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Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set, 4th Edition | 
 enlarge | Author: Wizards Rpg Team
Brand: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $104.95
Buy New: $60.74
You Save: $44.21 (42%)
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Rating:  182 reviews
Sales Rank: 1636
Format: Box Set
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 832
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.9
Dimensions (in): 11.6 x 8.7 x 2.4
ISBN: 0786950633
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786950638
ASIN: 0786950633
Publication Date: June 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
All three 4th Edition core rulebooks in one handsome slipcase. The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D&D game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition D&D rules offer the best possible play experience by presenting exciting character options, an elegant and robust rules system, and handy storytelling tools for the Dungeon Master.This gift set features a handsome slipcase containing all three of the 4th Edition D&D Roleplaying Game core rulebooks: the Players Handbook rulebook (320 pages), the Monster Manual rulebook (288 pages), and the Dungeon Masters Guide rulebook (224 pages).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 177 more reviews...
 D&D November 14, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The new d&d is great,mine don't yet it arrived but already read of my friends. Sensational.
Ps: sorry my english.
 D&D, edition 4. New and improved, or just new? November 10, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of Dungeons and Dragons since the early 1980's. I was in on the first wave of publications that TSR Hobbies created back then (still have a few of them, too).
I liked the base of information that the first set of printed material established, but quite often felt frustrated when a completely unexpected set of circumstances cropped up during the game that wasn't covered by the information in the material and couldn't be entirely fixed by pure imagination. I ended up inventing or helping invent many guidelines and rules for my play group to resolve these issues.
Edition four happily addresses many of those issues. The best new addition is the codification of procedures for characters that are dying. Before, they just died. Very "unrealistically" in many cases. Now, a more sensible system has been created to allow those favorite characters to be saved using "real-life" techniques that make the game play more enjoyable. Wizards of the Coast has included many other clarifications to the older systems as well. Many of them are welcome additions to the game system.
My only criticisms or concerns are about the tendency to over-codify the game. Much of the enjoyment of the original game came from the combination of guidelines from the book and the story-telling ability of the players. While appreciative of the clarifications the new edition has added that smooth over problems that caused play delay, I worry that a tendency is developing for the creation of too much game "legislation". Even though the publishers repeatedly tell the reader to only use the pieces that fit their game, my advice is to stop adding new rules whenever possible before the system becomes too confusing and cumbersome.
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means STINK-O, RUN AWAY and 10 means PLAY NON-STOP FOR THREE DAYS STRAIGHT, I give the newest additions to the Dungeons and Dragons product line an 8. Play On, fellow D&Ders!
 Misguided, Unwanted, Bland November 10, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Yes, I know that I already posted this same review of 4e for the Player's Handbook, but I really want people to know what I think of this awful new edition, and I don't feel that this steaming pile deserves any more of time than I have already devoted to it, so I'm posting the exact same review again. Enjoy my copy-pasted rantings. ENJOY THEM OR ELSE!
As someone who actually has played D&D 4e (quite a bit actually, since I have a friend who has completely committed himself to it, despite its glaring inadequacies) I can say that without a doubt it is one of the least engaging role-playing games that I have ever had the chance to play. The characters are generic and uninspired in spite of the "EXTREME, COOL POWERS!! (tm)" spin that the text tries to put on everything. I've made several characters of the same class and I have yet to feel as though any of them were truly unique.
Combat is boring due to the monsters having been injected with so many hit points each that it takes quite a while to kill anything that is not a minion. Once every party member inevitably exhausts their "daily" powers in a flurry of fleeting excitement during the first rounds of combat trying to quickly dispatch the monster that they have encountered upon first wandering into the field just outside town as mewling first level adventurers, which unbeknownst to them has well over 100 hit points (the monster, not the field), the game quickly becomes a chore, consisting of informing the DM that you use your cinematically and non-sensically named "tide of iron" attack in round after round of mindless swinging and usually missing. Minions (monsters that die in one hit no matter the source, be it a sword to the head, or a gentle retort from a frail old woman) of course, have been added without a reason for their existence, aside from "CINEMATIC ACTION! HEROES KILL PEOPLE ALL THE TIME WITH ONE HIT IN THE MOVIES!".
The addition of trite races such as the "i'm so anti-hero that I have Spawn (tm) sheets on my bed which is shaped like a pentagram" tieflings, and the "I watched Eragon and I want to play a dragon, and now my DM can't say no" dragonborn, makes the intentions and loyalties of the game-designers fairly transparent. It also makes me want to cut myself and blog about how much I hate everyone on my myspace page.
