Yeah, so Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition was announced this spring, which is interesting in and of itself, I suppose, if you’re still playing pen and paper RPGs, but what’s more interesting is the whispers of online functionality, gaming portals, subscriptions services and more that have been swirling about since the spring. I hadn’t been paying much attention, but today I noticed this video showing some of the functionality of their new services (~5 minute youtube video below – fast forward about a minute and a half to see the online stuff):

Color me intrigued. Details are still scanty, but a toolset that takes care of modeling the mechanics of combat, in 3d? Awesome! I don’t know who I’d actually be able to play with, but my love of tactical combat knows no bounds. There are other toolsets out there for the pen and paper rpg crowd, but nothing I’m aware of comes close to this in terms of presentation, and presumably it will be populated with the complete catalog of DnD material, something no other toolset has or can come close to. Supposedly this stuff is going to be available in spring of ’08. I’ll be watching to see how it plays out.[via]