The Inside Scoop on Gaming

When Star Wars came to the silver screen it was universally heralded as the "Return of Entertainment" –- as though entertainment had ever left us –- as though a science fiction remake of Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress could single-handedly bring it back. Well, ladies, gentlemen, and gamers I am here to tell you now that Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition, or D&D3 as I like to call it, is nothing less that the "Return of Roleplaying."

"Surely you jest!" the skeptics say. "How dare you mock us!" curse the fanatics.

Nay, I neither jest nor mock. Because, if only through the strength of its resounding product name -- if only on the shoulders of its surging mass of loyal fans –- but more likely because of a spark of resourceful, if not original, creativity, and the demand, no the need, for something new and bold -- D&D3 will be, and in fact is the next big thing in role-playing.

Imagine, if you will, this combination of excellence:

The myth and adventure of the original Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, as originally envisioned by the godfather of gaming himself, Gary Gygax.
The versatile fantasy skill system of RuneQuest or Middle Earth Role-playing (but not Rollmonster… forget Rollmonster).
The character-defining richness of GURPS or HeroSystem advantages, disadvantages, and quirks. . . well, advantages anyway.
The ease of character creation and customized powers familiar to players of Vampire, Werewolf, and any other number of White Wolf's Storyteller games.

All of these things appear, perhaps in a limited form of their full glory, in D&D3. As usual, all names have been changed to protect the innocent.

And if that weren't enough, Players will find that their options are now greater than they ever were before. "Any Race, Any Class, Any Level" is the mantra of D&D3 and they aren't joking. "Less Rules, More Options" is another catch phrase they have been throwing around at Wizards of the Coast. Players are going to find that their classes, their spells, and their weapons, and their wallets have been ordained with newer and more powerful abilities than ever before. Sure, a few nonsensical old things, such as the infamous infravision (read: infrared vision) has been replaced with less powerful and less pseudoscientific ability, darkvision, which is more suitable to the fantasy atmosphere. In exchange for these few sacrifices of outdated rules, players will soon find that their Twentieth level Fighter / Monk / Thief / Druid / Paladin / Psionicist, is not only a GOD but is also now actually One-Hundred-and-Twentieth level to boot. Can I get a "Hoody Hoo!," anyone?

But all is not well in the realm of Dungeons and Dragons, for there are sure to be those nay sayers, those few cynical bastard-sword-wielders, who will scoff and berate the hard work of the employees of Wizards of the Coast (formerly known as the employees of TSR). They would rather die kicking and screaming under the inevitable onslaught of the tidal wave known as progress than lie down in their thick coat of now-non-existent scale mail and give in to change. But their resistance shall be as futile as that of the Wicked Witch of the East, as she lie under the fallen house, besieged by a little girl, her dog, and an army of ravenous munchkins. The future is here, and it is three-foot-six.

At the luxurious price of $19.95 for a full color hardback Player's Handbook, it's a wonder they aren't giving these things away for free. The only possible answer I can divine is that perhaps they were able to afford the high-quality publishing with the money they saved by using faux-plastic gems and gold-painted plaster instead of actual gems and 24-karat gold to construct the false appearance of this hefty book. The only complaint I had with the cover is that there aren't any traps, fake or otherwise, to kill you as you as you open the magically sealed tome.

And if you thought the exterior of the book was impressive, you obviously hadn't opened it up yet. Inside, the fonts are readable, a new strategy in publishing role-playing books, apparently. The tables and charts are well placed and very usable. The rules are, for the most part, clear and concise -- very easy to understand whatever your level of reading ability. And the illustrations are breathtaking – the sort of art that would appear on the cover of any lesser volume. However, it is quite annoying how the text often flows around the presentation of pictures, as though the pictures, themselves, took precedence over the substance of the rules or the background. Sidebars would have been nice for much of the supplemental text, which instead of being relegated to an inferior yet easily accessible position, is inserted smack-dab in the middle of the page -- illustrations permitting, of course.