In my opinion, the game designers quite obviously set out to create a game intended to appeal to a wider market. They have even stated as much themselves. Judging from the content of 4e this wider market consists of kindergartners, and those who wore Oakley's sunglasses in the 90's because they saw a famous sports personality wearing them. They also quite obviously wanted to tap into the limitless revenue that the MMORPG market has streaming from its gaping orifices. The game designers, in this case, have not stated as much, because they have been warned by scientists that the sheer volume of the massive "I TOLD YOU SO!" that would be dislodged from every disgruntled 3.5 fan if such a revelation were ever made, would be enough crack the very fabric of space-time, allowing the formless denizens of indescribable horror that lurk on the other side of the veil which we call 'reality' to pour forth into our world, immediately causing sales of 4e to plummet. While surely this is a noble and truly capitalistic goal, the only problem with trying to reach this elusive "wider" audience of part-time WoW players and the mentally under-developed, is that role-playing as a hobby always has been (and probably always will be) the demesne of the idle intellectual, as roleplaying requires several of the traits possesed by those with too much time and too much wasted potential. Trying to create a roleplaying game targeted at the common denominator is akin to creating a calculus textbook for puppies, or a comprehensive ornithological guide for NASCAR fans.
Essentially, I'd say not only to not buy any current or future printed book of the 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons series, but also to strive to cultivate a feeling of being actively insulted by their mere existence. When you finally bypass being merely jaded by this pointless new edition, and you surmount the lofty pinnacle of abject loathing (Ah! What's this? An abject pinnacle? An oxymoron... OR IS IT??? YOU make the call!) and you are able to experience a burning hatred for several strangers whom, though you have never met them, somehow conspired to destroy that one beautiful thing in your life where you were able to find some bit of enjoyment, then you will have an understanding, however fragmentary, of how I feel.
In an effort to reach a wider audience with my review, here's the "Cool" (tm WotC 2008) version:
this game is the SuXX0r. its like WoW except it sux. if D&D was a beer, then the makers of 4e are like some dudes that came along and pissed in ur beer. the end.
Squandered Potential November 10, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
When I first heard about 4th edition I was quite excited. I couldn't wait to get my hands on all the brand new shiny rules. I read all the updates about the new races and classes from Wizards of the Coast online, and I thought "hmmm a little bit strange that they seem to be making so many changes, but they still sound like great ideas". When the books finally came out, I bought my copies right away, and read through them. At first I was confused by the fact that the new game was COMPLETELY new. There was basically nothing left of the old editions in 4th edition. It was a totally new game. Strange, I thought, but I ignored that little voice telling me to be wary and went ahead and started up a game with some of my friends, all D&D 3.5 players who had also been waiting for the new edition to come out... all except for one friend who refused to play because he hated the new changes. I tried to explain that they weren't changes as much as it was a whole new game, but he said that was even worse. I ignored his opinions, but now in hindsight, he was absolutely correct.
As we played the game, at first we thought the game was a blast. It was fun having special "powers" as a fighter, and being able to use spells over and over again, but as the weeks progressed we started to notice some things as we reached higher levels (I think that 12th was the highest level anyone in our group reached). We weren't really enjoying the game like we did the first few times when it was still new, and 2 players started making excuses not to show up at the game, and 1 other player though he came to the game every time, constantly expressed an interest in going back to 3.5 or playing a totally different system. Essentially everyone was bored with 4th, and after having only played for about a month and a half. We'd had 3.0 and 3.5 games that had lasted years without players leaving or expressing boredom. No one was looking forward to the next game session and no one really cared about their characters. We played a few more times, but then agreed to quit and started a new 3.5 game, but we decided to use only the 3 core books of 3.5 (PHB, DMG, and MM) to see if we became as bored with it as quickly as we did with 4th. Needless to say, that game is still going (but we did allow one player to use a prestige class from complete mage).
Overall, while 4th edition seemed fun at first, we quickly realized that character building choices, such as feats and powers mattered very little in the long run. It was almost impossible to build an interesting and unique character. Even the classes bled together, despite having different powers. The only element of the characters that seemed unique was the race, but still every character of the same race seemed the same, and if "you didn't play enough different characters to know if they can be unique or not" is your counter argument, then you would be wrong as far as I'm concerned. We played 2 times a week for almost 2 months, and with 3 complete parties wiped out by assorted "balanced encounters" each of us played at least 4 characters.
