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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@Michael: Holy cow, Lou Zocchi is still around! I’m glad to know that 🙂
Back when I lived in Mobile, AL (ca. 1991-ish), a friend and I used to drive 2 hours over to his store in Mississippi. It was a dusty metal building, with 15′ ceilings, and shelves almost that high, stocked with tons of games, books, toys, and other merchandise loosely associated with fantasy/sci-fi gaming. I remember he had an old TRS-80 Model 2(?) behind the counter. And a PC on which he showed us how he would tool around with the geometry for his polyhedral dice designs. Remember the Zocchihedron?
I had read that the old GameScience store had changed hands, then later shut down. But it’s good to know that Zocchi himself is still doing his thing.
Wil: I’m jealous that you have time for gaming. I started with D&D when I was in jr. high, in the early 80’s. Then in the early/mid 90’s I got to game a lot — I was a bachelor and one of my best friends owned a game store. AD&D, GURPS, Earthdawn, and even a flirtation with Vampire: the Masquerade. Plus tons of board games and of course the birth and explosion of CCGs (I made a nice profit when I sold out my 1st edition Magic: the Gathering stock). I miss all that. But we’ve got a son with special needs, and family comes first. Anyhow, as long as you have time for gaming now and then, just remember that you’ve got it good 😉