Maybe you aren't supposed to trash Wizard on these boards, but still:
I downloaded the 4th ed character sheet at
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4dnd/20080401b
I was ... dismayed. Leetness? Skilz? Lewtz? Phat Lewtz (dear God)?
When I got to the bottom and saw the skilz and rations, I finally realised that the defenses will probably not really be called "leetness", and that they were just fooling with the words..
But the sheet was a real insight into the minds of the 4th ed designers: what they find funny, what their cultural hooks are. Maybe they saw the lotr movie, but they haven't read the books. It's all hip urban online-gamer shi*t. There's no beauty, no soaring elven spires or terrifying supernatural evil. Just Nunchucks and victory points.
Even the little things are a giveaway. There's a paperdoll in the bottom right hand corner, and it's solid black. Now sure, you can mark the stats you need, but solid black means you can't draw on it. IOW: 4th ed is not for people with artistic creativity - it's for people who just want a print-out of what their characters look like.
As a computer programmer, I recognise the sheet as a paper version of something that is meant to run inside a computer. It's horrible. I'll be sticking with 3.5, and that is going to mean the Pathfinder RPG. Wizards have jumped the shark, as far as I am concerned.
... Good joke with the whole treating it seriously stuff.
Hope you had a happy April Fools Day!
This must be an April Fool's joke of your own... but I have the terrible feeling it ain't.
Good thing you didn't see this: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20080401a.
As a human, I recognize the mini as a tin version of something that is a smurf.
Please tell me this is your own joke and you didn't believe it. The alignment section also made me laugh a great deal. "Autobots, roll out!"
But there's a point to it. Do they think this character sheet and the changed D&D-website yesterday funny? If so, whoever was responsible either has an extremely dark and sarcastic type of humor, or the fears of many people are well founded.
If this is how they fool around, I do have fears about what they think is a "fun game to play".
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Damn post monster ate my post...
Anyway, I was saying that I enjoyed most of the April Fools over at WotC, but some of it bothered me.
Adding Firefly references to the errata is funny. It's not as funny to add WoW-isms to the character sheet when many people are legitimately concerned about WotC turning into a MMO/subscription based company.
Yeah, it's a day for jokes. But IMHO it's a little over the line to make a joke out of the serious concerns of your customers. [/Mr. Grouchy No-Humor-Pants]
Those skills are boring.
Where's "Operate Starship And Chew Gum At The Same Time", "Turn Radios Into Howitzers", "Make Someone Stop Living With Your Fist", "Making Sharp Things Go Thru Soft Things That Screem And Bleed", "Whining Until You Get What You Want", "Withstand Bagpipes", or "Tolerate Hideous Amounts Of Bloody Mutilation And Still Eat Fast Foods"?
Aw, come on. It was worth it for the alignment spectrum alone.
Granted, it would have been nice to see it followed up with the actual character sheet for 4th ed, but eh.
Those skills are boring.
Where's "Operate Starship And Chew Gum At The Same Time", "Turn Radios Into Howitzers", "Make Someone Stop Living With Your Fist", "Making Sharp Things Go Thru Soft Things That Screem And Bleed", "Whining Until You Get What You Want", "Withstand Bagpipes", or "Tolerate Hideous Amounts Of Bloody Mutilation And Still Eat Fast Foods"?
Nice to see I'm not the only person who's a fan of HoL.
:)
Make Anything You Say Sound More Important Than The Voice of God was always my favourite.
Please tell me this is your own joke and you didn't believe it. The alignment section also made me laugh a great deal. "Autobots, roll out!"
I'm still upset they got rid of "Quintesson" as an alignment.
"Feydar". Don't forget the Feydar! I hope it is rear looking Feydar because those forest dwelling little buggers are always trying to creap up on me from behind.
Please tell me this is your own joke and you didn't believe it. The alignment section also made me laugh a great deal. "Autobots, roll out!"I'm still upset they got rid of "Quintesson" as an alignment.
I hear that they are holding it back for a later supplement.
Honestly, there's an argument to be made that the alignment system on that sheet is a dramatic improvement over the existing system.
Also, that formula for leetness actually works out to a fairly simple progression.
And finally, I have to admit... I've actually calculated the average damage per round of some of my characters. (In my defense, one time it was for a spreadsheet where I was trying to figure out how long it would take a warlock to sunder the moon.)
I've actually calculated the average damage per round of some of my characters.
How far did you go with that? "4 attacks, 1d8+3 each, that's 7.5 x4 or 30 on average?" Of did you add attack roll hitting probabilities and critical hit chances for average enemy AC into it?
(The difference is that the first is something quick on the fly you might do to get a raw estimate, but the latter shows a seriously disturbed mind ;-))
Critical hits are easy enough to factor in, but enemy AC is an independent variable, and would require rather more work. Involving spreadsheets. I... better get started on that.
;_____;
Critical hits are easy enough to factor in, but enemy AC is an independent variable, and would require rather more work. Involving spreadsheets. I... better get started on that.
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