| Well, folks, here we are at the end of the year -- and what a year, with the announcement of 4th Edition at Gen Con, the online transition of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, the beginnings of the D&D Insider functionality and website redesign (as well as the Alpha version of Gleemax.com launching). . . . A lot has been in the works, and there's a lot more still to come. With that in mind, the website team has expanded now to include Chris Thomasson, Bart Carroll, and Steve Winter, plus Mark Jindra (our esteemed and rapidly diminishing developer), as well as incredibly needed and appreciated help from Jeff Simpson (producing RPGA content) and Miranda Horner (our freelance editor extraordinaire). From all of us, we'd like to wish our fellow gamers a very happy holiday! We look forward to next year -- and to providing you with all the online content and support we possibly can! 
If you haven't seen it yet, Wizards is hosting a pretty spectacular holiday sale. If you pick up a Gargantuan Blue Dragon, you also get the Gargantuan Black Dragon -- free! There are more specials as well, for Star Wars Minis and Axis & Allies (that other game with an ampersand), over at wizards.com/holiday. December: Wizards Presents:Races and Classes  Yes, 4th Edition is coming -- mere months away at this point, with the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual set to release June 2008. What to read in the months leading up to 4E? This month's Wizards Presents: Races and Classes takes a behind-the-scenes look into the making of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons -- material that won't appear in the three core rulebooks!
Bill Slavicsek, R&D Director for Roleplaying Games, Miniatures, and Book Publishing, kicks off Races and Classes with an essay on the birth of a new edition, which answers the most fundamental questions: Why a new edition? When did the planning start? And what design goals does 4th Edition look to achieve? From there, Races and Classes showcases a wealth of the next edition's art, from concept to finished pieces, and takes a close look at how design decisions were made for the edition. There are also a fair number of secrets revealed, which we won't spoil here (unlike most excerpts, we're even holding off on issuing the Table of Contents beforehand) . . . but we will provide three spreads from the book's interior: - The Basics: Creating a New Logo, Orcus Design Tenets, Office Emails (600k PDF)
- Dwarves: Dwarven Alphabet, Surface-Dwelling Dwarves, Dwarf Women (155k PDF)
- Clerics: Class Role, Why We Changed the Gods, 3E vs. 4E Clerics (336k PDF)
We hope you enjoy Races and Classes, which offers a more extensive look at the making of the game than you'll find anywhere else. For instance, here are just a few notes to add on the above selections: Within Races and Classes, we wanted to provide deeper explanations -- beyond what design decisions were made -- by addressing the rationale behind them; we wanted to do more than just show which gods were changing, as broached by our Design & Development article on the subject, and explain why they were changed at all. We wanted to go over how it has long been thought that 3E clerics were considered the most powerful class (just take a look at Mike Mearls's design test answers), and give you an idea of what to expect of them in the new edition. We've also included some secrets behind 4th Edition as well. You may notice the topic of the Dwarven Alphabet was written by Daniel Reeve . . . the very same artist who penned the runes for the Lord of the Rings trilogy! D&D Insider These days, a host of preview information is coming your way via the online pages of D&D Insider's DragonMagazine. Issue #360 has been completed, and we're currently in the midst of #361 -- with the following topics scheduled to be revealed in December:
Races: Tieflings
Classes: Warlock Pacts
D&D World: History of the Core World
Monsters: Dragons and Dragon Families
Adventure Design: Traps
Magic Items: Weapons
Subsystem: Critical Hits and Misses Starting in January 2008, Dragon #362 will take a look at the following: Forgotten Realms: Using the Spellplague in your 3E campaign
Races: Elves and Eladrin
Classes: Warlord
Monsters: Minions
Adventure Design: Fantastic Terrain
Magic Items: Artifacts
D&D World: The Feywild
Subsystem: Death, Dying, and Negative HP What's to Come: 2008Needless to say, 2008 is going to be a very huge year for Dungeons & Dragons, and we are very excited at what's on the horizon. As I mentioned above, 4th Edition launches next year, with Keep on the Shadowfell coming in May, and the three core rulebooks -- the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual -- all releasing June 2008. For a firsthand look at the new edition in action, you might also consider attending the next D&D Experience, which takes place February 28th-March 2nd in Arlington, VA. Information for hotel reservations is already posted on the RPGA site. We hope to see you there! About the Author
Mat Smith is a copywriter who's been playing roleplaying games for a disturbing number of years, and used to spend an astonishing amount of time thinking about clever ways to get more people to do the same. Now, he's back to just playing the game 'cause it's fun. |