By
Shaun Clayton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Favorite role-playing game of the past gets a whole new
Grade: A
After 10 years, the "Dungeons and Dragons" game has been updated for the better.
Now, a new third edition of the game has been released by Wizards of the Coast, the current owners of the "Dungeons and Dragons" franchise, and they have succeeded in making this game better without ruining the eclectic style of the original game that made it so popular.
All of which many thought was never going to happen because Wizards of the Coast is a game company that rose to prominence selling "Magic: The Gathering," a trading card game that became addictive and made people forget all about "Dungeons and Dragons," despite its long history.
"Dungeons and Dragons" has grown from its humble roots, when it was created in 1973 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was unlike any board game, though - because the game did not have any boards. "Dungeons and Dragons" is really a structured form of storytelling and creates a whole new class of games called the role-playing game, a classification which now extends to hundreds of other games.
This new edition has been simplified. Almost every roll one makes in the game is based off the 20-sided die (D20). Trying to hit someone? D20. Trying to climb a wall? D20. Trying to cast a spell? D20. Before, one had to roll to get a percentage, then compare that percentage to a table that would inform the player of whether they could make that move, possibly causing an aneurysm in the meantime.
Further, some of the more annoying things about previous versions of the game have been corrected. Armor class now works so that it stays in the positive numbers. Before, the better the armor class, the greater the negative number. For instance, a really good armor class would be -13. It is rules like this that confused many a new player.
Previously, not every race in the game (elves, dwarves and so on) could be the profession they wanted to be. Now, if people want their elven characters to be ruthless barbarians, it can be done.
Another way things have become easier is through the use of the computer. The Player's Handbook comes with a character generation program on CD-ROM for the personal computer. This is a hug time-saver compared to the old way of writing down information on photocopied character sheets, as one is not thumbing through a book to find out every nuance of a character.
The new way of doing things, however, has its drawbacks. First, the interface on the character generation program is clunky at best, and second, a player needs a decent printer to print out discernible character sheets.
There are many more changes to the game than can be listed in this simple review, but the changes listed here do wonders to the most important aspect of the game- the fun. The less time spent flipping through books for damage tables and more time having people's elves, gnomes and orcs get absorbed by gelatinous cubes, the better.
