4E - 18 Months Later: Love it or hate it?

[Meek]

It's a mixed bag for me. While at first I was extremely excited and happy for it, nowadays I've cooled off a lot. I like playing it and I like DMing it and I do both. But I don't love it like I used to when it was new. I've started to see cracks in the pearl surface, and I feel more and more distant from the general audience of D&D 4e (especially the Insider crowd).

Beyond that, there's itches that the game can't scratch for me. But then again I've always been a multi-system gamer. I play 4e, Cthulhutech, Maid: RPG and nowadays I've added GURPS 4th which I'm steadily falling in love with. I've also started writing my own homebrew system to pair with my homebrew setting to play with friends, since my setting's started to evolve past what I see as confines in 4e, and my friends are always excited to learn a new system – especially when I'm tweaking it .

Whenever I want to play high-octane fantasy with tough as nails BIG DAMN HEROES I'll go with 4e for sure. But for other things I'm looking to other systems.

 

[bytor4232]

I dislike it. Its a fun game, but it lacks that "RPG" feel to me. 3E/3.5E was bad enough, but 4E just took it to another level. Its a fine wargame, and a ton of fun to play, just not for me, at least not as a DM. I'll play it, but I'll be sticking with 0E/1E/3.5E for my games. Besides, in another year 4.5E will be out and maybe then I'll "think" about it. Not.

Don't laugh, with 15 pages of errata, you can almost see the writing on the wall.

 

[Hjorimir]

I love 4e. Sure, there are a few things that could be better (I'm looking at you, Mr. Bland Magic Item), but the gameplay and prep (DDI is full of awesome and win) can't be touched as far as I'm concerned.

 

[ForceUser]

Love it.

I ended my 3.5E game at 15th level and vowed to never again spend 8 hours to prep for a 4-hour game. 4E rules are concise and modular and make sense from a gamist perspective, yet allow for creative storytelling without needing to justify everything through rules arcana the way I felt compelled to do in 3E.

That said, I hate 4E books---so dull to read. Just piles of rules. I'm happy for DDI.

 

[hazel monday]

Hate it.

It's like a video game. A slow, boring videogame.

Also, I hate the look of it. Way too much anime meets Mountain Dew commercial.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I hate it. Mainly because it drove me away from a game I've enjoyed so long.

Rules are dumbed down limiting combat options and making combat too simplistic and repetitive.

Monster manual creatures lost their unique feel. Undead no longer feel like undead.

Encounter powers were the worst addition to the game I've ever seen from a storyteller's perspective. I'm sure the players love being able to do something more than swing every combat, but working in the repetition of encounter powers every battle as a storyteller is a prime example of bad writing. You didn't have this problem with situational feats and daily resources.

Powers replacing feats I despise. You no longer feel like you're learning a fighting style. It feels more like you're hitting a button to use a power that you suddenly can't use. It's a metagame element that is like bad writing that takes you out of the story. At least it does for me.

So much I can't stand about 4E. Such a repetitive game. It leaves very little open to DM interpretation. It doesn't allow for creative tactics or character builds by the players. Very modular, simple, and lacking for an advanced gamer that would have liked additional options rather than having my options further limited.

Despise 4E. I pray to the RPG gods that D&D will fall back into the hands of game designers that want to make it better rather than simpler.

 

[catsclaw227]

It's like a video game. A slow, boring videogame.

Also, I hate the look of it. Way too much anime meets Mountain Dew commercial.

Rules are dumbed down limiting combat options and making combat too simplistic and repetitive.

<snip>

So much I can't stand about 4E. Such a repetitive game. It leaves very little open to DM interpretation. It doesn't allow for creative tactics or character builds by the players. Very modular, simple, and lacking for an advanced gamer that would have liked additional options rather than having my options further limited.

Despise 4E. I pray to the RPG gods that D&D will fall back into the hands of game designers that want to make it better rather than simpler.

Obviously, YMMV.

For those new to 4e that don't know much, none of these descriptions even closely resemble the 4e game that is played at my table (or the tables of many friends of mine).

4e has openly given back to the DM the ability to make judgment calls and interpretations on situations. It's one of the well known design goals and even those that don't like 4e agree that it's more open to DM interpretation than 3.x.

Encounter powers were the worst addition to the game I've ever seen from a storyteller's perspective. I'm sure the players love being able to do something more than swing every combat, but working in the repetition of encounter powers every battle as a storyteller is a prime example of bad writing. You didn't have this problem with situational feats and daily resources.

Powers replacing feats I despise. You no longer feel like you're learning a fighting style. It feels more like you're hitting a button to use a power that you suddenly can't use. It's a metagame element that is like bad writing that takes you out of the story. At least it does for me.

I am having a hard time finding buttons on my character sheet. Oh, and I didn't know I was writing a story. I though we were playing D&D.

 

[resistor]

I agree with a lot of PlaneSailing's points. I was really hopeful for 4e: I really liked some of mechanical simplifications I saw in SWSE, and I was even open to a transition towards per-encounter mechanics. What threw me off the train, however, was the radical changes to core concepts that came with it.

I wanted (and still want, and would pay for) the same game with simpler mechanics, not a different game.

 

[caudor]

I had to vote: I like it.

For me, 4e is like a smile with a missing tooth. Once the DDI game table is a reality, then I'll love it.

 

[Ulrick]

I voted "I hate it," But I'd like to change my vote to "I dislike it."

I hated 4e everytime I saw my 4e books on my shelf. But now I've sold them, so they're gone. The 4e books reminded me of the money time wasted running a 4e campaign last spring. I gave 4e a good try. But it failed my expectations, went against my gaming philosophy, and caused a division among the gamers I know.

But now that those books are gone, I'm not so angry anymore. Amazing.