At least in one respect. Let me back track a bit. Among
other topics, I discussed the various editions of Dungeons and Dragons
with a reporter last week and the topic of the generally vilification of 4th
edition. I can find people who wax nostalgically over their 1st
edition half elf fighters (myself included), who still seek out and want to
play in 2nd edition campaigns, who avidly purchase any 3rd
and 3.5 handbooks on which they can lay their hands and, of course, 5th
edition has sold fantastically since it released last decade. 4th edition,
meanwhile, gets very little love as most of our customers refer to it
disparagingly as WotC’s attempt to migrate video game concepts into a table top
RPG and failing spectacularly.
I never had quite the distain for 4th edition
that a lot of my customers did. I found it an interesting attempt to merge
boardgame concepts with tabletop RPGS, though running the published modules
proved problematical as whomever designed them opted to drop the linear
progression of most published modules and instead separate encounters likely to
involve combat into their own section of the book, meaning extra flipping back
and forth for the DM. Still, I found the published adventures playable. Creating homebrewed adventures proved more
problematical.
However, there is one concept that 4th edition
introduced that was far ahead of its time and that was the idea of Dungeons and
Dragons as a spectator event. Granted, people had watched other people play
D&D in the past for generally not for very long, just until a spot opened
up for them. Setting up games for one group of people to play while another
watches has come into its own with streaming programs such as Dimension 20,
Dungeons and Daddies and, of course, Critical Role.
However, in 2011, D&D 4th edition and
the Wizards Play Network introduced the concept of the Lair Assault. The WPN
positioned the seven Lair Assault scenarios and extremely challenging
adventures designed for 2-4 players to finish in a couple of hours. However,
the idea behind Lair Assault was that the scenarios, while short, were designed
to be so difficult to complete that those players would have to attempt them
multiple times, leaning from each attempt, before completing them. However, it
was the concept of encourage non-players to come watch that, locking back, I
found unique. The focus on RPG play, to that time, has always been on
participation. The WPN, in its
directions for Lair Assault, encouraged stores to recruit their best
local players to participate and invite other local players to come watch
top-tier players attempt an extremely challenging adventure, in effect having
one small group playing through the adventure while another group got the
opportunity to watch a master class in RPG play. I am not sure how other stores
did with the program. I would assume not well, since it only lasted for two
years and we found it quite difficult to recruit the same players to come
multiple times to play through and complete the adventure and I only remember
one person coming in to watch the game, but still the basic concept, though
flawed, was there. It just took the advent of the Web and the development of
podcasting techniques which made it relatively easy for anyone who wants to put
their own gaming sessions online.
No comments:
Post a Comment