RLGaming.com

Remember the days of the pencil and paper D&D? It looks like they are bringing that to digital format. Yes, D&D the old fashioned way, ON THE PC! The new D&D 4th Edition is due out in May 2008, starting with the new 4th edition players handbook.

Read about it here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dn ... entic=true

And here are some video clips from GenCon, watch them here:
VIDEO Part 1
VIDEO Part 2
VIDEO Part 3
VIDEO Part 4


They should have done this YEARS ago!! It's about time, I can't wait!

2nd edition was necessary, due to the awful, disorganized mess that was 1st edition. Everything after that -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azbl6oAnS3Y



Seriously, tho - I could whip up a 2nd edition adventure in no time. 3rd edition... just trying to adapt a critter from the monster manual... arrrgh.

TD

Never did fully understand the spell system in 2nd edition and I never did get into 3rd....perhaps I should look at 4th.

never played but can see doing it and hey do you mean we can play online basically ???

If its passable to do it online, not a adaptation game or something, but a actual style D&D game then hey I can see some of us doing it, all hail Tach the game master

good question...hmm.

hmmm...Neverwinter Nights.

it is third edition, but i am sure it will get a new release.

this might be interesting though.

Yes, this will let people play the original P&P game online. Watch the videos, there's a demo in one of them. Video 3 I think shows what the gameplay is like. I am VERY interested in this, so you can count me in when it gets released.

was and am at work, no youtube here, use to get google video but thats cut to.

Veg, have you tried using Ninja Proxy at work? May or may not work, but it's worth a try. I use it at school as they block sites like Youtube and MySpace.

http://www.ninjaproxy.com/

I watched the videos. As impressive as 4th edition looks, I have to admit I have my reservations about this. First of all, the real appeal to me is the digital tools; however, you have to subscribe to use them. I don't like having to subscribe to anything, frankly. It's a waste of money in the long run. First of all, it sounds as though in order to get access to the digital tools you still have to buy the physical books, which tend to be expensive. Then, you have to pay a subscription on top of buying the books to have access to the digital tools? Are you kidding me?

The tools they are presenting, albeit more attractive in appearance, can be dowloaded for free in most cases. For example, check these maptools out: http://rptools.net/doku.php. They don't look half bad. I know people that run D&D online using ventrilo and tools such as these. But hey, I suppose if you guys were serious about running an online game and wanted to use 4th edition rules, we might consider it. shrug. I think we should all just buy 3.5 rules and use free online software. shrug.

EDIT:

Ok, I’m up late and decided that I would do my Information Officer thing, a role I’m typically derelict in performing, and provide you guys with a litany of links intended to help the online role-playing gamer:

1. The hypertext version of D&D 3.5 supplementary resources http://www.d20srd.org/. Here is the official resources from WOTC: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35

2. http://www.rpghost.com/games/ Good resource page with freeware, etc.

3. http://www.rdinn.com/index.php An online community that may be worth investigating.

4. http://www.forsakenrealms.com/ A no frills chat program with dice roller. Screenshots available.

5. http://odp.myfreebulletinboard.com/inde ... /Software/ we may want to evaluate some of the software linked on this page.

6. http://www.kloogeinc.com/index.html It sort of looks like the folks at WOTC stole some ideas from this company’s product. The guys in the screenshot look pathetically gay and lame, but the screenies were impressive nonetheless. This may be worth considering. This really looks like the digital tools you would need to run a long distance table top game online. SB, you should read through the features section.

7. http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php

As you can see, I have not had a great deal of time to review this stuff. But if someone is willing, I’d split the workload of browsing through this stuff.

The 3.5 edition stuff is bound to be cheap, check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... 348&sr=8-2

so what is wrong with neverwinter nights 2??? i think if each person bought that it would be the cheapest and easiest way to get into it...

BTW - i used to run a campaign where i hosted up to 12 people, with folks on a list to get into my games...

There is nothing wrong with it I suppose. But I'm assuming NWN2 is a multiplayer video game; that is, does it allow you to make your own story lines and corresponding maps, terrain, character design etc? The benefit to a table top game is that the group playing, the DM and the players, actually write the story that unfolds during the process. Can you do that with NWN2?

NWN2 has a full blown map and mission editor, along with a DM client. The only real problem I see with going the NWN2 route, is that it requires a somewhat beefy computer/video card to run it at acceptable framerates. Well, that was at release, they may have optimized the code a bit since then, it's been a while since I have played NWN2. I would definately be willing to give NWN2 a try.

"make your own story lines and corresponding maps, terrain, character design etc"

yes - it certainly does. i have personally not tried to create one yet, but since it has a DM client that can intervene in the game real time, it has all the tools.

I tried making a module in NWN (the first one). Even with a handy dandy 3rd party script generator, it took MASS QUANTITIES of time. Not just a few hours. I worked on that thing for weeks - working out the dialogue trees, the scripts, the NPCs, the quests, and - no small task itself - playtesting the whole shebang and fixing bugs. When I finally gave up I had a module 'The Village of Eridani' with the titular village and an assortment of outlying areas (ruins w/a dungeon, a cave, a swamp, a temple) and enough quests to last for a couple of hours. Never could get the purple coolant to work.

Anyway, if the NWN2 requires that much time to get a module up and running... eek. Then again, maybe I was a little too ambitious.

I think I've still got it on my other PC if anyone should ever want to tackle it in it's incomplete state.

TD

could it be that creating a module for play without a DM might be much more difficult than one that will have a DM?

Dunno, never tried directly DMing one, but you'd still need to make the maps, exterior and interior, and it would seem some scripting would still be necessary for things like traps and secret doors. In NWN, even just the normal doors into and out of an inn, or the transition from one zone to another, all required considerable time to set up.

*Unless* such things are automated somehow in NWN2... or ya just used maps/modules made by other folks.

Eh. I could never do that in pen and paper DnD. I always made my own campaign worlds and adventures. Like THESE. And yep, I freely admit to ripping off anyone and everyone (not just Tolkien)! Calendal had Aliens (including facehuggers) and velociraptors and 4-armed 15' tall green Barsoomians.



TD

Steel's suggestion sounds like what we're looking for, relatively speaking. It sounds like NWN 2 does automate a lot of the stuff that Tach mentions above in a seperate client, at least that is what Steel seemed to suggest. Steel, is this so?

you can DM the stock campaign or any other module you download as well...

i downloaded some tutorials for the toolset last night, going to look at them to see how hard it might be. remember, most of D&D games are hack and slash and puzzles anyway. at least they usually start out simple like that, and then go from there.