Anyone else coming back into the fold because of 4.0?

[AZRogue]

My group stopped playing DnD with 3.5. We were already a bit tired and I think the whole mini-edition thing gave us the excuse to just put the books in the garage and forget them, so to speak. We've since lived a happy life on doses of d20 Modern and Rolemaster/MERP.


But my players are super psyched over 4E. They're the ones that first told me a new edition was on the way and that it was going to make combat fun again. I started reading about it and now I'm psyched, too. I've even started buying older DnD minis, starting last month, to be ready (I've decided to go minis) and have bought 200 so far, but that will be it to leave room for the 4E minis. I've also bought 3 each of the dungeon tiles that are out and still in print.

So, yeah, 4E has brought me back to DnD. Not back to RPGs, but back to the "motherland".

 

[LordArchaon]

Yes, as I mentioned in another thread, 4e actually brings me back into D&D playing, and DMing more than playing.

The main reason is that I like to pull out some interesting, strange and alternative settings and adventures, so that includes monsters, NPCs, and everything. And with 3e, I got the tools to do it, but it was a SLLLLOOOOOWWW process. Besides the increased speed of content creation that 4e gives, the fact that the math is said to function more than in 3e is a really really big incentive to switch over. Because when you, a DM, spend A LOT of time following all the rules and making all the encounters well, and then discover that the CR system is just a loose shot in the dark, you feel kinda pissed.
I know I will miss something from 3e. Monsters with lots of options, NPCs especially, and maybe silly multiclassing/dipping. But come on, it will be little more than nostalgia, because I'm sure 4e is more efficient at those things too.

I have a home-made world that will be easily converted to 4e.
I have plans for 4e version of a custom class (the Wildhuant, take a look) that I was doing for 3.5 and which got stuck when creating the spells for it, and I know that what I couldn't do in months for that class I will do in days with 4e, not to mention that it will actually be more useful, since it will be a replacement for the initially missing Druid...

Given all these things, I'm sure that the day I'll get the books for 4e I will play D&D again, after months of stagnation, and, even better, that I will be able to do it regularly from that moment on.

 

[Agamon]

I haven't left the fold, but if it weren't for 4E, I would have soon been leaving it. The last 5 levels worth of my AoW game has shown me the flaws of 3.5 much like a swift kick to the groin would explain pain. And while I haven't not enjoyed my 3.5 games up until now, much like someone who's eaten something before becoming violently ill and not wanting to eat it again, I've soured on 3.5 quite a bit. If it weren't for 4E, I'd be moving on more permanently to M&M and WFRP, but instead I'm working on my new homebrew D&D game.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Thanks for the advice. I think the first month I will be patient with my players. Afterwards if combat turns doesn't start to run smoothly, I'll start counting to 6. But the biggest challenge will be to find a group in my area this summer.

Glad I could help!

If you are geeked to get back into D&D with 4E then keep your eyes open for our Winter's Tomb, a freebie download adventure akin to our ENNie-award winning Wizard's Amulet, which is designed to be a "download and play right away" scenario for starting off 4E. WA brought alot of people into 3E and we are hoping to do the same with Winter's Tomb. It will be available on the very first day 3rd party publishers are able to put stuff out (no one knows when that will be yet), and it will be free.

I just downloaded your 3e version. I am going to try to convert it today for my 2nd 4th edition playtest tonight. Last night we played 4e for the first time. Went good. The game play impressed my players and I. Even the guy that if given any kind of powers to rifle through, would have information overload and could not act did well with it. That is a plus!!

I think it is refreshing that you as a publisher like 4e so far. I hope the GSL is to your liking and allows you to create the content that you want.

 

[Shroomy]

I have been half in and half out of 3.5e. I haven't actually played because of time constraints, but I've kept up with the game and have dabbled with freelance writing. Luckily for me, the release of 4e will coincide with my long distance relationship becoming just a relationship, so I will have more time to devote to gaming.

I also spoke to my friend yesterday about what has been released so far concerning 4e; he was our DM in my last campaign and he seemed psyched by the changes. His number one complaint about 3.5e was prep time, so hopefully 4e will alleviate some of his problems.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

Yep, 4e has definitely brought me back into the fold. As someone who played and DMed since 1e, I have to say 3.0/3.5 felt too much of a grind: monsters took too long to build, rules were designed for rules lawyers rather than gamers and Epic was laughable. 4e's cleaner system has got me excited - I genuinely believe I'll be able to wean players off the books and back into playing the game.

 

[PeelSeel2]

4e's cleaner system has got me excited - I genuinely believe I'll be able to wean players off the books and back into playing the game.

!!Muy Bien!!

 

[Methos of Aundair]

It's been a year or two since I've played and up until 4e I had no intention oof doing so. 4e has got me setting up possible campaign worlds again. I'll start off as a player first, once I can locate a group. I have a daughter now, so playing online might be the best option.

How is online play btw?

 

[Greenfaun]

I think I fall into this category too.

My first exposure to D&D was the cartoon show, and soon afterwards I had a friend who had a bunch of weird cheap plastic D&D toys, and we'd make "Dungeons" out of blocks, fill them with monsters, and send in our G.I. Joes to fight the monsters. Those battles almost always ended in huge explosions levelling the block "dungeons" and killing any monsters left inside. I can still remember posing a toy grell (I think we called it a "brainsquid" at the time) so just one tentacle was pathetically protruding from a the pile of blocks that had crushed its squishy cerebral body. Good times.

Then, in summer camp and even more in high school, I got exposed to the real thing. This is also about the time I started reading the novels, first the Dragonlance series and then a whole bunch of Forgotten Realms books, including the Icewind Dale trilogy. I liked D&D fine, but planescape and Darksun were awesome. The mechanics always seemed to be getting in between me and the game, though. Just the word "THAC0" still makes me want to throw miniatures against the wall. When a friend introduced me to Vampire: The Masquerade at my new high school in my junior year, I never looked back. Simple, elegant rules, easy dice resolutions, modern setting, closer-to-realistic violence, I was hooked. Mage and Werewolf were even more fun, and from there I branched out on my own to things like GURPS and HERO.

Until recently, I had played 3rd edition once, for a short and unfinished campaign run by a friend at work, and it was a big improvement but still not my game. My other main exposure has been the Giant in the Playground site, because OotS was so great it got me paying attention to the forums. That's what led me to Eberron, which got me back into the game in a serious way. I am an Eberron fanboy, I've played Eberron games, tried and failed to run my own Eberron game, and gotten frustrated with 3e mechanics all over again. Low level play is too fragile and swingy, higher level play is dominated by magic... A sky-pirate just can't get a break. If I were to run an Eberron game now, I'd want to use so many houserules it might not be recognizeable, and almost certainly wouldn't be fun. Still, the shortcomings of 3.5 now annoy me in that irrational way that only applies to something that doesn't matter at all but is supposed to be fun and ISN'T. I'm not sure I can ever ignore the problems and just enjoy the game, because I'm neurotic that way.

4e, though, looks like the D&D for me. I think it would be easy to use in campaigns styled after planescape, darksun, and eberron without much work. It has (supposedly) balanced character progression, faster combat, and big monster fights. The whole philosophy of the new edition seems better suited to me than the last couple incarnations. Sure, maybe it will get under my skin eventually too, but if it's what people are saying it is then that should take at least a couple years, right? Either way, I'm going to find a group to play with, and probably start my own game soon after it comes out. Should be fun.