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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jonathan Grant" data-source="post: 7395538" data-attributes="member: 6947967">Pretty much exactly what you guessed. I think 4E's primary design philosophy was just to take all of the occasionally fuzzy, open-to-interpretation or overly complex systems in 3.5 and distil them down into their most basic mechanical form and then build up from that to smooth out some problems that people have been complaining about since the AD&D days. And for what it's worth--I think it does a good job at that. But I think that kind of mechanical, "gamification" of the core rules hit people wrong. The INTENTION was to build a sound mechanical framework with minimal confusion that players could then hang any number of settings or stories on--a solid skeleton for whatever fluff you wanted to dress it in. But a lot of people just couldn't get past how different it looked on the page to what they were used to. And that's where the jargon comes in. What's the difference, really, between a cantrip and an at-will power? Mostly just that one sounds more D&D-ey. And maybe that IS a problem, but cantrip wouldn't have made sense for a non-magic action so...they chose a word they thought was more general in deference to clarity. Ditto for, say, feet vs squares. I've had so many conversations with people that will describe how they don't like this or that "gamey" mechanic of 4E but when asked what they prefer in 3.5 or 5 mostly just describe the same thing but with a higher word count, more steps and/or less clarity. That's not to say one edition is strictly speaking "better". I think 4E would probably be the edition I would go back to if I started playing D&D again but there's nothing wrong with any of them--it's the definition of a YMMV choice. I just feel like 4E gets a lot of weird hate and a lot of the reasons for it (like the idea that it somehow discourages roleplaying) just seem to have more to do with people's feelings around the jargon and ethos changes than the product and experience itself.PS: if anyone's starting a 4E game in Portland...I want to join you, lol.</blockquote>

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