Comments on: A GM’s First Impressions of D&D 4e: Looks Like Fun

By: Playing 4e: Initial Thoughts : Critical Hits

Playing 4e: Initial Thoughts : Critical Hits — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:52:40 +0000

[...] you hungry for a review? Check Martin Ralya’s over at Gnome Stew, mine will come later (in one form or [...]

By: How I stopped worrying and learned to love Dungeons & Dragons again « Total Party Kill

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:38:52 +0000

[...] personally blame Martin Rayla at Gnome Stew and his review of D&D 4e for my current foray into the addictive world of D&D again. I’ve been reading his stuff [...]

By: Ludus Novus :: The Space Beyond the Rules

Ludus Novus :: The Space Beyond the Rules — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:08:54 +0000

[...] versus the previous version of the game. I’ll spare you the details, as it’s been discussed ad absurdum elsewhere. It did get me thinking, though, about the role rules play in tabletop [...]

By: leemel08

leemel08 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:07:02 +0000

thanks for that great review, i might rethink how i feel about the new edition, becuase of your thoughtful well written review.

By: d3system » Onde ler sobre as novidades do D&D 4E?

d3system » Onde ler sobre as novidades do D&D 4E? — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:03:46 +0000

[...] inglês, vale uma olhada na completíssima resenha do Martin Ralya, no Gnome Stew. Para quem quer algo mais sucinto, não posso deixar de indicar minha recente [...]

By: hack/ » Blog Archive » D&D 4th Edition Reviews

hack/ » Blog Archive » D&D 4th Edition Reviews — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:53:28 +0000

[...] A GM's First Impressions of D&D 4e: Looks Like Fun [...]

By: Scott’s Corner » Blog Archive » 4e Month One: Links n Stuff organized

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:29:57 +0000

[...] Martin reviews 4e books in detail. An excellent review. Chris asks for playaids for 4e and mentions a few solutions. [...]

By: 4e Review: The DMG « King of the Nerds!!!

4e Review: The DMG « King of the Nerds!!! — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:01:01 +0000

[...] review of all the books, the DMG included, check out Martin Ralya’s review over at Gnome Stew, and for a decent overiew of the DMG I recommend Chatty’s review over at Chatty the DM. [...]

By: Asteroid » Blog Archive » Roleplaying industry predictions

Asteroid » Blog Archive » Roleplaying industry predictions — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:57:25 +0000

[...] you follow gaming at all, you know that the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has been released. As I suspected, the rules are, essentially, the rules that govern a video game captured in book [...]

By: Fourth Edition: Reviewed « Jonathan Drain's D20 Source: Dungeons & Dragons Blog

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:59:43 +0000

[...] Martin Ralya likes it, but misses gnomes [...]

By: 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Impressions | Popehat

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Impressions | Popehat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:38:27 +0000

[...] 4e is visibly stepping away from this. How far/far enough? Ezra was underwhelmed. But there are promising play experiences and reviews out there. From what I’ve seen impressions are generally [...]

By: DarthKrzysztof

DarthKrzysztof — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:37:42 +0000

I got the Original D&D vibe from 4E as well, and I consider that to be a good thing for reasons I don't fully understand yet. ; ) And I love tieflings, but I'm a Planescape fan, so that's no surprise. I dig WotC's rationalization for including them; I still prefer the older, less homogeneous version, but that's just fluff. The dragonborn are growing on me as well.

By: Omnus

Omnus — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:25:21 +0000

Having run both encounters of the Worldwide D&D Day (including the fun with that white dragon!) I have to say that 1) if you like rules calculated to give you every tactical advantage, hordes of resources to draw from for more munchkining, and rolling lots of dice, stick to your 3.x Edition, as there are matters in 4th that will drive you crazy (and I qualify for at least one of the above, as I love rolling all those dice from a well-placed meteor swarm). If you've left the game for a while (like back from 1st Edition), you may well like 4th Edition (the few attacks per round, and treating the game almost with wargame-like precision on the battlemat are a few things that commend it to these folks.) Newcomers to D&D will enjoy how easy it is to get started and participate meaningfully in each encounter. Overall, this is my assessment: 3.x = Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4th = Basic Dungeons and Dragons (remember those, anyone? The red, blue, aqua, black and gold books in their boxed sets? How I cut my teeth GMing, and still fondly remembered. If you're thinking of Bargle the Chaotic right now, cookie for you!). Neither one is clearly superior, they're just DIFFERENT. 4th has things moving in the right direction, but there's a clear hunger for MORE. Those 3.x books are still relevant, ind if you want near-infinite choices for customization, it's still the king of your world, and I think WotC is about to see the third-parties exploit it like nothing else (check out Paizo's Pathfinder for a take on 3.5). One last thing: in my mind, unless you wholesale hack out huge banks of material, 4th really needs a battlemat to run well. That's my assessment. Some people will be put out by it, but you can get by even with a whiteboard and dry-erase marker. It's not a crucial problem for most gamers.

By: Elonian Nomad - 3rd Strike » Blog Archive » Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Out Last Saturday

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:22:33 +0000

[...] + A GM’s First Impressions of D&D 4e: Looks Like Fun (Gnome Stew) [...]

By: Teaflax

Teaflax — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:45:20 +0000

I haven't looked at D&D since 1e, so I have no idea how new these things are, but I found the Dragonborn and Tiefling races awful and I simply can.not.understand why they broke the elegant and very clear alignment system - and made it look like Lawful Good is gooder than good and Chaotic Evil is more Evil than Evil (I personally find it to be exactly the other way around). Yes, I guess I can ignore the two races I don't like, but it seems an awful big chunk of the core rules to tell players they should overlook when making a character. And I just don't understand it, to me the core of (A)D&D should be about creating a very generic Fantasy world and then you can add your own touches and embellishments on top. But here they've come up with two races that have very few connections to what I consider to be Classic High Fantasy. I'm far from being an expert in the field, but can't think of a single one of the iconic Fantasy writers from Tolkien and Leiber via Moorcock and McCaffrey to Jordan, Eddings, Brooks, Vance et. al. that have dragon/human races or demon spawn (at least as protagonists and definitely not as common enough to be considered one of few core world races). That's almost bad enough for me not to make the plunge, but I'm teetering more on the positive side of the fence after reading the review.