This month's topic is: Why I'm Not Reviewing Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition. You might well have expected me to. After all, I have been writing this CT gaming column for several years now, and I've been playing D&D for even longer than that. And declaring your opinion of this new edition is apparently The Thing To Do if you're any sort of gamer, let alone a gaming writer. So, why haven't I jumped on the bandwagon? What's stopping me from doing my duty as a gaming columnist? The reasons are quite varied. Reason The First: I don't want to buy the books. Collector Times is a volunteer-run, comics-themed publication. As such, no one is going to send me free copies of the books in hopes that I will drum up even more publicity for 4e. And I'm not about to shell out the cash for them. Oh sure, I could go get some bootleg PDFs, but not only is that wrong, I hate reading PDFs. This is a huge obstacle. It's hard to review books that you don't have. Reason The Second: No one in my group even wants to play 4e, including me. We've just come off of a 3-year 3.5 campaign. By the end, everyone was tired of D&D and ready for a change. Even if we were excited about 4e (and no one seems to be), we'd all want a break before we delved into it. I'd have to review the new edition strictly based on reading the books, without any play testing. Hardly fun. Reason The Third: Really, I'm not that much of a D&D fan-girl anyway. I came late to tabletop gaming. My first experience with it was a Rifts game when I was 15. I didn't get into D&D until I was 18 or 19, and I started with 3rd edition. It was never my favorite game, it was just something we could play when we weren't playing something else. I only upgraded to 3.5 because that's what our GM was running. By the time the campaign ended, I only owned four 3.5 books, and two of them were presents. I'd spent so much on 3rd ed, and I didn't feel like repeating that process. Reason The Fourth: I couldn't approach it with a fresh, unbiased opinion. I've seen a lot of reviews on-line already, and spoken with a friend who played it. Some of the reviews have been positive, but even those have pointed out features that I'm not thrilled with. I'm pretty certain that my review would be colored by these preconceived notions that I've already built up. Reason The Fifth: I don't have time right now. I'm moving and getting ready for Comic Con. When would I find time to read the three core books and write an intelligent review? I barely even have time for the one weekly game I'm in. Reason The Sixth: In general, I don't have much tolerance for upgrading to new editions of games. Witness that I have not purchased a single book from the most recent edition of the World of Darkness line. A gaming company can only get my money for core rulebooks so many times. I've happily purchased all new books for Earthdawn's Second Edition, but I can't say I'd be eager to buy a Third Edition. Likewise, I buy every Third Edition L5R book that comes out, but because I love the system as it is, I'd hesitate to invest in a Fourth Edition. Reason The Seventh: I don't like to follow trends. Seriously. Everyone from gaming columnists to web cartoonists to bloggers has already stated their opinion on the game, and the facts behind those opinions. There's nothing I could say about the game that hasn't already been said. I probably couldn't even come with a more clever way of saying it. So if you're still trying to decide whether or not to upgrade, you might as well just do a Google search and read a few reviews. In short, I'm not going to play 4e, and my only interest in it is to see how it effects the future of the gaming industry. D&D is often considered the benchmark for RPGs, for good or ill. We all remember how 3rd ed resulted in many games transitioning to d20 (only to transition back to their original system in many cases). Will the next editions of all our favorite games follow the lead of 4e? Or has D&D's day in the sun passed, to be replaced by more cinematic games like Scion? Only time will tell.

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Copyright © 2008 By AJ Reardon E-mail AJ at: ErtheFae@aol.com Visit AJ at: www.erthefae.com