It’s good to see that the boys at Penny Arcade are passing on the important things about Dungeon Mastering. Keeping the Old Ways alive is very important, especially since D&D 4e is nothing more than a wargame with named units. I don’t care what they say about Skill Challenges and roleplaying, they’ve stripped out almost everything that wasn’t about fighting.
Of course, some would argue they haven’t gone far enough. Certainly, the blog post that accompanies the strip remembers:
His group can scarcely believe the stories I tell them about earlier versions of the game, of sundered stats and experience loss and THAC0, when players could win and still lose.
Oh for the good ol’ days…