First Impressions: Well, they certainly dealt with 3.5's rules bloat. Which needed fucking doing, right enough, when the only way to tote around all the reference books you wanted to stew up a creditable encounter was to buy a laptop or a minivan. Obvs more books will come out, but the core mechanic still rules, and a stripped-down version of it even. So: Clean, crisp, nubile and built for speed - score one.

As we know, the game lives and dies by class balance, and I think taking the ad hoc advances in gaming theory - in party roles - that have been made by MMOers - tank, buffer, etc. - and systematizing them - striker, leader, controller, and whatever they're calling the fighter role - was a great thing. It discourages four-wizard parties, I suppose, but it brings out and makes explicitly exploitable - with feats and items and so on - a hardcore, small-scale tabletop strategy aspect to the game that has been present ever since Chainmail I suppose, but has been strongly inconsistent. Score two. The core races all remain, except gnomes, who were the poor man's dwarf or halfling depending on your poison (and I say that as a gnome fan), and they have high- and grey-elf surrogates, which is cool. More elves means more good times.

Build options? They are here, and at a cursory glance they really cover ground, without being a threat in their multitudes like in both 2e and 3e. I'm gonna look forward to pushing adorable feyborn wizard Ianire Zaitequi Llogbregas up the rungs of the net to "Deadly Trickster" and beyond. Result!

And here is where it falls down. the point of the D&D rules, to me, is to give you an easy way to clap together your character, resolve combats and situations, and then get out of the way and let "imagination practice" (thank you, Vin Diesel) reign. And the incredible, annoying combat-centredness of these rules just does not let that happen. It makes it easier to calculate good value for money when you're buying yer magic armour, but where's the wand of wonder? It gives you a hundred subtly different ways to ambush the shit out of foes and feel cleverer than DMsie, but where's a goofy-yet-awesome mainstay like "rope trick"? I'm not some conservative nerd who's all "I can't believe you took out _____", nor do I think they need to fill it all in for us - we can come up with out own hilarious magic and scenarios and characters choices - but when you take out all hints in the direction of whimsy and laffs in the core rules, even pushing us toward a straight diplomacy roll to resolve negotiations, it feels . . . yeah, mechanistic. Numbing. It makes D&D a great strategy game with some RP gracenotes that hopefully affect your decision-making, but not a role-playing adventure.

But hell, this is just the first book. Maybe that stuff will come with the DMG - a better division of content, really, when you think about it. And keeping it simple, stupid, and then making the other stuff all supplementary and blowing the minds of the eight-year-olds raised on video games who have no idea all the ways D&D can go, well, that sort of makes sense to me. Still, I can't help but feel like something is lost, at least until the first appearance of an Apparatus of Kwalish or Huggles, the psychic, psychedelic, psychotic pig.

I guess this is really a review of 4e. The book is laid out well and the art is bland in a 3e way, the end. ( )

Holy crap. $35 dollars. Again, holy crap.

So, my overall impression of the PHB for the 4th edition is mostly favorable. Bad news or good news first? Bad.

First, it's expensive (see above), probably a little too expensive, considering that they're coming out with a "deluxe" (read: really expensive) version in a couple of months that will more than likely be more authoritative. So, if you bought this one, get ready to spend more.

Secondly, this edition continues with the democratizing trends initiated in the 2nd edition, though the follow through here is particularly pernicious. Me, I'm an old school type of person, having cut my teeth on the blue basic set way back when, then moving on to AD&D shortly thereafter. Yeah, I know, lot's of problems, but the basic structure and layout of the books, the economy of information and how it was doled out among the various rule books, was pleasing and worked quite well. For instance, in the old PHB, the information was confined to the more mundane starting data needed for players that could be used in play without compromising a DM's game by disclosing to much information. The DMG, on the other hand, was more filled with data (some of it quite erudite; I always used to love the explanation of the bell curve) and stats that by their very nature were strictly the domain the DM. Oh how times have changed. The new PHB includes way too much data on the finer points: there's a whole section on magic items and how much they cost, and numerous other bits that simply make me wonder what the hell WOTC was thinking . Even though this is off-set by the change in the nature of the game, it's still disconcerting.

Next, the production qualities are cheap. The paper is horrible: thin and shiny, it will not handle moisture well at all. The binding appears adequate, but I have my doubts. All of the pictures are full color, if that's your thing.

Fourth on the list is the writing. It's horrible. Calling it dumbed down, fantasy-register laden, ueber-gender sensitive, 5th grade level pap is being too kind, and contrary to what many might say, it does make a difference. A premium example of a good, well written rule book would be the Call of Cthulhu rule books (I'm partial to the 4th ed., but that's only because of the Chattanooga Choo- choo parody in the back). When you get done reading something out of the COC rule book, you feel as though you had just conversed with a sympathetic adult who spoke to you as if you had a functioning brain (even if you don't). That's a sensation you're not likely to experience with the new PHB. Oh, but we buy the books anyhow. Thanks, WOTC.

Lastly, some the changes are out right stupid. Why did they break elves into two distinct races? Why are dragon-kind included, but gnomes not? Who the hell is in charge? Warlord? Honestly. You might as well just call the class "Magical combat asshole." What happened to the monk ,the sorcerer, the illusionist? How much crap will have to be purchased to have access to these classes? And so on.

Now for the good.

Not all of the changes are bad. In fact, some of them are down right intelligent. Firstly, alignment has been simplified to a line with five values, rather than the endless continuum previous editions used. Don't get me wrong, I always liked using the jargon and to this day often wonder about the societal influence on alignment. However, the new set up is easier to use because it's simpler and gives players more leeway in defining their character's traits. In a day when you need a spread sheet to "play" your 13th level paladin, this sort of easing of restrictions is a great idea. Again, it doesn't have the charm of the earlier system, but time moves on.

The overall tone of the game has changed gradually over the years and probably the thing that has had the most influence, for good or for ill, would be the synchronization of combat play with miniatures. For a long time, this was the holy grail of the D&D world and they had to totally overhaul the game to get it to work. Personally, I think it's turned a beloved game into just another board game that caters to a slightly greedier and infinitely more power hungry audience that regularly uses far sillier language. The 4th edition continues this tradition, and actually improves upon it by introducing a parallel tactical classification for the the various classes. Obviously I don't approve, but if you're going to include plastic figures (and be charged huge amounts of money for them) in your "role playing" you might as well use rules that work. Who knows? You might even have "fun."

I really liked, at least on paper, the changes in the skills/feats/abilities and the changes in the spell system as well. God bless Jack Vance, but the spell system of yore blew, and it was time that some one set it right. Now let's see if the folks at WOTC know when to stop.

Overall, I'd say the book is fair. On the one hand, it's got some problems with presentation and pricing, and the general drift of the game has disfigured it almost beyond recognition, but on the other, the game is now easier to play and WOTC has made some sensible changes. ( )