Geek in Review: Keeping the Borderlands Alive

December’s Geek in Review has been unleashed on an unsuspecting internet. It is all about Dungeons & Dragons, specifically … Fourth Edition [DUN DUN DUUUNNNNN!!!1]

Last week, I spent an entire day playing Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition with some of my friends. “Big whoop,” you say. “So did I.” Ah, but I played in Seattle. With Gabe and Tycho from Penny-Arcade. And Scott Kurtz from PVP. And, to really twist the +3 dagger in your back, our DM was Chris Perkins from Wizards of the Coast, who made an adventure specifically for us to play. For the crushed peanuts and maraschino cherry topping on this sundae of HAWESOME, I got to play a class from the unreleased Player’s Handbook 2. We recorded the entire session for a podcast, which will be released early next year.

Did I mention this class is unreleased? Because it was. I played a class that you haven’t seen yet. I just want to make sure I get full bragging mileage out of this. I posted a little bit about it on my blog and Twitter (I can’t go into specifics, for obvious reasons *cough* awesome unreleased class *cough*). I should not have been surprised (but I was) to find out that a lot of people seem to want to know what I think of D&D Fourth Edition.

And this bit is quoted here purely because it contains something that’s in my top five favorite things I’ve ever written …

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for 2d12 years. I remember when magic-users couldn’t wear armor, when edged weapons didn’t hurt skeletons, and even when an elf was a class. I have more polyhedral dice than [SOMETHING NORMAL PEOPLE HAVE A LOT OF]. I routinely tell my wife and friends that I have to “save vs. shiny” when I go to my friendly local game shop, and I didn’t realize that graph paper existed for a purpose other than making dungeons until I’d been in high school geometry for a semester…and even then, I remained skeptical.

The Geek in Review is at the Suicide Girls newswire, which is safe for work and doesn’t contain teh horror of teh boobies, but viewing it at work is likely to trip filters and get you a visit from your friendly IT guys.

Hey, at least you’ll be able to talk D&D with them when they show up, right? Make sure you tell them that you were warned by me, Wil Wheaton, who got to play a brand new class from the unreleased PHB2 last week.

Afterthought: I’m proud of this article, and if you think it’s worthy, I’d love it if you’d Propel it, upvote it at Reddit, or Digg it. Muchas gracias, mis amigos.

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51 thoughts on “Geek in Review: Keeping the Borderlands Alive”

  1. Hey, person who is actually commenting on my blog! I’m talking to you:
    Thank you. Until I figure out a way to make mountains of shiny gold rocks out of the time I put into my blog, the only currency I really have is interaction with people like you who take the time to comment. I may not always respond, but I read every single thing everyone says, and it matters to me.
    So, instead of adding the following bit to my post, I’m putting it into this comment, as a way of sharing something with those of you who actually bother to click through from RSS and make the effort to interact with me and the rest of the gang here.
    What follows was in the first draft, but was ultimately cut because I couldn’t make it fit when I was moving the column from “This sucks” to “This is awesome.”
    I put my Xmas Muzak + Roq of the 80s playlist on iTunes shuffle and sat at my desk, making notes and figuring out the smartest way to buy my stats (I’ve always preferred the 4d6 throw away lowest roll method of character creation, but for this particular character I needed to use the 4E point-buying method, which is more complicated but takes chance entirely out of the process.) I tinkered with numbers and stats for a while, but something didn’t feel quite right.
    “Ah, I know what’s wrong,” I thought to myself. I collected my PHB, my dice, my notes, my mechanical pencil (my mechanical pencil!) and I moved to the floor. “Yeah, this is the right way to do this. This is where the magic happens.”
    Everything began to come together, and I realized that, unlike when I was 13, I was building a character that followed an internal logic, a character that wasn’t min-maxed. My reasoning at one point went something like this: His charisma is only 10, which doesn’t give a bonus, but he’s a striker so those points needed to go into strength. He has low charisma because he’s arrogant and that puts people off. Hey, he’s an Eladrin and he spent fifty years studying [redacted] at [redacted] so his social skills are a little lacking. It’s like a football player who is tough but not particularly smart.
    While I worked on creating this guy, who goes by the code name MacAwesome, he became much more than a collection of stats on a character sheet…
    Fun Fact: It’s actually possible to translate “MacAwesome” into the Eladrin language I made up.
    Anyway, I hope that was worth the time it took to read it. Thanks for stopping by.

