What about 4th edition made you go AHHHH this is D&D to me.

[rkwoodard]

Hi,
I am not wanting a war, I know that too some people 4th edition is not D&D. That is a valid view and we will not dispute that with you here. So, please don't knock the good folks who might choose to post here.

But, what did you see in the books that gave you that warm fuzzy feeling and made you feel like home.

For me, I enjoyed reading through the PHB and the Monster Manual, but the thing that made me smile and remember the good old days, was the Artifacts in the DMG. I didn't even care about the mechanics, when I saw

Axe of the Dwarvish Lords
and the
Hand of Vecna, along side of Eye of Vecna
and even the Iron Coat of Lun

BAM, That is IT for me.

Your stories?

RK

 

[jdrakeh]

For me, the "ahhhhhhh" moment was realizing that it wasn't going to take me hours on end to prep for adventures due to the new, streamlined, NPC rules (including the long overdue appearance of 1 HP minions), the introduction of guidelines other than "make it up and playtest it until you get it right" for building encounters and monsters, and the absence of magic-item dependency with regard to character/encounter balance. I guess it might be because I play primarily BD&D, but I could never reconcile hours of prep and number crunching to balance adventures with D&D

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I got the "AHHHHHHH..." factor when I saw that I could once again concentrate on running the game and less on making sure I had the math right.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

My "ahhhhh" moment came when I was able to intimidate my jaded 3.x players with just a group of kobolds. Reminded me of the highschool game days pre 3.0 where I found it easier to make monsters feel like a threat without fudging rolls.

 

[Obryn]

I concur with the artifacts. Absolutely, 100%.

Also, sneaking the 3e iconics' names into the name lists was a nice touch.

Really, though, when I read through the descriptions of all the attributes, I felt like I was coming home.

-O

 

[Baumi]

When I saw the tile

No really with the classical Attributes, Hitpoints, D20 for success rolls, dx for damage, Classes, Monsters, Magic Items,... I don't see how this can not be D&D.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

When I saw the tile

No really with the classical Attributes, Hitpoints, D20 for success rolls, dx for damage, Classes, Monsters, Magic Items,... I don't see how this can not be D&D.

Agree, that's still a strong factor.

It is hard to point down, but maybe it is the dungeon exploring, engaging typical D&D enemies, and having all the usual classes around. (Current group I DM consists of Cleric, Rogue, Paladin and Wizard).

Maybe it's also the way that combat is more or less expected, and while hard and dangerous, not feeling all that gritty - very different from Warhammer.

It is hard to point down a single thing. Maybe it is just sitting around with the same guys as always when I play D&D, and seeing them playing them their characters as I expect their D&D characters to be played by them...

 

[Old Gumphrey]

A combination of me wanting to DM again due to the vast ease of adventure prep, and not looking at any one character class and saying "this sucks" (3e ranger and paladin, I'm looking at you).

 

[Andor]

So far... nothing. I think 4e has a lot of potential as a Fantasy RPG but nothing in it seems particularly D&Dish to me.

I can think of half a dozen games off the top of my head that feel more like D&D to me and none of them have D&D in the title.

I wonder if this is a perspective thing. One of the guys in my local group was saying "It has classes, levels and you roll dice! It has orcs! It's D&D!" to which I replied "Well what makes it feel more like D&D than PFRPG, Talislanta, 5th Cycle, or WHFRP?" "His reply was "I dunno, I had to look all those up on Wikipedia."

Have those of us who have seen more D&D knock-off games developed finer (not better, look it up) discrimination for what qualifies as D&D to us? 'Cause frankly Earthdawn feels more D&Dish to me than 4e does.

 

[Engilbrand]

I recently played in a New World of Darkness game that used the Underdark as a setting. It was ridiculously low magic and had a few races that were created using the NWoD rules. I called it D&D.
3.5 is D&D. It just happens to be a D&D that I no longer enjoy. 4th edition is D&D. It just happens to be one that I enjoy. And for the first time, I actually find myself looking forward to DMing.