Hussar
Legend
delericho said:4e is vastly different from 3.5e. The rules are very different, the default world is very different, it plays differently. In some areas, the game has had some much needed simplification applied... and in other areas it's much more complex. (They've traded tracking of lots of stacking modifiers for a micro-management of short-term conditions.)
I see a lot of people saying this, but, honestly, I really don't see it. Yes, the mechanics are different, totally true. But, probably no more different than, say, going from core only AD&D to Full On All Splats 3e. And, if you played 3e outside of core, then 4e isn't really that huge of a jump.
In play, the biggest differences I see are:
1. Combat is a LOT more mobile. Makes sense. Everyone and their mother has stuff that makes you move. This has a number of knock on effects particularly when designing an encounter (narrow, 5 foot corridor makes a really boring 4e encounter).
2. The biggie for me is that characters now act out of turn all the time. Pre-4e, it was pretty rare that your character did anything outside of his turn in initiative. You might get an AOO once in a while (depending on build I suppose), but, that was about it. In 4e, it's not unusual to act two or three times in a given round - between the leader giving you extra attacks, increased mobility drawing opportunity attacks and that sort of thing.
Outside of combat though? It's not so much different. The skills are largely the same - the names might be a bit different, but, they generally do the same jobs. But, at the end of the day, you talk to NPC's, search around to find stuff, explore and then kill what you find.
Pretty much the same in every edition.