What happend to D&D?

Dungeons and Dragons: a name that is deeply etched in the bible of nerd culture. Sleepless nights, 20-sided dice, and Cheetos are commonly associated with the original role playing game. But this is not a story about those things; this is a story about war, controversy, and an undying love for nerd culture.

As time goes on, products evolve. Dungeons and Dragons is no exception to this rule, they have consistently revised and relaunched the game over the last few decades, but to make changes to a game that so many hold so close to their hearts is a very delicate job. This has never been more of an issue then it is right now with the recent release of 4th Edition,  and the drastic consequences it has brought to an already divided fan base.

"The resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons in the 21st century is in relation to another growing trend. The Nerd Hero was heavily played in the 80's, which was also the last major time for DND. The 90's was more Jock Hero, and thus DND fell out of favor. But now, in the 21st century, we see a rise in the Nerd Hero again. With this rise in Nerd Culture, DND rose in popularity, its still pretty cult but it has certainly expanded," explains Alex Frid, a local Dungeon Master at Humber College.

The Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition rule set was the most popular tabletop role-playing game of all time. Almost all of the game’s fans had migrated to it and were happily rolling dice and slaying monsters with their friends. But, as anything good thing does, that happiness seems to have abruptly come to an end, replaced with flame wars and internet bickering. What happened? Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition happened.

Lets take a step back, its 1974. The original Dungeons and Dragons had just been released, a small three book set inside of a white box. It did all right in the stores, but lack of experience by the writers caused the rulebooks to be sloppy and confusing, something that gamers are surprisingly uptight about. In 1977 a new set, titled Basic Dungeons and Dragons, was introduced into the market. This set had cleaned up and clarified the rules, and was in a box suitable for toy store deployment. Then, only one year later, an update of the game came out called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The game went through several more reincarnations throughout the years, but the company was loosing steam quickly and had been out of the game for almost 5 years. It was 1997 and it had been decided that Wizards of the Coast would acquire the company. Three years went by, and then, all of a sudden, Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition was released in 2000, and then revised to 3.5 in 2003. This was the real start of the Dungeons and Dragons we play today.

Now there is a new kid on the block, and they call it Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Released back in August of 2007, the newest edition of the game has been steadily gaining popularity, and infamy. A topic of popular debate amongst internet forums and groups of friends is the massive difference between the 4th Edition and 3.5. With the 3.5 rule set the company set out to make the most immersive role-playing experience ever, with a comprehensive skill set that allowed your character to do anything you desired and become whoever you want. Unfortunately, this kind of game took hours to just create your character and only the really hardcore gamers really bought into it. Wizards of the Coast were not happy about this, so they decided to make their product a little more user friendly. That mindset has brought us 4th edition, a more battle-oriented, streamlined, and overall easier accessible game.

“The truth is, I have not yet played 4th Edition. But I will explain the differences from what I understand, 3.5 is very math heavy,” comments Alex Frid. “Sometimes I think you need a masters in algebra just to get your basic stats. However, anything you want to do is covered somewhere in 3.5 books. Did you know that it has a mechanic for getting drunk? It's more complicated than you think. From what I understand about 4 Edition, is that is more streamlined. Speed of play was cripplingly poor in 3.5, derailments are common and hard to get back up. 4E (4th Edition) did work on this. Certain rules have been removed or heavily changed to accommodate new players and old alike.”

People are upset about this. The fans really enjoyed the sort of underground/cult following that DND had accumulated over the years. They were a very tight-knit community of gamers that spent hours conversing about the wondrous adventures that their group had. This latest revision had brought a whole new crop of people into the immersive fantasy world, it has separated friends based on their gameplay preferences, and, for Wizards of the Coast, it has undoubtedly divided their fanbase. Some people describe 4th edition as an action movie as opposed to the more drama oriented 3.5, which is a very fitting comparison.

There really is no winner in this argument. DND will always be evolving. This is true for any product, to sell as much as possible. And if it is evolving for the better, then the fans are just going to have to cope with having the popularity increasing. You can’t stop a corporation.