  5. I’ve just recently started DMing in 4th edition and am finding it great. Having to modify quite a few things for my players. (Almost killed them once..oops.) It’s still enjoyable. I have a lot of tools to make DMing EASY in the micromanagement so I can get right to the FUN part of developing fights, setting rooms up so my players can be inventive with the environment (already happened once, found it cool as hell) and simply so everyone can have fun, not just be the DM who enjoys watching their players go squish.
    I also want to reccomend for everyone reading this and wil himself some new geektacular dice I was linked to.
    http://www.gamescience.com/home
    The guy knows his dice. It’s like a physics nerd and science nerd had a strange child who liked D&D.

  6. Great post. I’ve chewed through the Wizards podcasts they had when the Penny Arcade guys played D&D.
    Can’t wait to hear yours.
    Why “released early next year” though? Dude just put it out on RFB!

  7. I almost always click through to read other people’s comments, although until now I have not made any comments of my own: since you addressed me so directly, though, I felt compelled to express my appreciation for extra BONUS INFORMATION! I was always intimidated by the note that said I had to *SHOCK HORROR* register but OpenID ftw.

  9. Studying all of the time and being way too arrogant garners a maximum CHR of 9. I say this as an expert in the subject who knows way more than you do.

  10. I’m an AD&Der since ’79. Some of my most enjoyable characters (because they sucked and it was fun not to care) were rolled 3d6 in order of ability! Class was chosen based on highest ability score. This was most fun when I was in high school (late eighties) and hanging around geeks who had a better grasp of the “role” part of role playing. It became less about the dice and figures, and more about the role. If you rolled a three on strength, everybody had to carry you to the next challenge. A three intelligence and you were expected to trip every trap and tripwire. Death was assured, and eagerly anticipated.

  12. /waves at you from the frozen north
    That is so neat you got to play a Seekrit class. I know nothing about D&D and still recognize the awesome there.

  14. You make me nostaglic for my gaming days! I started gaming before AD&D had the A, then continued it all the way through college. Unfortunately, after graduation I never found another group to game with, and now (after 20ish years) I figure I’ve fallen too far behind in knowing Teh Rulz. So I’ll just enjoy vicariously through you. 🙂

  15. Any chance Penny Arcade could make one of those gaming sessions an item at next year’s Child’s Play Charity Dinner Auction? 🙂
    Not that I’ve actually played D&D… ever. I was a Palladium guy; a group of us in college once played for 44 hours for charity. Stressing the “once”, there. One non-geek guy didn’t take us seriously though and sponsored me £1.76 per hour. His face was a picture when I went to collect 🙂
    On rolling dice or point buying, I guess it’s whether you’ve got a preference for challenging role-playing or creating a character you can really empathise with. As a writer, I know that it’s difficult to weave a convincing, exciting plot if you can’t get behind your characters, 100%. On the other hand, having to play that “strong but dumb as a sack of rocks” character because the dice wouldn’t roll higher than a six on INT really pushes you out of your comfort zone and lets you see the world from a different point of view. Unless you are actually strong but dumb as a sack of rocks. Then it just becomes a busman’s holiday, really.
    And being optimistic, does anyone fancy running myself and any other interested n0.. vir… uhhh, beginners through a game? There are some virtual tables available to save on airfares, etc 🙂
    http://d20.jonnydigital.com/2008/10/play-dungeons-dragons-online-with-gametable

  16. Great article… much like you, i’ve gamed for many years of my 33 year old life… and I love 4E. Recently ran my first 4E session (first session of any type ever) and it was a ton of fun. I also played WoW for about a year, and parallels to how WoW handled group combat can be drawn… but this isn’t a bad thing. If anything the biggest PvE content in WoW (end-game raiding) emulates DnD. 10 or 25 players get together, march into the home of the biggest baddies, and unite to overcome them. That said, I’m loving 4E, can’t wait for the podcasts, and the PH2 of course. I’m a big fan, and thanks for an excellent article!