Despite all the talk of newness and the incrementation of numbers, I found that the rules were essentially the same. You still memorize spells, roll for initiative, roll to hit, and roll for damage. Only now the names have changed. So instead of "memorizing" you "prepare". And instead of rolling for initiative once at the beginning of the combat and ignoring the rule that tells you to roll again each round, you now get to roll once at the beginning of combat and skip the part about ignoring a stupid rule. This is saves the time you would have otherwise wasted arguing over the correct way to role initiative. Also, when you roll to hit, you try to roll over a number based on your opponent's Armor Class (AC) and add a number based on your level of skill. This is far superior to the system where you roll over a number based on your level of skill and subtracting your opponent's AC, because as everyone knows, adding things is much easier than subtracting things. And when you do damage, you may be rolling a different die… assuming your weapon still exists in the new version. I am, of coarse, being facetious. Most of the rules changes are very helpful, but it really bores the hell out of me to talk about it seriously.

The biggest change is probably in the way classes and levels work. There are no longer four categories of classes (Wizard, Rogue, Priest, Warrior), but instead every class is its own thing with its own strengths and weaknesses. Many of which are different than they were in the previous edition. This translates into magic-like abilities and bonuses and minuses for particular actions or skills. Likewise, your class determines how many "points" you have to pay for certain skills. Usually, skills that are appropriate for your class cost less, and some skills are only available to certain classes. Unfortunately, some skills that you may feel are appropriate, are not available to you, suck it up. This is going to make character creation much easier, assuming you have more than one Player's Handbook available during character-rolling-up-time.

I think that D&D3 is a fine new game, nearly as good as it was before, if not better! It accentuates many of the strengths and eliminates many of the weaknesses of the previous edition. And at the price of twenty bucks for a hardback, it's a steal even if you happen to hate the game, because it would probably be worth twenty bucks just to burn the thing in effigy, donchathink? Or better yet, you could photocopy the cover and burn a similarly sized stack of papers in effigy over and over again, while secretly learning the loopholes of the game system.

