[Jesternario]

you folks just love to bash the reviewer is all I see. I get the feeling that I would have gotten similar criticisms if I had praised the game.

I stand by my comments in the review. There are plenty of other games that give you a reason to role-play and give a reward for it. These games include any game published by Palladium Books, Don't Rest Your Head by Evil Hat Productions, and (god help us all) the World of Darkness systems by White-Wolf Publishing. These aren't the only ones by far, just the ones that come to mind off-hand.

The reason I made my statements is because the game promotes the following kind of role-playing:

"I kick open the door! What do I see?"
DM: you see several monsters in front of you
"I slay them all!"
(one short fight later)
"Okay, how much XP and treasure do I get?"

That's not roleplaying folks. That's just interacting. I chose Hero Quest because that was the closest analog. I could have likened it to playing a video RPG, but I would have gotten flamed just as bad, if not worse.

does the game have good points? abosolutely. I said that. There are plenty of good points. The Combat system is good, The character creation system is streamlined, and the game is balanced and equal (at least before the players get ahold of the game).. But this doesn't change the fact that the game that started the industry never completely moved away from it's roots as a new kind of miniature combat game (and that is how it started. Gygax got tired of his fantasy wargame and started focusing on individual figures rather than whole armies).

4th edition takes the game back to it's roots with the move toward tactical combat and a practical forced inclusion of miniatures. That is what I have basically said in my two reviews on the 4th ed products. But I'm not going to convince any of you who have made derogatory comments at my review, am I?

My review was objective and looked at the game from the perspective of one who wanted to see something good in it. Take it as you will, as it seems you already have.