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Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set, 4th Edition
By Wizards RPG Team
List Price: $104.95
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Average customer review:

Customer Reviews

Terrible - Unless You Don’t Like D&D
This is not D&D. It’s a new game, not a particularly good one, with the D&D “logo” slapped on the front. Third Edition tinkered a little bit with the iconic elements of D&D, but could still be seen as an upgrade. For fourth edition however, all prior editions might as well have never existed. It is obvious that the publisher’s driving motivation was to trade on the D&D label, while making absolutely certain that no prior edition products would be in any way useful for this game. Great way to alienate your entire market Hasbro. Thanks.

Wait for the PC version
First off, yes I have played using the 4E rules, not once, but twice and never again.

Secondly, before I get accused of being some old-school, hard-core grognard (despite my 20+ years of D&D campaigning) I should say that I play World of Warcraft (WoW) regularly, even more than I play D&D. I like WoW for what it is , and like D&D even more so for what WoW is not. WoW and it’s ilk are not role playing games in the sense that there is no character development. Yes there is statistical development, but not character; personality, traits, habits and so forth. And therein lies my chief complaint about 4E.

While many reviewers have said that 4E is an attempt at making a tabletop game out of a MMORPG, I think it is just the opposite. I beleive WOTC/Hasbro had every intention from the start of design to take D&D into the MMORPG world. Just look at the rules, it reads like a video game manual already.

Gone are all of the background information and flavor text, replaced by statistics and mechanical rules which easily translate into hot keys for the computer or console controller. No thinking or problem solving required here, you just keeep hitting the hot key until the monster drops.

The most glaring proof that the designers have given up on role playing and are eyeing taking D&D to an electronic format is the almost linear character developement, which forces players into preset roles. Tanks, Crowd Controllers, yaddy yadda, yadda, again its like reading a WoW manual. These limiting factors are clearly present to set parameters that are easily written in code by some programmer.

It is also evident that the designers have gone after the younger “Instant-Gratification” generation by handing out gonzo powers from the moment your character sheet is filled out. 1st level characters need not fear death no matter the odds unless they run into a streak of bad die rolls (and even then maybe not).

The designers in their efforts to build a game that is cross-platform capable forgot that at its heart D&D is not a game about gaining powers and increasing your character’s ability scores. It is about developing your character and the interactions with your fellow adventurers.

4E’s focus is clearly not in this vein and any role playing that may occur while using this version of the game is probably a bug that they will fix in patch 4.1.000123133.

Great!!
This is a great product for anyone who is going to be DMing. While everything you really need to play as a player is in the PHB, the Monster Manual and the DMG will be indispensable to any DM. The slipcase is made of a great cardboard that is about as thick as the covers of the books. I actually dropped mine when I got it and the case took all the shock and kept the books in perfect condition. I highly recommend this product for its price, looks, and quality.