PHB II, H:tV

August 9, 2008 in Roleplaying | 3 comments

Let’s talk about stuff that isn’t out yet. Good? Good!

I saw on EnWorld the other day that, among other things, the Player’s Handbook II is in the latest catalog from Wizards. It’s due in March 2009.

I’m glad we’re hearing about it but March? Dammit! That is basically Forever. I’ve really been spoiled by White Wolf’s release schedule, where there’s a 128-pager every couple of weeks. There’s always more material to read, and it’s almost always really good, even though I’ve really only run one game of Mage: the Awakening. (I intend to remedy this once 4e slackens its grip on my cold, shriveled heart.)

Some of the classes that appear to be as good as confirmed are the bard, barbarian, druid, swordmage, and sorcerer. After paging through the Swordmage preview (click the “Download the preview material” link), I am sort of interested in that class.

But let’s be honest: it’s the old classes redone that I am most interested in. I like seeing how they express the core concept of the class. I think the fighter’s never been cooler than in 4th Edition, and I can’t wait to see what they do with the old classes.

…except for the bard.

Yeah, all right, fine! I can’t lie. I’m curious about the bard, too! Despite my inherent skepticism, I know they’re going to do something interesting with it. I just have no idea what.

I guess there’s a Monster Manual II coming out in May, also. That’s like Forever plus Infinity.

Fortunately, Hunter: the Vigil is due out in a week or so. Or so they tell me.

OK, I’m going to level with you, blog: I find this hard to believe. Deep down, I suspect shenanigans; there’s no way it’s August already. Right? The Pacific Northwest barely got a summer as it is, and now the summer is over? Look, you might be able to fool everyone else, but I’m not falling for this one.

Still, I decided to play along. I told my FLGS that I’ll be buying Hunter when it comes out, even though I’m signed up for D&D for at least a few more weeks, and I’m thinking about running a paragon tier game after this one.

Tags: 4e, D&D, H:tV

3 comments

Comments feed for this article

Trackback link: http://incrediblevehicle.com/2008/08/09/phb-ii-htv/trackback/

davethegame on August 9, 2008 at 9:21 pm

Swordmage was confirmed to NOT be in PHB2, but will show up next month in the Forgotten Realms player’s guide. So at least you won’t have to wait for that.

I’ve been hearing good things about Hunter: The Vigil, which may inspire me to check it out this week, even though I hated the oWod one.
Matthew on August 10, 2008 at 12:07 am

Oh, yeah. I seemed to have forgotten about that when I wrote this post. Thanks for the correction!

I am not sure I am going to pick up the FR player’s guide. I’m not a huge fan of FR, although I think what they’re doing with it now is interesting. My friend Evan is going to buy it, though, so maybe I can borrow it from him and make up my mind about it— after all, the Swordmage does look pretty cool, based on the preview material. And the Artificer’s gonna be in there, too, as I recall.

Were you able to get your hands on the Hunter: the Vigil quickstart? That more than anything is what piqued my interest to the point where I decided to catch up with the preview material they’ve been posting.

And, yeah, I wasn’t a fan of the old Hunter, either. I didn’t hate it but I was expecting it to be a lot more like what vanilla World of Darkness is: relatively normal people who, for whatever reason, decide not to ignore all of the supernatural stuff around them, thereby exposing themselves to danger + interesting situations.
davethegame on August 12, 2008 at 6:56 pm

I’m not all that interesting in the Realms either, but I am interested in all the new rules options that will come with the setting. There’s already a Swordmage in one of the groups I play in, and I’m thinking about playing one in another campaign.

I didn’t pick up the quickstart, but I should be able to get a good look at GenCon.

PHB II, H:tV

3 comments

Reply Cancel reply

Categories