4e "getting back to D&D's roots" how?

[cr0m]

I've heard lots of people say that they like 4e because it's getting back to the roots of the game, the feel of some of the older editions, etc. I'm playing in a 4e game right now (just started) and I'm liking it, but I don't see much that reminds me of Basic or AD&D.

Do you think it's getting back to the roots of the game? Explain it to me! Because I am very nostalgic for my old D&D games and would love to recapture some of that feel with a newer system (and also... my friends don't want to play old D&D).

 

[Ourph]

I see it more from the DM side of the screen than the player side. The ease of prep and the stronger reliance on DM adjudication rather than specific rules remind me a lot of pre-2000 D&D. I also feel that "the rules aren't the physics of the game world" is a very old-school philosophy.

 

[Jack99]

For me, its a combination of how monsters are created and run, and how the rules are broader, simpler. 3.x had a rule for everything, and it was easy to feel you had to use said rules, instead of relying on your improv skills and sound judgement, as we had before.

 

[howandwhy99]

In some ways 4E is much more like early D&D than 3E was. In other ways it is a lot less. If you are looking specifically at content, like world content and adventure design, there are definitely some homages in the H-series of newly released Wizards adventures. I think Ourph, above, is most on target saying a lot of what the DM handles is back in 4E. Plus a good bit of the advice in the DMG could have come from earlier days. Stuff like Points of Light, monster creation rules, simplicity of system, ease and quickness of play. Folks aren't crazy to say 4E is more like early D&D. It just has a number of design elements that are not like early D&D too. (some, like clarity of text and layout, are better now)

 

[bagger245]

I would have liked 4th ed if not due to the foreign "Powers" that all the classes
have. The powers seem to be the core of 4th ed to me. The moment the word
power gets mentioned, I can't help but imagine playing medieval X-Men. Hope I didn't
offend anyone.
Other than that, its pretty modernized BECM...

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

For me it's the easy of running it. I can create monsters 20 minutes before the players arrive, something I haven't done since AD&D. I love exceptions based rules systems, they really put the power back in the DM's hands. I'm not wild about the whole 'powers' aspect, it just doesn't feel very D&D-ish when you ready them, but during play it doesn't really detract from anything. I know we're all enjoying playing D&D a whole lot more now, so I suppose that may be the true reason 4E feels more like earlier editions to me. At the end of the day, for me D&D is whatever gets my buddies and me around a table, slaughtering orcs and amassing treasure and having a lot of fun.

 

[Treebore]

Yeah, I don't "see" why people think that. I think its been so long since anyone has played or read the OD&D or 1E rules that they don't remember what it was really like.

I can see where it being simpler may trigger thoughts about "old" D&D, but I do not see any hard core similarities in the rules that make 4E closer to them than 3E is.

I only think the "feel" could have any similarity. For me it doesn't come close to being as fun as OD&D and 1E are, I wish it did.

 

[Aus_Snow]

It is without a doubt the farthest from 'old school'. Whether that is considered a good or a bad thing, well that's case by case, of course.

 

[bagger245]

Its the style play of modern games that makes it different. I don't think any future
games will ever be made akin to the games of old (with the exception of C&C, methinks).
If anyone wanted "old school feel", just go play the orginal games and throw in some house rules
if you're into streamlining etc...

 

[Keefe the Thief]

For me, its the Grognard hate. When AD&D came out here in Germany, i talked to some people who i knew played D&D at the time. I wanted to know how that "advanced" system was, and if i should get it to try D&D in a kind of "Tabula Rasa" situation.

I cannot write here what they told me. The word filter would block it out anyway.