D&D 4E Is 4E doing it for you?

[Wormwood]

Also, why would you strip away the flavour text?

Some of the most fun we have in 4e is coming up with our own flavor text---extemporaneously, in many cases.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Also, why would you strip away the flavour text?

I strip away the flavour text all the time...

... so I can replace it with new flavour text!

I'm really looking forward to using Flames of Phlegethos with my Infernal-Pact Warlock, so I can describe opening a miniature portal to the Burning Jungle of the Third Circle of Hell, releasing a swarm of fiendish fire ants to pour over my hapless victim, working their way under his clothing to begin feeding upon his flesh to the tune of 5 ongoing fire damage, save ends...

-Hyp.

 

[Felon]

I'm with those who just aren't into it. I wanted to like it, because at its core I think it does a good job of simplifying and rationalising many of 3.5e's flawed rules. But the powers system is a complete turn off for me, and the group I play with just isn't finding the game very evocative. As one person on this thread said, it seems more like a board game than a framework for collaborative storytelling.

Well, in a certain sense they're very much right. I don't think D&D's designers have been particularly bashful about saying that it was rule-design for the D&D minis game that made a big impact on 4e's design, not vice-versa.

 

[Felon]

Now I have easy to run monsters with interesting abilities that can last at least a few rounds.

In 4E the DM finally gets to join in on the fun.

Yes, I will say that looking through the 4e Monster Manual made me realize that not only was I not dreading the thought of running a high-level campaign, but for once I felt like I'd be cheating myself by starting the party at 1st level.

 

[Wormwood]

In 4E the DM finally gets to join in on the fun.

and most certainly this.

 

[Gothmog]

4e is my groups favorite version of D&D so far, hands down. Its simple to play and prep, gives players lots of options without bogging the game down, and gives all classes something interesting to do, in and out of combat.

My DMing style tends to shine most in less rules-dense systems, and 4e is a HUGE improvement over 3e in that regard. Combat is also a big improvement- it moves a lot faster for us, and doesn't dominate as much playtime, leaving more time for investigation and roleplaying. Contrary to what some folks are saying here, 4e has encouraged my players to be far more creative in combat, and describe their actions in detail so it doesn't feel like a boardgame to us (some of my players even "reskin" their powers to fit closer to their character concept). 4e also tends to be less item and gear dependent (and what items there are are not as powerful as previous edition magic items), which lets me run a lower magic campaign setting focusing on investigation and horror elements more easily than other editions.

Finally, 4e has brought 3 new people into gaming in my group that refused to play 3e. Two of them thought 3e was too complex, and one tried to start playing, but was put off by the ordeal of character creation. Now all three of these ladies are playing 4e happily and loving it. Thats a big factor- when the system isn't a barrier to new players. If 3e is even brought up during our gaming sessions, eyes are rolled and some boos and hisses aren't uncommon. My group would never go back to 3e- for us, its simply nowhere near as much fun as 4e.

 

[Felon]

If all of your spells are attack spells (if), then you have very little versatility.

???
My 3.5 evoker had tons of versatility. Energy Spheres had entirely different application from Wingbind, which had totally different applications from Firebrand, which had a completely different application from Moonbow. No one spell does it all....well, Wish maybe.

 

[Lancelot]

Yes, 4e is doing it for me.

After 8 years of 3e, my group was nearly played out. We were slowly migrating to other d20 options (like Cthulhu, Modern, and Star Wars) simply because we weren't really enjoying playing D&D characters over 9th level. 3e adventuring in the teens was painful, and Epic-level play was pure anguish.

If 4e hadn't come out, I'm not sure we'd still be playing D&D (...cue the wags who'll claim 4e isn't actually D&D...). And within a few years, I'm not sure we'd be playing d20 systems at all. I was looking into a horrible future where we'd be playing White Wolf, and wearing black lipstick, and listening compulsively to My Chemical Romance albums.

For saving me from that, if nothing else, I will praise 4e from the rooftops.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Nope.

4e was a thoroughly wasted opportunity. Maybe next time. . . if there is a next time.

 

[Felon]

So far, we've tried a couple of sessions of 4e, just to get the mechanics down. They work well enough, but they don't incite our collective imagination much on their own.

it may be that 4e is good because it gets the mechanics out of everyone's way, but we kind of prefer rules that actually support what we're trying to do a bit more than that.

Well, that's a good point. 4e doesn't cater to the people who want complexity of any kind. It's not just that it's been reduced to a skirmish game, it's also not a very deep or elegant skirmish game. I think 4e doesn't try to cater to the diehard role-player either.

The people 4e does cater to in spades are the people who want to roll dice and move some minis around and goof off for a few hours with minimal stopping to look stuff up.