One of the major difficulties of the 3rd edition of Dungeons &Dragons was the bookkeeping that was involved. It wasn't that the rules were too complex or too difficult to grasp that it alienated folks. The three core rules were still there:- Roll a die, beat a number, get to do something cool.
- It's a game where the rules break the rules. Improving means you get to break more rules.
- It's a game that's allow your group to bend the rules to your liking.
Gone were the days when your level 10 character fit in your piece of scrap paper you tore from your notebook. Most players of the game had to use laptops and excel spreadsheets to keep things in track.
The 3rd edition felt like a game that was trying too hard to match the age of it's audience: mostly college freshmen, and twenty-something yuppies with laptops and better-than-average math skills.
I like that the 4th edition feels "dumbed down." I like that it's "simplified." If you look up Dungeons and Dragons on Wikipedia or on Google images, you'll see that old nostalgic geeks were never the target audience.
The cover said: "ages 10 and up."
How old were you when you started on D&D? How old really? I was 12.
In the age of MMORPGs, and the concepts of a "striker," and a "healer," and a "nuker" is generally understood by our internet cafe going youth, the game is going in the direction where it should go.
Note that I said it only feels dumbed down. The new system does have it's technical merits. Aside from the multi-classing Feats being slightly half-baked, I really, like how they trimmed the skill list, changed the saving throw, and added other parameters of defense. The lack of "true" multi-classing is my only problem with the 4th edition, everything else in it was a nice effort in streamlining.
As for the books, I feel that they could've organized the information in the Player's Handbook a bit better. For instance, the class powers could've been in a separate chapter called "Powers." Seeing long lists that look like Spell tables after the class description was a bit jarring. No, wait, let me rephrase that: it made it look like a mess - it took me a while to get used to, and it really made me hate the editor of the book for not knowing what the term "Handbook" in the book's title meant.
Aside from those minor problems. I like it. More importantly, the kid in me likes it.
I've learned that when it comes to geekish pleasures, that's what really matters.
PS: I still miss the Bard. I have a feeling though, that they just saved other more "complicated," non-MMORPG analogous roles for the other non-basic, non-introductory books they'll be printing in the future. New player acquisition is the goal after all -- "keep it simple stupid" and all that -- and the Bard is anything but simple.