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

[Fenes]

For me, 4E doesn't do it. The design, while elegant and rather consequent in pursuing its goal, screams "COMBAT! COMBAT! COMBAT!" to me, with a "oh, yeah, there's some stuff for non combat too... skill challenges... or something... not that we playtested them, or we'd have found the glaring errors in their math, but, well, here they are, you can fix it for yourself, but now RETURN TO COMBAT! COMBAT! COMBAT!".

I don't like having my session filled with combat, much less with multiple skirmishes. I want plots, intrigue, and social interaction, if possible culminating in a single, big, fast and flashy combat. So, my goals and 4E's goals of having lots of skirmishes do not emrge well.

Then my flavor and 4E's flavor and mechanics do not mesh well either.

Finally, I have tweaked and tuned my house rules and playstyle and campaign world for years. I am not about to start anew and spend months until I am comfortable DMing again.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I guess it really depends on each person, but I find the way PCs are made and Skill-Challenges, Rituals, how loose the system is, etc. works better for non-combat sessions.

I have found so far for my group, 4e has enabled us to more easily do non-combat and have it be as fun and as entertaining as it is in say games like WoD.

Besides for Professions (which our group never liked anyways, viewing it as odd to have Profession being the determining factor not the skilled involved in said Profession) and I guess more "non-combat spells" (though with our group being all martial doesn't matter much) what did say 3.5 give that made it so much better for non-combat?

So far in our campaign (of multiple sessions) I have had about say in total, probably 3 hours worth of fighting (about 6-7 encounters) and the rest has been rping, Skill Challenges, exploration, etc totalling in at probably 10 hour. So there is quite a difference between combat time and non-combat.

 

[Fenes]

4E dropped the perform skill (like SWSE dropped Entertain). That alone, while easily house ruled, shows me my goals, and the goals of the designers do not mesh well. 3E just offers me more options I like, especially with Bo9S.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

4E dropped the perform skill (like SWSE dropped Entertain). That alone, while easily house ruled, shows me my goals, and the goals of the designers do not mesh well. 3E just offers me more options I like, especially with Bo9S.

Perform though is what I was talking about with the Profession bracket in my post. It doesn't make sense to either myself or my group that being able to perform something should be based on some non-existent thing (in that, you can't say "I have the physical/mental capability of perform") and not actual physical skills the character knows.

Thus why we absolutely adore using Skill Challenges for things like Perform, it also makes it more then a simple dice roll. Like we have had a Skill Challenge where a PC was trying to attract the crows and we had it going back and forth and I as the DM could counter Skill Challenge to see if he can keep the crowd.

To make it more interesting, my rolls would be secret but I would describe the effect, so if I made a Insight roll and it was a success, the crowd would jeer him for being say skittish. If he recognizes it and on his turn uses a Skill to counter this, then he gains a bonus to his roll. At the end of it, if he succeeds he manages to keep the crowd entertained, if not he doesn't.

 

[pukunui]

Finally, I have tweaked and tuned my house rules and playstyle and campaign world for years. I am not about to start anew and spend months until I am comfortable DMing again.

This is key. I had to house rule 3.5 like crazy just to make it palatable, never mind enjoyable ... and luckily for me, most of the changes made by 4e mirror the direction I was taking 3.5 anyway. Is 4e perfect? Hardly. But I think it's a much better game than 3.5, and I think it is potentially more conducive to non-combat gaming than 3.5, but I can easily see - and readily accept - why other people don't.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm loving 4e, both as a player and as a DM. No questions.

 

[jensun]

It works extremely well for my group who have spent the last 6 years playing RP heavy games of Buffy, Pendragon and Spirit of the Century.

We played 3.0 for a couple of years after its release before moving on to other games (or areas for some of us). Most of my players missed the entirety of 3.5.

The system supports us in the areas we want it to and mostly gets out of the way where we dont need it.

 

[Fenes]

This is key. I had to house rule 3.5 like crazy just to make it palatable, never mind enjoyable ... and luckily for me, most of the changes made by 4e mirror the direction I was taking 3.5 anyway. Is 4e perfect? Hardly. But I think it's a much better game than 3.5, and I think it is potentially more conducive to non-combat gaming than 3.5, but I can easily see - and readily accept - why other people don't.

Most of my changes don't go into the direction of 4E. I actually like the "we usually have no more than one (big) fight in a session, so go nova" style. I like the Bo9S basically "unlimited per day powers". I like the different skills, classes and prestige classes. And I can take what I liek from 4E more easily and adapt it to my 3E game than tweak 4E into something I like.

 

[That One Guy]

Does 4e do what for me?

It hasn't cooked me breakfast, I can't take it for walks, and no matter how hard I wish, extra money does not appear magically in the binding.

I will say, however, that it's providing my group and me with some damn enjoyable gaming, and has revitalized my interest in D&D. (3.5 was really suffering in comparison to WFRP2 and SWSE for my group.)

-O

4e's cooked me breakfast. Eggs and bacon with a waffle. In the kitchen right now, actually.
Playing, I love rogues and fighters... although... those're all I've played so far. So, I can't really comment on the wizard other than seeing some wizard spells being pretty awesome in games. I've ran some sessions and...

I had a lot typed, but I realized Fallen Seraph and Pukunui pretty much cover how I feel.

 

[pukunui]

Most of my changes don't go into the direction of 4E. I actually like the "we usually have no more than one (big) fight in a session, so go nova" style. I like the Bo9S basically "unlimited per day powers". I like the different skills, classes and prestige classes. And I can take what I liek from 4E more easily and adapt it to my 3E game than tweak 4E into something I like.

All of which is fine.