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I find it an interesting, timely topic. My group has played 3.5E up until the end of 2009 when we moved to 4E. Personally, I've enjoyed the move. One of my players though has indicated he isn't all that taken with 4E which got me thinking about where to go with the gaming group should more of...

I don't think any of those solutions solve the subjectivity problem. Your example of the conciliatory trait is a prime example: conciliatory can easily become passivity. Where do you draw the line? It's a judgement call but somewhere on the border of passivity you start rewarding the player...

It's been a long time since I've used the old classic-style wandering monsters where there are tables of many things that might cross the paths of a party so perhaps I should have answered 'no' but I like the spirit of wandering monsters, which to me are encounters that represent the random...

Not for me. For one thing roleplaying is very subjective. Even with the best of intentions on the part of both players and ref, I've found any but small RP rewards get too easy to game. You get people roleplaying for the sake of power (because levels are power) and not for the sake of...

I have played a lot of wizards in my day in every flavor of D&D and until 4E they have always felt to me like a favored class (especially so for the earlier editions where wizard XP progression took off about level 6). By 3.5 they could be tempered, especially with a focus on foes with SR but...

In print in general matters to me although I'll confess I'm reconsidering that at present. Some reasons for prefering in-print: Ease of adding new players: I can direct them to Amazon or the corner game store to find the source books. (Yes, I know that out of print sources like the excellent...

I'm more of a 'B' response. I like stats to matter but in the end, I'm not a complete stickler on it. It's a game, folks need to have fun. If the dumb fighter played by the smart player is mostly stupid but one session really wants to make a clever suggestion, I might remind him of his...

Start some "game" topics. Almost any thread gets traction and you might encourage others to post like minded topics. Ruleset specific stuff probably ought to go into the relevant forum though. One thing about the "game" topics, a lot of time they are hard to reply to: They pertain to a...

Good points and I may regret it but we're a very seasoned group (this group has been together 16 years and we've all played for much longer). You may be right and I may regret the leap but given the hit to momentum by the unanticipated break and the unease about 4E, I think a jump straight to...

Excellent point on the bookkeeping. We haven't played at this point yet obviously but I wonder if that is going to be 4E's saving grace. While I always liked casters and played a number well past level 10 in 3.0 and 3.5, the bookkeeping got absurd. It was especially crazy with my epic 3.0 magic...

That's my player's comment not mine but I think he feels the incrementalism and the balance across classes tend to wash out the high points. I tend to look at it from a different point of view: the capabilities of even low level characters plus the smoother "wear out" of a character over the...

My D&D group has been playing 4E for about 10 months now, including some 4E trials we ran to try out the system. We're up to 5th level now and as a ref, I enjoy the system and feel the group has been enjoying the sessions overall. We've had a bit of a break due to real-life issues and we had...

I suppose that may be true for those who think the soul of D&D includes the setting specific items. That's not the case for me or nearly anyone I game with though. But I've been accused of not playing D&D because I don't use the planes system. I suppose such accusations might fly very thick if...

I think they had an eye on MMORGs when they designed the system...

I've given that some thought since I moved to 4E which dispenses with a great deal of previous systems feel (even the bones) yet I still am comfortable calling it D&D and while no other system I've tried comes close (haven't tried pathfinder although I may at some point, sounds interesting). I...

I won't claim to have thought this all the way through :) but I was thinking more along the lines of any PC could choose to pursue magic (maybe it has more of a psionics feel at least in the sense that it is innate) to a minor extent, but not enough that the characters became hard-core casters...

In the strict sense, the daily power is the only Vancian aspect of 4E. Everything else recharges on quanta small enough compared to classic D&D to not feel very Vancian to me. You can call it how you like but 4E is at best a very dilute Vancian system. The basic principle is that you can do...

Nice discussion. For me there are two conflicting pulls on magic regarding how it is handled in a system. On the one hand, I like a lower magic system and the chance of misfires. On the other hand, in a game, it needs to be handled in a way where everyone has fun. If a PC must be focused on...

Well... I'm not really sure where you are going with your system or your question but there seem to be some fundementally different approaches to advancement. On one path, more advanced characters don't have any more capacity to take damage then lower level characters. In this school of...

Vancian magic isn't that core to D&D. It's one aspect of one class (in the original rules). 4E certainly isn't vancian and while many old timers may not consider it D&d for that or similar reasons, others do.