At Will

At some point the focus of Dungeons and Dragons changed.  I can remember when I played with my friends over lunch with nothing in front of us except character sheets and a pencil.  No battle mat.  No dry-erase markers.  No one inch figurines.  We probably had some rulebooks lying around, but they were rarely consulted.  An optimized build was something we never even considered.  The most min-maxing we did was taking a bastard-sword instead of a regular long sword for its increase in damage (and its hilarious name).

Since the advent of 3E and now into 4E the game has changed for me in a fundamental way.  Instead of a role-playing game where the focus is on the characters and their actions, the game has become a tactical game – more reminiscent of a table-top war game.  Building your character can feel more like allocating your points for the greatest tactical advantage than developing a new person.  What happened?

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Welcome to Time Stop, your week in review for fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons news.  This week I bring you previews of the new Hero Minis out of Wizards of the Coast, a wrap up of the Origins Game Fair, some great article from RPG Bloggers Network, a few excellent podcasts from RPGPodcasts.com, and a few resources to help your D&D game.

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