I've been mulling this over a little in my head but I haven't really brought it up with anyone:
Are the 4e combat rules (as much as we've seen, anyway) a natural, logical, progression of the D&D game?
Here's my reasoning:
D&D essentially evolved from historical war gaming, and the D&D combat rules followed that model, such as, movement expressed in inches, or the order that combat was resolved ("Casting!" Remember that?).
3e made some changes, moving away from the historical war gaming mindset of combat rules by expressing movement in feet, and changing the way initiative and combat actions were resovled.
4e combat rules step even further away from 1e, seemingly following along the lines of DDM or MtG: Attacks v. AC, Attacks v. Reflex, checklist abilites, and abilities that function like "tapping" manna (per Chris Pramas' insight).
It seems (or could be debated) that the 4e combat was designed to bring D&D combat in-line with what non-D&D players could understand, or at least be comparative to the combat resolution of the other games they may have played.
Any thoughts?
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I've been mulling this over a little in my head but I haven't really brought it up with anyone:
Are the 4e combat rules (as much as we've seen, anyway) a natural, logical, progression of the D&D game?
Here's my reasoning:
D&D essentially evolved from historical war gaming, and the D&D combat rules followed that model, such as, movement expressed in inches, or the order that combat was resolved ("Casting!" Remember that?).
3e made some changes, moving away from the historical war gaming mindset of combat rules by expressing movement in feet, and changing the way initiative and combat actions were resovled.
4e combat rules step even further away from 1e, seemingly following along the lines of DDM or MtG: Attacks v. AC, Attacks v. Reflex, checklist abilites, and abilities that function like "tapping" manna (per Chris Pramas' insight).
It seems (or could be debated) that the 4e combat was designed to bring D&D combat in-line with what non-D&D players could understand, or at least be comparative to the combat resolution of the other games they may have played.
Any thoughts?
In many ways, there are elements of 4E that harken back to OD&D and 1E AD&D. (creatures have a fixed xp e.g.). Your example of measuring movement in "inches" is exactly the same thing as measuring squares when the square size is 1 inch: "I move 4" closer to the wizard" is equivalent to "I move 4 squares closer to the wizard" (caveat - yeah yeah, diagonals are wonky in 4E). You never moved in 1/5 inch increments (I never heard someone say "I move 20 fifths inches")...unless you are using a battlement marked in feet (and you character takes up many square feet) should movement be mentioned in feet. The best way to look at is like the unit mile. A mile is 5280 feet. Its easier to use miles to measure a road trip (how far is disnyland? oh, about 123,678 feet...). Likewise there is a new unit called "squares". A square is 5 feet. Next time someone asks how tall you are, tell them "about 1 square" ha ha.
Yes, its a natural progression. Some things worked in OD&D and moved to 1E. Some things didn't work and got left behind. Same for every edition transition. Each time, there were some "new" things added. Some of those worked and moved to the next edition...and some didn't work and got left behind. 4E is no different, some things WILL work, and will likely move to 5th edition...some things won't work, and by december I guarantee people will be posting house rule fixes.
It is the nature of the beast.
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I believe it is a natural progression. Comparing "games" as they existed when DnD first came out vs. all the myriad of different types of games today, it's natural for the designers to incorporate newer concepts into the game. There has been an amazing explosion in the game industry during those years. Heck even in the last 8 years.
Of course the difficulty is doing that while balancing the "DnDness". If you watch one of the vids from D&D experience someone asks a question about this. The designer (I forget which one) says they came up with all sort of ideas initially but when they played them it "wasn't DnD". He mentions that one of the concepts ended up in the Inn Fighting product.
-Pete