Like it or leave it, D&D3 is the next big thing in role-playing. Mark my words. The next convention you go to, all the thirteen-year-old punks will be playing this instead of Magic: The Card-Thing. Better learn to like it or they may not let an old washed up thirty-something fogey like yourself into their next game session.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
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 Capsule Review by The Jakester on 08/30/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	When Star Wars came to the silver screen it was universally heralded as the "Return of Entertainment" –- as though entertainment had ever left us –- as though a science fiction remake of Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress could single-handedly bring it back. Well, ladies, gentlemen, and gamers I am here to tell you now that Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition, or D&D3 as I like to call it, is nothing less that the "Return of Roleplaying." "Surely you jest!" the skeptics say. "How dare you mock us!" curse the fanatics. Nay, I neither jest nor mock. Because, if only through the strength of its resounding product name -- if only on the shoulders of its surging mass of loyal fans –- but more likely because of a spark of resourceful, if not original, creativity, and the demand, no the need, for something new and bold -- D&D3 will be, and in fact is the next big thing in role-playing. Imagine, if you will, this combination of excellence: The myth and adventure of the original Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, as originally envisioned by the godfather of gaming himself, Gary Gygax. The versatile fantasy skill system of RuneQuest or Middle Earth Role-playing (but not Rollmonster… forget Rollmonster). The character-defining richness of GURPS or HeroSystem advantages, disadvantages, and quirks. . . well, advantages anyway. The ease of character creation and customized powers familiar to players of Vampire, Werewolf, and any other number of White Wolf's Storyteller games. All of these things appear, perhaps in a limited form of their full glory, in D&D3. As usual, all names have been changed to protect the innocent. And if that weren't enough, Players will find that their options are now greater than they ever were before. "Any Race, Any Class, Any Level" is the mantra of D&D3 and they aren't joking. "Less Rules, More Options" is another catch phrase they have been throwing around at Wizards of the Coast. Players are going to find that their classes, their spells, and their weapons, and their wallets have been ordained with newer and more powerful abilities than ever before. Sure, a few nonsensical old things, such as the infamous infravision (read: infrared vision) has been replaced with less powerful and less pseudoscientific ability, darkvision, which is more suitable to the fantasy atmosphere. In exchange for these few sacrifices of outdated rules, players will soon find that their Twentieth level Fighter / Monk / Thief / Druid / Paladin / Psionicist, is not only a GOD but is also now actually One-Hundred-and-Twentieth level to boot. Can I get a "Hoody Hoo!," anyone? But all is not well in the realm of Dungeons and Dragons, for there are sure to be those nay sayers, those few cynical bastard-sword-wielders, who will scoff and berate the hard work of the employees of Wizards of the Coast (formerly known as the employees of TSR). They would rather die kicking and screaming under the inevitable onslaught of the tidal wave known as progress than lie down in their thick coat of now-non-existent scale mail and give in to change. But their resistance shall be as futile as that of the Wicked Witch of the East, as she lie under the fallen house, besieged by a little girl, her dog, and an army of ravenous munchkins. The future is here, and it is three-foot-six. At the luxurious price of $19.95 for a full color hardback Player's Handbook, it's a wonder they aren't giving these things away for free. The only possible answer I can divine is that perhaps they were able to afford the high-quality publishing with the money they saved by using faux-plastic gems and gold-painted plaster instead of actual gems and 24-karat gold to construct the false appearance of this hefty book. The only complaint I had with the cover is that there aren't any traps, fake or otherwise, to kill you as you as you open the magically sealed tome. And if you thought the exterior of the book was impressive, you obviously hadn't opened it up yet. Inside, the fonts are readable, a new strategy in publishing role-playing books, apparently. The tables and charts are well placed and very usable. The rules are, for the most part, clear and concise -- very easy to understand whatever your level of reading ability. And the illustrations are breathtaking – the sort of art that would appear on the cover of any lesser volume. However, it is quite annoying how the text often flows around the presentation of pictures, as though the pictures, themselves, took precedence over the substance of the rules or the background. Sidebars would have been nice for much of the supplemental text, which instead of being relegated to an inferior yet easily accessible position, is inserted smack-dab in the middle of the page -- illustrations permitting, of course. Despite all the talk of newness and the incrementation of numbers, I found that the rules were essentially the same. You still memorize spells, roll for initiative, roll to hit, and roll for damage. Only now the names have changed. So instead of "memorizing" you "prepare". And instead of rolling for initiative once at the beginning of the combat and ignoring the rule that tells you to roll again each round, you now get to roll once at the beginning of combat and skip the part about ignoring a stupid rule. This is saves the time you would have otherwise wasted arguing over the correct way to role initiative. Also, when you roll to hit, you try to roll over a number based on your opponent's Armor Class (AC) and add a number based on your level of skill. This is far superior to the system where you roll over a number based on your level of skill and subtracting your opponent's AC, because as everyone knows, adding things is much easier than subtracting things. And when you do damage, you may be rolling a different die… assuming your weapon still exists in the new version. I am, of coarse, being facetious. Most of the rules changes are very helpful, but it really bores the hell out of me to talk about it seriously. The biggest change is probably in the way classes and levels work. There are no longer four categories of classes (Wizard, Rogue, Priest, Warrior), but instead every class is its own thing with its own strengths and weaknesses. Many of which are different than they were in the previous edition. This translates into magic-like abilities and bonuses and minuses for particular actions or skills. Likewise, your class determines how many "points" you have to pay for certain skills. Usually, skills that are appropriate for your class cost less, and some skills are only available to certain classes. Unfortunately, some skills that you may feel are appropriate, are not available to you, suck it up. This is going to make character creation much easier, assuming you have more than one Player's Handbook available during character-rolling-up-time. I think that D&D3 is a fine new game, nearly as good as it was before, if not better! It accentuates many of the strengths and eliminates many of the weaknesses of the previous edition. And at the price of twenty bucks for a hardback, it's a steal even if you happen to hate the game, because it would probably be worth twenty bucks just to burn the thing in effigy, donchathink? Or better yet, you could photocopy the cover and burn a similarly sized stack of papers in effigy over and over again, while secretly learning the loopholes of the game system. Like it or leave it, D&D3 is the next big thing in role-playing. Mark my words. The next convention you go to, all the thirteen-year-old punks will be playing this instead of Magic: The Card-Thing. Better learn to like it or they may not let an old washed up thirty-something fogey like yourself into their next game session. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, 3rd Edition