each race is given a detailed description concerning, Personality, Physical Description, Relations to other races, Alignment, common names for both male and female characters, and religion plus with the usual statistical info on their special abilities and weaknesses. I like this level of background detail because it helps both new and experienced players know how and what makes a dwarf a dwarf, and an elf and elf, besides just special abilities, and statistical modifiers. The same character classes as before are still here except now we have the monk (a resurrected character class), the Sorcerer, and another resurrected class the Barbarian. As before each classes has their own special abilities that make them unique but now instead of having "Proficiences" characters have actual "Skills" that they use from a pool of points, usually 20, to buy skills with. Non-weapon and weapon profiiences no longer exist with points buying skills in in both weapon and non-weapon skills. Also players no longer have to spend points on each and every individual weapon they want to use. Now weapon proficiencies are divided into three simple classes Simple, Martial and Exotic. For example experience in Simple weapons gives me access to all the weapons in that category which include clubs, daggers, maces, and quarter staves. In 3RD D&D I am now equally proficent in each weapon in that category. This is cool. Not only is book keeping made easier, but now the game takes on a more heroric tone. After all in most films or books, does the hero in a pinch say "Gee, I can't use that short sword laying next to me on the ground, because I'm only proficent with a long sword." The answer is no and it's this way in the game also. To help create starting characters, each class has a simple premade "package" that includes starting equipment, and a narrow list of skills that places emphasis on maxed out stats on a few skills and not a Jack of All Trades approach to skill selection. Think Alternity on this one. To finish this review game mechanics and combat have been streamlined. In dice rolling, rolling higher is better for everything. Thank God, no more rolling low for an Ability check, and high for a THAC0 roll. The game mechanics are now consistant. This also applies to Armor Class, the higher the AC number the better compared with the old system of the lower the AC number the better. This also means THAC0 is gone. Instead you have a Difficulty Class, or difficulty number in most RPGs, which is affected by AC, dexterity and other modifers. Roll that number or higher and you have successfully hit your target. This same mechanic applies for rolling skill checks to. In combat Speed Factor, for weapons and magic are gone along with damage for Small, Medium, and Large creatures. You now roll one dice for damage no matter what size the creature is. So a two hand sword now does 2d6 points of damage instead of 1d10 for small and medium creatures, and 3d6 for large creatures. Like stated before Speed Factor for magic is gone, many spells like Fireball, or Magic Missle are now instantaneous, instead of having a number like 1 or 2 being added to the initiative roll. In conclusion the changes are so many that I could literally write for days on them, yet some thing like AC, Lots of Hit Points, and Saving Throws are still unfortunatly still their, but this edition has done alot to add flexability, and fun to an otherwise very outdated game that I believe D&D has the potential to once again become an innovative RPG that's flexable enough for the worlds and characters that I want to create. On a side note, I have not played the game yet. TSR in their infinite wisdom are releasing each core book ONE at a time. So it will be a while before I have everyting I need to play, but at least The PHB comes with with a free character creator CD-ROM with starting adventure. P.S. I forgot ot mention that Greyhawk is the default world provided in the book, for things like Gods, and sample characters. The book is alot more user friendly with many illustrations and better explained text on Player Character races, alignment(marginally better), weapons, equipment, and combat. All which I whole hardily approve of. Please let me know what you think of the new D&D game. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, 3rd Edition