Which brings me to another point that I haven't seen many people mention; the increasesd lethality of this edition. Our DM started with a module (keep of the shadowfall or something like that) and we were killed (one person escaped) by a group of kobolds. We chalked it up to inexperience with the new system, and tried to use better tactics next time. We made it through to the end of the module but were almost wiped again by the final encounter (2 people out of 5 died, but only 1 person was left actually conscious when the bad guy died). We figured that maybe the module was just designed to be a meat-grinder style adventure so the DM started planning his own game with encounters balanced according to the DMG. Two games later our party was wiped out completely (no one escaped) by an elite solo monster that was supposedly a balanced "boss" encounter for our party level. After this another player wanted to DM for a while, so we started new characters but at the same levels as our last characters. It went pretty good for a while, but then one player stopped showing up to games, for various reasons, and then some number of games after that (i think it was about 2 levels since we started over, I can't really remember) our party was TPKed again. In between the start over and the TPK 2 people had died in isolated situations but those seemed normal at the time. Even though we were TPKed the DM said that we'd "been captured" and we had to fight our way out of prison, which was kind of fun, but it felt fake and undeserved.
When 4th edition info first started to appear on the internet, there was talk of characters being "pumped up" with hit points and that this would increase early level survivability. It turns out the opposite is actually true. The characters have more HP but so do the monsters; unbelievable numbers of HP in some cases. Fights seem to drag on and on as the players swing and do minor amounts of damage to the creatures massive HP scores which are in every case but "minions" equal to or greater than the players HP scores. Minions on the other hand may seem like a good idea; monsters that can be used as a howling horde of weaklings, but die quickly. However, in practice they take the fun out of the battle. When you hit a minion it feels like a "gimme", like patting a little kid on the head and saying "good job! you hit the ball!" (straight to the firstbaseman). They all have one hit point and die from a single hit, but they feel very gratuitous, almost pointless. Not only are they simply an annoyance, but they deprive the player the fun and excitement of scoring a critical hit for maximum damage, or even of rolling for damage at all. Very disappointing.
I could go on detailing other oddities of play experience that our group encountered, but other reviews listed here have pointed them out over and over, and in greater detail than I really care to, mainly because I simply don't care anymore. 4th edition was an opportunity for WotC to fix and update the previous edition, but instead, judging by the final product, the only thing they truly ever intended to update was the company's stock price (Oooh, he made a joke about Wizards only being out to make a profit! Get him! Nerd Rage!). They created a detailed but boring board game, from which I am sure they will make quite a bit of money off of those fooled by the brand label still attached to this unrecognizable edition. I plan to recoup some of what I gave to Wizards by selling my books back to the local game store, since in just a couple of months I've had my fill of 4th edition.
 Depends On What You Like November 10, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Depending on what you are hoping for from this new edition, you will either love it or hate it. It is definitely not for everyone, as can be easily surmised from the highly mixed reviews. You should be clear about what you want out of the time and money you will invest before buying the books. Like anything in life, it depends on what type of experience you value. One thing is for sure - this edition is a very radical departure from the previous D&D and accordingly will provoke a radical reaction, depending on how much you liked or disliked playing 3rd/3.5 Edition D&D, how long you have been playing the game, and what sort of game you like.
If you are hoping for a more streamlined game that takes the bookishness and vast amounts of reading and reference out, and makes the combat system more interesting and fun, you will love it. It lends itself well to people who like fast-paced, action-packed games and want to spend as little time as possible on character and adventure design so they can just get straight to the action. This edition takes much of the time out character and adventure design and puts it on the action. This change can be quite fun if action is what you like. For the casual or new RPG fan who enjoys playing but does not have time to truly immerse themselves in details of the game, this edition is the best one yet. Most people who will buy these books will probably fit into this category. So for the casual gamer, this is a good edition to buy. It's definitely a more practical edition to play.
On the other hand, if you are a die-hard D&D nerd with dozens of books, custom made campaign worlds, and more than a decade of experience, hoping for an upgrade path to your current campaign and body of books to make it more playable while keeping the foundation, this is the abomination you have been dreading. The game is now so different from what you have grown to love that it will probably feel like an insult to your hard-earned mastery. If you love spending hours on character creation and adventure design, if you loved the quirks of the system and the differences in how characters progressed, if you loved the various attempts attempts in the rules to simulate reality, you will feel insulted by this edition and will probably want to return the books and just keep playing your old edition.
