Editing Dungeons & Dragons 6th Edition (section)

==To Begin With==
This will be an extended definition and explanation for all interested.

No more delineation between Players and [[Gamemaster|Dungeon Masters]]

The biggest noticeable change here is that we're not talking books, any more. At least, not physically. Instead, you've got one big download and then the ongoing subscription, sort of a trickle download thing like Steam used to do when Valve was still around. We'll get to that soon enough.

I'll assume you own [[4e|4th Edition]] for the purposes of this review. If not... good luck. A few years ago I'd have sent you down to your [[FLGS]] to grab a copy off the Used Books shelf, but of course the last one closed up shop last month, so that's not an option. You want print you'll have to check out Ebay or Amazon. Irrelevant, though, since what you REALLY want is 6e, right? Right.

So with that, let's look at the [[D&D]] Handbook, what we formerly called the [[Player's Handbook]]. Why the name change? Well, that's because there's no more delineation between Players and Dungeon Masters. Everyone is a player, and the DM is just a piece of code on the D&D server now. All automated! Sign up and create your characters, and the DM automatically generates a sequence of events for you, perfectly balanced. No prep time, no need to wait for the [[Gamemaster|DM]] to get his crap together. More on that later. For now, let's look at what's in the D&D Handbook.

For the most part, this is the D&D we know and love. Most of what was in 4e is still here, except it's all been refined and streamlined even further.

Hit points still work the same, but healing surges have been completely revamped. Now every player can use a healing surge in place of a standard action if they want, without any penalty. You won't have to rely on the Leaders to heal you up; you can solo if you want. And best of all, healing surges reset after every encounter -- infinite healing! -- so now you and your group can charge into every encounter without having to spend a half hour discussing, planning or resource managing.

[[Alignment]] has also gotten a much-needed revamp. Nine alignments were way too many in 3e, and even 5 was cumbersome in 4e, so now we're down to just three: Lawful, Good, and Unaligned. This is a heroic game about good vs evil and I'm glad these rules emphasize that.