  17. I am a long time gamer girl, been playing D&D and other RPGs since 1982. 4th edition’s an okay game, but its not really Dungeons and Dragons.
    I still game with the same groups of friends, and we still try to have fun – but I am finding this to be an entirely different game, and not altogether a good one. I am not sure why they had to change every aspect of the game system;some of the names are the same but the rules and mechanics are not. They let you keep your dice and gave you a new character sheet, they kept levels and experience, but they took the game and gave back something very much like a paper version of a video game with a strange embedded cardgame subvariant.
    Feats are a concept they stuck into 3rd edition/carried over to 4th. I unabashedly hate feats. I either ignore them entirely, which annoys the GM, or I take the ones that permanently change some attribute of my character – like an initiative modifier, or a constitution score, so I can write it down and ignore it. The rest is just fluff and paperwork – which bogs down play for me – and I hate it.
    Magic items are pretty worthless now – not really interested in an item that will give me an additional +1 to my jump/climb/athletics check. Spiderclimb items don’t let you spiderclimb – they only give you a slightly better chance to climb – if you roll high enough. If my climbing skill sucks, the spiderclimb slippers are not going to help. Rope works better. Waterwalking only gives you the ability to wander out atop the water until the end of your move – when you submerge and swim or begin to drown. I can drown just fine without magic, thank you. I will use a boat instead. You can still get + 1 weapons/armor, those are really the only things worth having. The rest of the items – you could just rip the pages out of the book, they are not worth the trouble. Magic is no fun now. None for me thanks.
    Healing surges are an interesting idea – but they have pinioned the healers to only being able to heal 2x/encounter – and that’s great if you have a group of only 3 people gaming, and only if the non-clerics each need to be fixed up only once in combat and only if they have any healing surges left. Even healing potions rely on your surges – except the really really expensive ones. That’s more cardgame+tokens than I’d like, shades of magic the gathering. If you do not meet each and every part of that criteria – you are dead or you have to go sit that combat out at the bottom of the discard pile and stop having fun until everyone agrees to go back to the campsite/inn/half collapsed cave to take a nap and start again the next day. Diety forfend some wandering monster come to eat you during the night. Its a whole lot of paperwork just to keep the game fun. The whole point of the game is to have fun, right?

  18. I just started playing D+D with my daughter and her boyfriend. So much fun. I hadn’t touched dice in ten years and it was like slipping on an old pair of shoes. Perfect.
    WWdN in Exile is one of the very few blogs I frequent daily. I wait for Wil to post on Twitter then click through to read. I only have so much time in my day so I have to be picky.
    And Wil, you always make it worth my time.

  19. I’m a 31-year-old mom (yes, I gave my age! shocking!), and I’m a total nOOb to D&D. My hubby’s been playing for years, and when we moved to a new town where we knew we had gamer friends already there, he decided to start a 4E campaign and DM for the first time. So, I’ve actually started my entire D&D experience with 4E, and I absolutely love it! I admit to trying 3.5 once, and I couldn’t get over all the math involved. I don’t think that experience counts because it was just my husband and I, while he tried out his DMing skills for the fist time. What’s made it even more special for him (besides having his wife play) is the fact that he’s set the entire thing in Eberron, which is his favorite campaign setting ever. Of course, nothing’s officially come out for Eberron in 4E, yet, but that’s okay. I think he’s enjoying the challenge. We’ve had combats on flying airships and the lightening rail! It’s been awesome. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the special “bonus material” you’ve provided for us regulars, and I’m glad you’re really enjoying the new edition. And the entire column is just HAWSOME.

  20. I adore 4e. Less math. More fun. I was resistant to the change at first. And at the sight of the cards my friends had printed out for our various powers and items, I did perhaps scream, “I am not here to play frelling Magic.” But oh god, how they make keeping track of things so much easier.
    And that’s what I’ve found from 4e in general. The rules and game play allow for combat and challenge resolutions to play out smoothly. This means very little time with my head stuck in a book looking up an obscure rule. Which makes for more fun.
    I am utterly jealous of you getting a play a super secret as yet to be named class. Jealous.
    And you made up an Eladrin language? Jeesh, you mean you didn’t just use Quenya or Sindarin? Or even a little Sperethial?
    Hello, this is my geek flag. Watch it fly.

  21. I lost it as soon as I read save vs. shiny and almost burst out in the middle of my quiet, quiet office at 8 in the morning. My rumbling thought-train jumped the tracks in roughly this order:
    – save vs.: current glee from listening to the Penny Arcade D&D session recorded last summer.
    – shiny: last nights enjoyable romp through a few episodes of Firefly where THEY would have named their D&D character “MacShiny”, or some combination of Mandarin curse words.
    – Nathan Fillon: who is hilarious as both Malcolm Reynolds and as Captain Hammer.
    – **EDIT**: Ok I might have spent some time in consideration of Morena Baccarin (Inara). So sue me!
    – Dr. Horrible: which I might add is releasing in Canada on Dec 31st according to Amazon.
    – Blu-Ray: And it has better damn well release on Blu-Ray too.
    – ZZZZ: At that point I took a short nap.
    Personally, I have only played D&D once and I recall being really bad at it. But it didn’t matter at all since it was a great excuse to spend a whole night eating pizza and dishing out sass to close friends. Good times!
    And stop rubbing your good fortune in our faces! I suggest the shoulders; I’ve been pretty tense this holiday season and could use it.

