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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorhook" data-source="post: 5276163" data-attributes="member: 58401">IMHO, in the long run, 4E offers more consistent game, which means that overall, 4E is more likely not to be "unfun". (Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that 4E is more likely to be fun.) 4E is mostly very fair and balanced, and that's a virtue in game design. That said, it's not the only virtue.There are legitimate (though highly controversial) arguments to be made that 4E ejected too much of whatever constituted the "essence" of D&D. In contrast, very few people currently claim that 3.5E is lacking the same "essence", and while this "essence" is a very nebulous trait, its psychological effect upon the enjoyment of D&D can be profound. Additionally, while 3.5E may not be as fair or consistent as 4E, it is a strong game in its own right, and is also noticeably more fair and consistent than its predecessors.You can probably surmise that I'm in favour of some kind of synthesis of these systems, in order to combine the best traits of both. It's true; I am in favour of a game with the design philosophy of 4E, but with the "essential" (<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) elements of previous editions. Luckily for me, in the two years 4E has been available, it has demonstrably moved in that direction.As an aside, I speculate that one factor that remains insufficient in 4E is the level of challenge to players. I imagine that if characters (balanced fairly, as they are) were perceived to be in more danger, their survival might seem more heroic and less mechanical.</blockquote>

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