Essentials. D&D 4, Phase 2.

I picked up the new Essentials book, Heroes of the Fallen Lands, yesterday.  I'll pick up the Rules Compendium a bit later.  First I want to see is Essentials is the way to go for D&D4.  So far it looks like it is.

There is a lot going on in HotFL.  First there is a thin meta-plot running through all the new D&D books; once the world was great and powerful, but now great kingdoms have fallen and the world is slowly emerging from darkness.  It is a neat idea, but to do it in my own games I'd figure out what exactly happened.  I like what WotC did with the Realms, maybe I'll try something like that. It is like Blackmoor after the global shift, or Krynn after the Cataclysm or even Greyhawk after the Rain of Colorless Fire.  But until then let's talk about what I do have and so far that is just HotFL and the "Red Box". HotFL picks up where the Red Box leaves off, but one can start here as well.

HotFl gives us four classes, Cleric, Fighter, Rough and Wizard.  There are "builds" for each, which remind me a lot of the old 2nd Ed AD&D "kits". All the classes have a build and the Fighter has two, Knight and Slayer.  The Cleric/War Priest also has two Domains (from 3rd and 4th Ed).  So my first reaction is that this D&D is trying invoke memories of older editions.   The next book in the line, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, gives more classes, druids, paladin, ranger (with two builds),  and the warlock. So I am certainly going to pick that up.  The roles (striker, defender, leader and controller) are still around, but their role seems a bit diminished.  In fact they are only mentioned in terms of what they do in combat, not much else.

There is some recycled art here, that is fine, and some new art as well. The big thing here is how the rules have been re-laid out.  Melee and Ranged attacks are presented now in the same format as an "at-will" power.  While not exactly, it is good to see this.  Also included are bull rush, attacks of opportunity and grab.  Brings everything inline nicely.

The main races are still here.  There is still the Eladrin-Elf split and Halflings look more and more like Kender everyday, but this should please most everyone except for the gnome fans.  Races get a bonus to one stat and a choice of a second stat.  Seems ok to me.  Makes the races a touch more flexible I think.

In general character creation is streamlined and made easy.  Now like many old-time players I never had an issue with D&D character creation in any edition, but there is a new level of clarity here that I really like.  Alignments are more streamlined, though they are the same as the D&D4 PHB ones.  I do miss "Chaotic Good" and "Lawful Evil" I just don't miss the dogmatic adherence to them.  I like that my devils are now "Evil" instead of "Always Lawful Evil".   There are some more bits on fleshing out your character's personality, but this is D&D not Vampire the Masquerade.  The section on the Gods seems the least changed.  

There is an entire chapter on Powers. Great detail is gone into what powers are, how they work and what happens with them.  A greater distinction is made now between Martial powers and magical ones.  Obviously this is get at the criticisms of "why can my rogue only do this once per day?"
The four classes make up the bulk of the book.  Again I see many similarities here with 2nd Ed AD&D with it's Classes and sub-classes and kits.  So you can be a Fighter, but the type of fighter you are is either a Slayer or a Knight.  Yes Slayers and Knights can also use each other's exploits (Martial based powers).  The powers again a clearer and better explained.

Races come after the classes, which might seem a bit backwards to many, but I'll go with it.  Other than some changes to their bonuses they are mostly the same, even the same art for the most part.  Skills and feats are likewise only tweaked here and there.
There is some equipment listed as well.  But no rituals.

What strikes me most is how much care and attention has been given to re-writes.  Sure there will be many that look as Essentials and say they have all this stuff. And for the most part that is true.  But there is enough changed here and presented in such an ordered fashion that to me at least it was solidly worth the 20 bucks.  It is also a great idea as a gift to that non-roleplaying friend that wonders what it is you do all the time.

So who is this for?

D&D4 has some problems it must overcome first.  The biggest is who should play it followed by why should they choose this over some other game.

The first part is easy really.  The game is aimed at all players.  While the Red Box is firmly aimed at starting players or lasped players, Essentials is for everyone past the Red Box stage.

But that is not Essentials biggest issue.  Essentials is now fighting for a market that is populated by Pathfinder, OSR books (which is still not a majority by any stretch of the imagination) and most of all D&D 4.  Yes, Essentials biggest rival is it's own older brother.

(yes that binder is full (almost) of errata.  What would rather have, a company that never put out errata or one that puts out too much? It also has my favorite bits of various third party products.)

I think it is obvious that Wizards would love to see all "D&D" players, regardless of current system come back and try D&D 4 again, via the Essentials line.  And I also think that their work has been earnest.   I still think that D&D4 is one of the most well designed games of the last 10 years.  By the way, in case you are keeping score, Essentials was released almost 10 years later to the day as D&D 3.0.

While I am not quite crazy enough to suggest this, but I would think it would be nice if the members of the OSR gave D&D4 Essentials a try.  Of course I tell D&D 4 players that they need to play 1st ed AD&D and/or try out one of the clones all the time too.

(the Heir Apparent?)

In the end I give the new D&D 4 credit.  They seemed to have learned from past errors and they have listened to the fans and have tried to build a D&D4 that appeals to most.  Sure some people will hate it, there always are people like that, but I think that if you liked D&D 4 you should like this.

If you want to read more about the new direction for 4e, there is an interview at The Escapist with Mike Mearls.