I keep hearing that there’s still confusion in the community about the nature of the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game. The question at the top of this column is the wrong question. It isn’t an “either/or” question.

The earth is still round, the sun is still the center of the solar system, wizards still cast fireballs, and D&D 4th Edition is still a tabletop roleplaying game. Really.

We love the analog world. We love physical products and interacting in person with our gaming groups. We love books and miniatures and dice and dungeon tiles and maps and frosty beverages and snacks and … well, everything related to sitting around a table and playing D&D with our friends. It’s not only what we do professionally, it’s our hobby and our passion.

These things are not going away. I’ve got the D&D R&D schedule right here in front of me, and it shows that we’re working on at least one hardcover D&D game product every month for the length of this very long spreadsheet (we’re talking years here). It shows three sets of D&D Miniatures booster packs every year. It shows adventures, supplements, accessories, and Dungeon Tiles coming out on a regular and frequent basis—all of which will be on sale at your brick-and-mortar, real-world game, hobby, comic, and book stores (as well as other places) each and every month.

Why the confusion, then? Probably because there’s so much information flying around that it’s often hard to see the goblin in the cave full of bugbears. With D&D Insider, we're offering an optional online component to 4th Edition D&D. It consists of magazine content, player aids, Dungeon Master tools, and a D&D Game Table that allows you to play the pen-and-paper D&D game over the Internet. These features are in addition to our regular selection of analog products. They don’t replace them.

I’m going to say that again: D&D Insider does not replace our analog products. Insider is an additional component meant to enhance your D&D experience. D&D 4th Edition is online and tabletop.

Can you play D&D over the Internet using the tools available with D&D Insider? Absolutely. Can you play D&D in person, around a table, with your real-world friends? Absolutely. We’re not eliminating options here; we’re adding more ways to interact with the hobby we love. It’s your choice. We fully expect that, for many people, the way to play D&D will continue to be your regularly scheduled face-to-face game, supplemented with additional games on the D&D Game Table. For others, it will be all analog, all the time. Some groups will even go the all-Internet route due to preference, or because they don’t have access to an analog game group.

More options, more choices, more D&D play.

The other issue that seems to have caused a stir revolves around the conversion of characters from 3rd Edition rules to 4th Edition rules. There are a few key concepts that need to be made crystal clear so that everyone understands them.

First, 4th Edition D&D is still powered by the d20 System. At its core, if you know how to play 3rd Edition D&D you’re going to know how to play 4th Edition.

Second, this is a new game. It uses all of the trappings of the current d20 System, but it approaches all of the rules from a new and exciting perspective. That means that while you’ll know how to make attack rolls, skill checks, and damage rolls (the broad concepts), you won’t necessarily know all of the nuances of the fighter class or the arcane power source, or the death and dying rules (the details).

Third, we can’t physically replicate eight years of products and options right out of the gate. It just can’t happen.

With these things in mind, straight-up character conversion won’t be possible. As James Wyatt so eloquently expressed it, however, you’ll have no problem expressing the concept and story of your 3rd Edition character within the framework of 4th Edition. As we’ve seen during playtesting, in many ways the new rules allow you to better match the rules to the character concept you had in mind than the 3E rules ever did.

In essence, using the 4th Edition rules, you’ll be able to rebuild your character around the same concept and backstory as before, but there won’t be a magic formula that says, “change this number to that number” or “this power to that power.”

Next time, maybe I’ll get to telling you about a typical day for me here at the office ... or we’ll talk about something more pertinent and interesting.
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DF