| #1frostdenMar 12, 2010 3:07:48 | The ruleset for D&D 4.0 is fairly tight. If one were to play it from a purely tacticial standpoint, as a miniature combat game, it would be in the best of its kind. There is a phenominal amount of support in the rules for this mode of play, but there is absolutely no content available for those who want to purely play it as a tactical experience, devoid of what the DM offers. The dungeon delves are as close as it comes to a pure board game experience.
I love D&D. I DM, and I play, and I thoroughly enjoy both running with my players (to the point of player generated BBEMG's and plot arcs), and as a player, challenging my DM to respond to the beings who's world he's generating.
But, I also have times when it's just me and a buddy, and we'd like to play a game. D&D 4.0 is the best game we know, and you need at LEAST 3 people to play it!
So, I propose two new forms of D&D.
The first is Party based D&D DMless, and is analgous to a video game. This form of D&D is even more designer centric than a published campaign. It features a blank board, drawn by the players, marked with playcard numbers. On entering a certain region of at board, attacking a certain monster, or fulfilling a mission specific objective, conditions are fulfillied. When a condion is fulfilled, a card is turned over, introducinh a plot or game centric element to change the nature of the game. In this game type, monsters are controlled with highly determinsitic rules: They will ALWAYS enage the clostest, the weakest, the most damaged, or the most threatening (As determined by a vote of the active players, if the card's conditons are ambiguous). In this mode, cards which are turned over when conditions are met fulfil the demand for unpredictability that a DM entails, in a format that doesn't require a dm. This game mode will be very content ravenous, requiring constant supplememts to keep Party cetric gamplay fresh.
The second is a strictly 2 player affair that takes the best elements of the strong ruleset, and the best elements of a DM. Each of the two game participants is both a player, and a DM. There is a mirroed, symmetrical gauntlet, which a 2 player character team runs. The gauntlet is designed by a content provider. Each of the two game participants runs two player characters through the gauntlet, while simultantously controlling the monsters encountered by the other game participant's two player characters. This game type is distinct from regular D&D in that 2 player character optimisation comes to the fore. Control becomes less important, becuase you know that you will be facing fewer opponents. Leader and defender roles become vital to save your striker, who will win the encouter.
From a designer point of view, the encounters are designed to facilitate indirect competition: Standing on certain squares spawns minions in your opponents gauntlet, who are in turn turning wheels to raise the water level in your own parties dungeon.
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