  22. Dude, I was so stoked to read the column last night over my iPhone! I remember sending you the tweet about wanting a full report, and then you wrote one! And you know what’s so cool about that?
    Because that interaction totally crystallized why I enjoy reading your writing, and your comment just cemented it. It’s not just that you have interesting things happening in your life or know interesting* people — sure, that kind of thing is always cool to read, because it’s an insight into someone else’s life. It’s not just because we’re both creative geeks in LA and thus our social circles overlap at the veryfar edges, and it’s cool to see the occasional acquaintance or place in common mentioned. In someone else’s hands, those kinds of posts would rapidly get boring and begin to look like name-dropping and insecure posturing.
    What I enjoy about your writing is that you not only have and do these awesome things — but that you’re not telling them to make yourself look better, or cooler, but because you are just so utterly stoked about them, and genuinely want to share your excitement at the new awesome things with your fellow geeks. You totally appreciate the cool and interesting things you get to do, and don’t take them for granted. You take the time to be accessible and interact with your readers, via blog comments, Twitter, and doing things like writing up reports on your take on 4E. That kind of genuineness and authenticity is so rare in this town; and it totally comes through in your writing.
    So thanks for the super-sekrit comment for the regulars. 😉
    *Also… ‘interesting.’

  23. I can’t wait for the podcast!!! I just finished the first 8 episodes Penny Arcade recorded for Wizards of the Coast, and had my wife listen to them to get a great idea on how the game is played. Now we pretty much play every second night… For those who have NOT heard them and are looking to break into the game and learn the new twists of 4e .. download them and take the time to listen to them on your iPods. They’re both informative, and incredibly entertaining!
    So, i’m TOTALLY looking forward to hearing the game with you in it, Wil!!!!
    And erm… PHB2!
    And erm… The new Class…
    And erm… To use it…
    Avandra be with you, Wil!

  25. Haven’t played PnP D&D in years; last I played, 3e wasn’t even out yet. Now, especially after reading this article, I’m feeling The Pull. Facebook has gotten me back in touch with a majority of my crew from the day. May have to at least pull out the old books (of course, I saved them) and maybe price the new ones…. Thx Wil.

  26. >…and even when an elf was a class.
    Ok, I’ve been playing since the original D&D set and it’s 3 companions(Men and Magic, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, etc) and I don’t ever remember Elf being a class. Was that some simplication in the Blue book starter set?
    I haven’t played since the first rev of AD&D. Version 2 left me cold and I sort of phased out of role playing into board games. I’ve heard good things about 4E, but the original D&D had something that seems to have been lost over the years, which is rarity in characters. Getting a Paladin, Ranger, or Monk was really something back in the original system. Ever since Unearthed Arcana’s optional systems, anyone can be anything it seems like. It removed some of the coolness when someone rolled one or you hired an NPC monk and he could do some cool things your party couldn’t.

  27. Re the entire article: I have to agree with you wholeheartedly about the DMG being a valuable resource.
    Also, I cannot sufficiently express my delight over the combat-encounter building system in 4th edition. I was not only never able to get the hang of it in 3.5, I am still not entirely convinced the process is sufficiently explained in the 3.5 core rulebooks. I was active in RPGA for a few years and got to co-author a couple of Living Greyhawk modules, and as awesome as that was I still thoroughly dreaded having to build the fights ’cause I never felt like I knew what I was doing. 4th edition gives you a much simpler system, and I finally feel like I might be able to build a campaign from scratch and run it successfully.

  28. As I posted on Digg, the original celebrity podcasts were awesome. Adding Wil to the mix turns them into +6 Vorpal Podcasts of Hawesome. I am a-quiver with anticipation.
    The only thing that could make them better would be video. However, such pure unadulterated win is too powerful for mortal (or heroic, or even paragon) eyes.
    And, the bandwidth usage would likely bring teh interwebs to its knees.

