For miniature wargaming I've acquired a few things over the last month. I picked up a unit of Savage Orcs at 50% off and this week I picked up two of my favorite Games Workshop recent releases, the Ork Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun and the Ork Trukk. I really like the greenskin models both in Fantasy and 40K. They have a lot of character and humor in them, probably moreso than any other army in the Warhammer universe.
D & D 4th Edition got released, and I've had a chance to look through the Player's Handbook a little bit. There are plenty of reviews on the internet that go into more detail than I can. I was a little underwhelmed by the character creation process. It's been simplified quite a bit, perhaps too much. Multi-classing is gone, as are a lot of Feats and abilities that were present in 3.5 and allowed players to make characters with some variety. It feels like each class has only a few viable options and paths to take, so every class is going to be one of two different branches and have extremely similar powers. Gnome PCs are gone, as are Half-Orcs. They've been replaced by Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Eladrin. The Dragonborn are pretty cool and Tieflings are moderately interesting, but with Eladrin, Elves, and Half-Elves all being playable races the Elven races are extremely over-represented. I'd like to have Half-Orcs back. Druids aren't in the book, but the Wizards website promises that they'll be in a future sourcebook. Rangers lost their ability to have animal companions, which is annoying, although the Wizards site also mentions that perhaps a future feat will give them the option to obtain one. Barbarians also didn't make the cut. Overall it seems like a lot of fun options were cut from the last edition to make the game more accessible to the lowest denominator. But I wonder if I feel that way just because there aren't any sourcebooks outside of the three core books on the market at the moment. Wizards promises to release approximately 3.2 million D & D sourcebooks per year, so I'm sure character variety will be opened up to players with the pocketbook to absorb the cost. I guess we'll see how it all works out. The new combat system is a lot less frustrating to sort out, so that's a good thing.
I guess this is the week that we find out the gender of our kid as long as the necessary plumbing is visible in the ultrasound. I still think it should be a surprise for when the kid is born, but that's not a battle I'm going to win.
D & D 4th Edition got released, and I've had a chance to look through the Player's Handbook a little bit. There are plenty of reviews on the internet that go into more detail than I can. I was a little underwhelmed by the character creation process. It's been simplified quite a bit, perhaps too much. Multi-classing is gone, as are a lot of Feats and abilities that were present in 3.5 and allowed players to make characters with some variety. It feels like each class has only a few viable options and paths to take, so every class is going to be one of two different branches and have extremely similar powers. Gnome PCs are gone, as are Half-Orcs. They've been replaced by Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Eladrin. The Dragonborn are pretty cool and Tieflings are moderately interesting, but with Eladrin, Elves, and Half-Elves all being playable races the Elven races are extremely over-represented. I'd like to have Half-Orcs back. Druids aren't in the book, but the Wizards website promises that they'll be in a future sourcebook. Rangers lost their ability to have animal companions, which is annoying, although the Wizards site also mentions that perhaps a future feat will give them the option to obtain one. Barbarians also didn't make the cut. Overall it seems like a lot of fun options were cut from the last edition to make the game more accessible to the lowest denominator. But I wonder if I feel that way just because there aren't any sourcebooks outside of the three core books on the market at the moment. Wizards promises to release approximately 3.2 million D & D sourcebooks per year, so I'm sure character variety will be opened up to players with the pocketbook to absorb the cost. I guess we'll see how it all works out. The new combat system is a lot less frustrating to sort out, so that's a good thing.
I guess this is the week that we find out the gender of our kid as long as the necessary plumbing is visible in the ultrasound. I still think it should be a surprise for when the kid is born, but that's not a battle I'm going to win.
you should take me on a ride when you get it. That would be awesome. By the way Happy Fathers Day!
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