Quote:
Originally Posted by Evan Waters
Except that a "role" in an RPG is defined by being able to interact with the environment in the ways that a person in that world would be able to, as opposed to a boardgame where your piece is only allowed to do what the rules explicitly lay out. You can't kill the other characters in CLUE, you can't try to rob the bank in MONOPOLY or lower the price of putting up a hotel by using substandard building materials.
D&D 4e, as much as any other RPG, allows your character to interact with the environment in any way that the DM thinks is reasonable, using the rules to decide whether you succeed or fail at a given action when the outcome is important and in doubt.
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No, what D&D 4th Edition has become is the very thing its roots are in., A tabletop fantasy wargame. The social aspects have been utterly taken out of it. The assumption of a role. the playing the part of your character, the theatrical element has been ripped completely out of it.
Your character is nothing but a highly customized wargame piece in D&D 4th Edition. The equivilent of pushing a faceless unit in Warhammer Fantasy. It changed the focus from actually being and caring about your character to looking at it as a completely disposeable. faceless unit.
There is a huge difference between a character in an RPG and a wargaming unit. A wargaming unit is just a glorified faceless token the player doesn't assume the role of or speak for. Simply just push it around like a pawn on a chessboard. The only connection a player has to it is tactical. There is no real personal connection between the player and the unit.
Wargames are not roleplaying games. Never have been and never will be. Roleplaying games are all about the personal touch. Making a character that actually matters to you. A character you have a personal investment in the well being and life of.
D&D 4th Edition I feel is a huge back-step in the evolution of roleplaying games. Back to before the original Dungeons & Dragons came out and what it became.
And the old wargamer's mantra that people can roleplay with any game doesn't wash. Never has and never will. It completely ignores the individual significance of the player/character relationship. And is commonly used to try and justify reducing the role of the individual character to just being a faceless wargame unit.