I've tried to maintain an open mind about 4E since its announcement. My emotions in regards to the new system have varied from excitement, to disinterest, to dislike, to accepting it as a fun game (just not D&D as I like it).
Tonight however, I played in a very fun 4E game. My previous experiences with it have been limited to a trial run of 4E combat with some friends and minimal story, several delve events at Origins, and a D&D tournament game at Origins. None of these were overly fun for me.
The game tonight finally felt like D&D again. We spent most of the session getting acquainted. Some of the characters, escaped slaves all, had met during a previous session (the combat playtest mentioned previously). They consisted of a female halfling ranger; female elven rogue and female elven warlock (sisters); female tiefling cleric; and male dragonborn fighter. After escaping their slavemasters last session they fled through the jungle where tonight they met up with a male dragonborn warlord and a female halfling wizard. The group promptly rescued (i.e. bought) a male halfing drunkard from slavers.
Once established, the party was approached by two brothers who knew of the existence of a ruined mint built ages (80-90 years) past by a previous king. In exchange for the information about its location, the party agreed to return 30% of their findings to the two brothers.
What ensued was a shopping trip (mostly to equip the drunk, crab-ridden halfling), an overland trek through the jungle (with a RP encounter with a group of hunters...they were nosy about what we were looking for); I perosnally think the jungle trek would have benefited from a combat encounter. Once we reached the mint, we were unable to get the doors open, but the halflings were able to find a hole in the ceiling; this was of course preceded and followed by lots of athletics (for climbing checks) and a few falling elves. Finally inside the mint, we faced a variety of clever traps before we were ultimately attacked by kobolds. No party member went down, but both dragonborns took substantial damage, one requiring the use of a second win and healing word from the cleric.
I should also mention that instead of using the critcle rules as written we were using the crit and fumble decks from Paizo. A fumble with my sling led to it being misaligned and imposing a -4 penalty for all subsequent attacks until repaired. The card, ironically, says that a craft check is required to complete the repair. "Arrrrggggghhhhhh," I cried, "there are no craft skills in 4E." Fortunately, I still managed to be effective with my misaligned sling and eventually captured a new sling from the defeated kobold slingers.
In summary, the role-playing portions of the game played pretty much like they did with this group (or a similar group) in previous editions. Combat was, well, different. I liked that there was lots of manuevering. I liked that we had to work as a team. I still have mixed feelings about the larger number of HPs (except minions) and relatively lower damages, but I'm starting to think that even this makes for a better game. As it stands, I suspect that all of the groups that I play with will continue playing 3.5 for the present, but also start slipping in more and more 4E play (note that we play a lot of different games anyway).
Chad
Tonight however, I played in a very fun 4E game. My previous experiences with it have been limited to a trial run of 4E combat with some friends and minimal story, several delve events at Origins, and a D&D tournament game at Origins. None of these were overly fun for me.
The game tonight finally felt like D&D again. We spent most of the session getting acquainted. Some of the characters, escaped slaves all, had met during a previous session (the combat playtest mentioned previously). They consisted of a female halfling ranger; female elven rogue and female elven warlock (sisters); female tiefling cleric; and male dragonborn fighter. After escaping their slavemasters last session they fled through the jungle where tonight they met up with a male dragonborn warlord and a female halfling wizard. The group promptly rescued (i.e. bought) a male halfing drunkard from slavers.
Once established, the party was approached by two brothers who knew of the existence of a ruined mint built ages (80-90 years) past by a previous king. In exchange for the information about its location, the party agreed to return 30% of their findings to the two brothers.
What ensued was a shopping trip (mostly to equip the drunk, crab-ridden halfling), an overland trek through the jungle (with a RP encounter with a group of hunters...they were nosy about what we were looking for); I perosnally think the jungle trek would have benefited from a combat encounter. Once we reached the mint, we were unable to get the doors open, but the halflings were able to find a hole in the ceiling; this was of course preceded and followed by lots of athletics (for climbing checks) and a few falling elves. Finally inside the mint, we faced a variety of clever traps before we were ultimately attacked by kobolds. No party member went down, but both dragonborns took substantial damage, one requiring the use of a second win and healing word from the cleric.
I should also mention that instead of using the critcle rules as written we were using the crit and fumble decks from Paizo. A fumble with my sling led to it being misaligned and imposing a -4 penalty for all subsequent attacks until repaired. The card, ironically, says that a craft check is required to complete the repair. "Arrrrggggghhhhhh," I cried, "there are no craft skills in 4E." Fortunately, I still managed to be effective with my misaligned sling and eventually captured a new sling from the defeated kobold slingers.
In summary, the role-playing portions of the game played pretty much like they did with this group (or a similar group) in previous editions. Combat was, well, different. I liked that there was lots of manuevering. I liked that we had to work as a team. I still have mixed feelings about the larger number of HPs (except minions) and relatively lower damages, but I'm starting to think that even this makes for a better game. As it stands, I suspect that all of the groups that I play with will continue playing 3.5 for the present, but also start slipping in more and more 4E play (note that we play a lot of different games anyway).
Chad
