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Wizards of the Coast has just announced that D&D 4th Ed. will be out on store shelves beginning May 2008! (Check out the GenCon announcement on YouTube) While this may seem like great news to some, others may approach it more with trepidation. As it is, Dragon and Dungeon magazine will no longer be published in printed format, thanks to Wizards of the Coast’s actions. In fact, it even angered many fans. There’s also the fact that the many things that were offered for free on Wizards of the Coast’s website are going to require a special subscription.

However, despite any trepidation, I still think this is rather exciting. So why not take a look at what Wizards of the Coast is offering with 4th Ed.?

The Book Releases
Now as you’ll see in the videos of their announcement presentation, the Player’s Handbook will be released in May 2008, with the Monster Manual in June, and Dungeon Master’s Guide in July. So basically, we need to wait until July before we can all get our hands on the three core books.

However, if memory serves me correctly, 3rd and 3.5 Editions were both released on a similar schedule. Also, the Player’s Handbook for both included a couple sample monsters, as well as some information for Dungeon Masters. Thus, you could still play Dungeons and Dragons without having to have all three of the core rulebooks.

The Rules
So far, from the GenCon announcement, we know that we will still be using the d20 system. With that, we could assume that we’ll still be using things such as feats, skill ranks, and of course the typical ability scores for D&D. We could probably also surmise that other basics such as saving throws, attack rolls, movement speed, etc. will also remain largely unchanged.

So what the heck will 4th Edition be changing? According to the speakers, the rules will just be more streamlined. For example, they made a lot of fun of the 3.0 and 3.5 rules for grappling. Other special combat actions, such as tripping, charging, disarming, sundering, and others are much like grappling. They can be a pain in the butt to figure out, especially if you’re new to the game. Streamlining the rules for such actions, including others, can definitely help keep a game flowing smoothly, without sudden interruptions when the DM needs to look up a rule.

Though, I’ll admit, if people would learn to use indexes in the back of books, looking up such information would be easier. Unless said indexes are poorly made, in which case we’re out of luck.

And there’s more…
Apparently, much more. Yes, we get new books, with (slightly?) new rules. We’ll get some extra stuff too, but only if we really want to pay a subscription for it.

What do all of you think about the upcoming 4th Edition? Good or bad? And what kinds of changes to the rules do you think will happen? Or perhaps, what kinds of changes to the rules would you like to see in 4th Edition?

(Source: Today’s Nerd Check Video: D&D 4th Edition on Joystiq.com)