  30. I only played DnD once and was bored out of my mind. This was 25+ years ago, tho. But most of your other nerdiness is much like mine, so here’s a comment for you.

  31. I’ve been enjoying reading your posts about D&D lately, especially since we’ve just introduced my husband’s eldest daughter to the game and she is chomping at the bit to continue the campaign. It’s a lot of fun to be sharing something with her that we have had so much fun with, even though it makes me feel a little old to realize she wasn’t born when the red books came out!

  33. Heck ya Will!
    Nothing like some D&D after a couple pints of Guinness! Or during for that matter…
    If you like D&D, then I’ll have a trailer to show you soon….I’ll keep ya posted.
    🙂

  34. Re: JDK
    KotB is a little pricey at full list, but via Amazon it’s not so bad.
    And, even at full price, where else can six adults get a good twenty hours of entertainment for $30? Especially if the group splits the price. Calculate the price per person-hour of entertainment, and it’s hard to complain.

  38. You know, I bought the 4E books, but haven’t really read through them. Reading your article reminds me that I really should do that. Maybe then the next playing experience won’t suck so badly!

  40. My mates and I were tempted by 4e to get back into some ‘old school’ dungeon crawls but reading the combat rules put us off. Instead we’ve opted for “Dragon Warriors” from Mongoose Publishing. It’s a re-release of a 80s British rpg with a great dark ages flavour. The difference between the two systems is summed up nicely in a quote from the DW book “if D&D were a fantasy film it’d be directed by George Lucas, Dragon Warriors would be directed by Guillermo Del Toro”.
    Yeah, sad news to read of Majel Barrett-Rodenbery’s passing. It’ll make hearing her voice in the new trek film bitter sweet.

  41. Wil, Just wondering if you had any stories about majel barrett roddenberry? I personally had a big crush on lwaxana(and I’m only 23) but man her death yesterday was a really big deal to me.

  42. Second the idea about a story or 2 about Majel if you happen to have them…
    Haven’t played a good game of D&D in years. Unfortunately, a combination of a toddler son, lousy job, and all extra time and $$ being SUCKED away by M:TG- they don’t lend to a lot of good gaming time. I am, however, waiting un-patiently (sic) for the podcast of your adventure to be available.
    BTW… know where I can get the Dark Tower sounds as .wav files? I want to use them as my Windows default sounds… they are PERFECT. LOL.

  43. Any idea what “early next year” means in terms of a release date?
    I assume this podcast was meant to publicize the release of PHB2, which according to Amazon comes out March 17th.
    If you played for 10 hours that probably means around 8-10 episodes? Released weekly and ending say March 14th (friday before the book comes out) that would put the first episode somewhere between January 25th and February 8th?
    I hope we don’t have to wait that long. The first series launched just a week before 4th edition hit shelves…so hopefully that doesn’t mean we won’t see this one until march. That would just be cruel.
    The last podcast really has me wishing I had someone to play D&D with. I’ve never really known anyone who played, except one guy I played paintball with. He offered to let me join their AD&D game but I had no idea what it was and had only a vague notion that “D&D was for dorks”…which is ironic because I AM a dork.

  44. When some of the fellow D&D vets and I got to chatting online about B2 some time ago, this somehow came out of my fingers (to the refrain of Madonna’s “Borderline”)
    Borderlands,
    I’m fightin’ goblins off with both hands,
    You just keep on turning zombies,
    Keep on the Borderlands!
    (Borderlands!)

  45. So sad to hear about the loss of Majel Barrett Roddenberry yesterday. Wil…any memories you could share would be much appreciated because i’m sure she was an amazing person. I’m off to find a TNG Lwaxana Troi episode to watch.

  46. Just wanted to say thanks, as another reader is is now starting to put a group together because of your recent posts/links. Eagerly anticipating the fun. Thanks again!

  47. (I coulda swore I posted lasted night- sorry if this is a double due to some noobish mistake.)
    Just wanted to add my thanks for reawakening my love of DnD. Haven’t played since college (86-ish), but am now putting together a group at work- some experienced and some new players. I can’t wait.
    Thanks again, Wil!

  50. Heh. I *am* one of the friendly IT guys that’d come visit – except I’d see the sublink and wouldn’t do more than send a note saying “if you’re reading the article, you better post in his blog” 🙂 Glad you enjoyed, and you make me want to play D&D again — but I have to relearn everything. Eeek.

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