Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

My first experience with Dungeons & Dragons could hardly be called an experience. It was back in 2003 when 3.5 had just released. I was watching a session in the dorm room across the hall from me, and one of the players had to leave for work, so I played his fighter through the rest of the encounter. Two memories of my first D&D experience stick out to me. The first is that the lack of options the fighter had in combat was boring compared to the wizard. The second is that I found the group's role playing more interesting than a battle against a rust monster. One of the players was role playing a kender rogue whose curiosity and kleptomania always ended up getting the party into trouble.

My second experience with Dungeons & Dragons wasn't much better, though the game's mechanics weren't to blame. A good friend of mine decided he'd like to try his hand at DMing a game and invited me to join. The game was Monday evenings from 9 until midnight. This didn't give us much time to play, and much of that time was spent looking up rules. I played monk and found that the combat with a monk is only marginally more interesting than with a fighter. I could melee attack or I could use flurry of blows. My best memory from this campaign was an encounter that the DM pulled from a book of challenges. Our party traveled down a spiraling hallway filled with traps that had already been set off. When we reached the end of the hallway, we found a dead body next to a chest. We opened the chest and heard a series of clicks as all the traps in the hallway reset. Nobody in our party could disarm traps. The paladin in our group cast a spell to take half of my damage, and I ran down the hallway, springing every trap as I went to clear the path for our group. I saved against every trap except the pit trap at the end, and I barely took any falling damage from the pit because I was a monk. Unfortunately, the campaign died off due to a lack of playing time for sessions.

A little over 6 months ago, I joined a D&D campaign that was already in progress - this time a 4th edition campaign. I was impressed by the variety of power choices my character had starting at 3rd level, and my options have grown since then. The new edition fixed many of the flaws of 3.5, but the drastic changes have also upset many of the long-time players of Dungeons & Dragons.

One of my favorite criticisms of 4th edition is that it isn't realistic enough. It's a fantasy role playing game - it isn't supposed to be realistic, it's supposed to be fantastic and, more importantly, fun.

I'm currently playing in two 4th edition campaigns, and I've subscribed to D&D insider, which gives me access to some tools, as well as Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine. This gives me access to play-test materials, as well as material not published in the D&D books. I'll probably publish an occasional commentary on some of these materials.

Games of Chance

Earlier this month, a story was published in the ABA Journal (the citation is below) about police raids on private poker games.The article is primarily about the 2006 arrest five poker buddies in South Carolina. They were arrested for violating a state law that bans games with cards or dice. In February, municipal judge Larry Duffy ruled that Texas Hold'em is a game of skill, but still upheld the conviction of the five poker players.

There are laws against games of chance in 39 states. These laws were used to outlaw pinball in New York City in the 1930's. The picture to the right is of New York's mayor Fiorello LaGuardia smashing a pinball machine. LaGuardia took a sledgehammer to several of these games of chance. This was highly publicized and was shown in newsreels in theaters around the country. Within 3 weeks, the NYPD had confiscated and destroyed more than 3,000 pinball machines. New York's ban on pinball wasn't lifted until 1976, when pinball was ruled to be a game of skill.

Should games of chance be outlawed? Should a group of friends have to acquire a license to have a friendly informal poker game? The pinball ban was largely due to the crackdown on the crime waves of the 1930's, and much of the current stigma is still due to the connection of gambling to organized crime. Incorporating elements of chance in a game can prevent the game from becoming predictable and repetitive. However, games of pure chance take away the player's ability to increase their chances of success and aren't as fun as games of skill.

The poker case is headed back to court for an appeal.

References
Kent, S. L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games. New York, New York: Three Rivers Press.

Mary Wisniewski. (2009). Texas Book'em. ABA Journal, 95(5), 16. Retrieved May 17, 2009, from Research Library Core database. (Document ID: 1706633531).