Players who began playing the game in its 1st and 2nd editions and have stuck with it for this long have grown to love the quirks of the D&D system and are by and large not pleased with this new edition because Hasbro/WotC have essentially ended the product line while keeping the brand, which is smart for them getting new customers but unfortunate and deceptive for the long-term fan base. They did this by throwing out a huge number of D&D conventions such as saving throws, spell memorization, bards, rolling for hit points, and basically everything that made the game quirky, unpredictable and hard for new players of the ADD (attention deficit disorder) generation to understand. It streamlined the game a lot, but also did away with much of its character as a unique rule system. The baby by and large went out with the bath water.
Thankfully for the die-hard D&D nerds there is an alternative, and it is called Pathfinder. Repeat: 4th Edition has ZERO backwards compatibility with any previous edition, meaning it is not possible to translate a 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 3.5 edition character into a 4th Edition D&D game. This is a huge blunder on behalf of Hasbro in my opinion, and will cost the company a large part of its dedicated fan base, which will migrate to Pathfinder, stick with older editions, or try out new games altogether. This is not an upgrade path by any means.
While it is true that most of the 4th Edition rules have largely turned it into more of a fast-paced action/strategy game than a true RPG, this pace of gaming fits what some players want. This does not necessarily take the possibility of role-playing out of the game. Indeed, there is more time for role-playing now, at least for people who don't have time to get deep into the books, since the rules are now much less cumbersome (and also thereby less realistic).
In all fairness, however, D&D was always a combat-centric and less versatile game compared with other systems like GURPS and Mage. It always had a fair amount of adaptability to different playing styles, but the way your character advanced always had way more to do with defeating monsters than anything else. It is much less versatile than many other systems. If you think that fighting monsters is one of the less fun aspects of role-playing, or if you are more into the magical elements of the game than the hero aspect, you would probably have a whole lot more fun playing GURPS, Ars Magica, or Mage: The Ascension than any version whatsoever of D&D.
It is not hard to see what caused Hasbro to take the direction it did with this game. The progression of D&D from 2nd to 3rd Edition by and large made the game more complicated. Specialized terms like THAC0 were discarded in favor of the more general bonus system and the weird proficiency system was replaced by the more sensical skill system. But the new system of bonuses quickly became quite cumbersome and actually involved more calculation for most things than the 2nd Edition equivalents, especially when it came to calculating experience. This resulted in a more detailed and realistic game, but also one that took far more time to learn and play. The complexity of the rules actually became a major obstacle for many players, who were more confused about the changes than excited about the additional detail and versatility.
4th Edition reversed course and did away with that direction of evolution, much like a child destroying a sand castle. While much of the new 3rd Edition rules needed some serious streamlining, many people agree that Hasbro went a bit too far and destroyed a lot of good things about the game that people had grown to love. New players or people unfamiliar or daunted with the old structures will probably be excited about this new edition, whereas people who labored to make the 3rd/3.5 Editions work for them and met with some degree of success will see 4th Edition as an insult to their hard-earned efforts. 3rd/3.5 Edition required a lot of time to become familiar enough with to be usable, but once that time had been invested, it was perhaps the most versatile and adaptable edition and could be a lot of fun with players who were fluent in the rules.
4th Edition, by contrast, is a usable with far less time investment. For example, character creation now takes only about 30 minutes. Putting an adventure together as DM take easily half the time it used to. The new pre-made modules require much less reference to the core books. If you are fairly new to the system, you will spend far more time actually playing and far less time reading.
A couple more points worth mentioning - you need a solid five people to make a 4th Edition game work because the mechanics have changed to become much more strategic. The game, sadly, is no longer workable with a DM and one player or a DM and two players. This is very limiting and makes it harder to get a game together. Also, while non-combat elements are certainly possible to integrate into the game, there are few rules to provide for them. Last but not least, all measurements for spells and weapons have been reduced to "squares" instead of feet, making combat virtually impossible without the use of a board and miniatures unless conversion is done. This is not terribly difficult, but is still a pain for those who prefer to play without miniatures.
All in all, this is a complete game redesign. It represents a major split in the continuum of the game, and will most definitely split most of the fan base into two different camps - one going toward the 4th Edition style of play, and the other going toward Pathfinder or remaining where they are.
For my part, I like the Revised 2nd Edition of D&D the best. It is only slightly more complicated than 4th Edition in terms of its mechanics, but is also quite expandable and to me strikes the best balance between realism and practicality. The real kicker for me, however, is the fact that it contains the best and most imaginative campaign setting ever released for D&D, with by far the best art ever - Planescape!
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