4E D&D Rules Primer Released

As much as I try to stay away from the 4th Edition discussions that are out there, I felt I needed to pass along that the folks over at Wizards have released a Rules Primer for those of us that will not be able to attend D&D Experience 2008. You can pull a copy from http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20080228a.

It’s only two pages but it does shed light on a number of the mechanics that will be changing in the next edition, take healing for example:

Hit points still measure your ability to stay in the fight, but
healing’s no longer just the burden of one character
anymore. Each character has a certain number of healing
surges. Once during each encounter, you can take a
standard action called a second wind; this gives you a certain
amount of hit points back equal to your healing surge value
and gives you a +2 bonus to all your defenses until the start
of your next turn.

In addition after an extended rest, which is defined as 6 hours, you’ll be fully healed – big change from 3rd.

I have to admit some of the things I’ve ready are encouraging and may just make it into my next run as GM even if we don’t make the move to 4th Edition – but as for our group making the move, I’m thinking it won’t happen in the near future.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you like what you’ve seen so far?

May your dice roll well.