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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Garnfellow" data-source="post: 4687082" data-attributes="member: 1223">I was initially looking forward to 4e. I had had a great time with 3.5e, but there had been enough very handy innovations and advancements that it seemed time to consolidate everything back into a revised core. I was a huge fan of the announced design team. I liked just about everything I had heard about the high level goals of the new edition. I bought Star Wars Saga edition, thinking it would likely be a glimpse into 4e, and loved what I saw.And then the previews starting coming. At first, I just thought WotC was just running a suboptimal marketing campaign, and that the actual game would be spectacular.But weeks, and then months went by, and while I saw several things in 4e that did sound very cool, the general sense I got was that this really wasn't the game I was looking for. And that sense only grew with each new preview. So by the time the books hit the street, I wasn't so much angry or disappointed as I was just . . . indifferent.I've looked through the 4e books, and I would gladly play in a 4e game if someone were to run one. I'm sure it's a fine game, and much fun could be had with it. But for me, 4e is just too much of a change with too few improvements to justify jumping systems. I'd be going from a perfectly good, if flawed game of dungeoncrawling that I know well and own all the books for to a perfectly good, if flawed game of dungeoncrawling that I don't know well and don't own any of the books. Why bother?Given my investment in and general contentment with 3e, 4e either needed to be largely compatible with 3e OR a significant improvement, and ideally both. And unfortunately, it doesn't really seem to be either.Part of trouble, too, may be the old "uncanny valley" effect. From a distance, 4e sure looks a lot like the D&D I've always played. Fighters fight, wizards throw spells, dragons provide gold and XP.But on closer examination 4e's *just* different enough to really put me off. If it were a game that were a lot less -- or a lot more! -- different from older forms of D&D, I'd probably have an easier time accepting it. But as it is, it's got that weird part real/part fake Polar Express thing going on that, on a visceral level, I just can't shake.And without a usable GSL, third party publishers can't fill empty 4e niches for me that might have drawn me to the game. Although I love to play with different RPGs, for almost 10 years the OGL kept my interests and my wallet firmly within the d20 family. I mean, an entirely new edition of Ars Magica came and I didn't even give it a look.Now? Last weekend I ran my first Mongoose Traveller game. And I had a freaking blast.</blockquote>

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