A few weeks ago, I got my Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 Player's Handbook (PHB for short).

To tell you the truth, I wasn't really looking forward to 4.0.

We've been playing with 3.5 for a while now and I managed to get over the frustrations of moving to 3.0 from ADnD and the griping agony of switching to 3.5 what felt mere moments after having purchased 3.0 books.

While the bulk of my frustrations with 3.0 was simply due to my comfort with ADnD (and the nice few books I had), I appreciated it from a game designer's point of view. Not that I'm a professional game designer, but I love game design and am a professional software designer (which basically means that my job consists in creating boring by very useful "games").

My group got their hands on a few PHBs and I just couldn't resist - my curiosity was too strong.

We haven't played any 4.0 yet - we have a 3.5 campaign on the way and we're still exploring the idea of switching to 4.0.

I've had to cast aside the pain from leaving my comfort zone - it seems that nothing in life that you really want sits within your comfort zone (otherwise you would already have it).

Once I managed to do this to some extent, I was quickly seduced by the elegant, streamlined rules and the new flavors the 4.0 brought.

The downside to converting our campaign:

  • One of our member's race - the gnome - is gone.
  • One of our member's class - the bard - is gone. And I'm that particular member.

Since I've long passed the age of throwing fits, I've jumped into the rather intriguing quest of finding a class that fits my character's stats, skills and attitude while working in tandem with the rest of the group. Not to mention trying to find story elements that would justify why Quendy would drop his mandolin and strike up a pact with the fey.

I am also looking forward to introducing the new rules to my better half. I have a feeling that the simpler rules will alleviate the confusion of battle and stimulate creativity.

I'll try and document my journey to 4.0 (and Quendy's journey from bard to warlock) as it progresses.