6 months later: impressions of 4e

[Obryn]

Could be that much of my dissatisfaction with 4e is a DM problem, but that's hard to say.

I know your gaming style well enough to know that 4e will never be your favorite RPG of all time, regardless of who DMs it.

Objectively, though, I've heard things from both you and others in the game that make me scratch my head and wonder if your DM is a contributory factor. He likes to beat you guys over the head with a nerf stick, and discourage you from doing cool stuff, from what I can tell.

Also, IMHO, there are only a very small number of possibly-broken things in the supplements so far... There's a ton of option creep (which leads to slight power creep by letting you fine-tune your character better) but not a ton of power creep, IMHO. I can only name 3-4 out of thousands of items in AV that I'd have an issue with, for example. As a DM, it's easy to look at new stuff and assume it will be broken... but really, my own tendency is to allow it until I can see that it's broken.

-O

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I guess that makes Pathfinder Win 7.

Pathfinder = Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Something you might want for your older system if you see no need to make a big switch.

Hmmm... right now, we've only once found ritual components as loot, and the only places to buy components have been at a 50% markup (blame an interpretation of Points of Light, in that nothing is ever the cost as listed) and limited in quantity to about one ritual.

Could be that much of my dissatisfaction with 4e is a DM problem, but that's hard to say.

I know your gaming style well enough to know that 4e will never be your favorite RPG of all time, regardless of who DMs it.

Objectively, though, I've heard things from both you and others in the game that make me scratch my head and wonder if your DM is a contributory factor. He likes to beat you guys over the head with a nerf stick, and discourage you from doing cool stuff, from what I can tell.

Also, IMHO, there are only a very small number of possibly-broken things in the supplements so far... There's a ton of option creep (which leads to slight power creep by letting you fine-tune your character better) but not a ton of power creep, IMHO. I can only name 3-4 out of thousands of items in AV that I'd have an issue with, for example. As a DM, it's easy to look at new stuff and assume it will be broken... but really, my own tendency is to allow it until I can see that it's broken.

-O

Well, the DM is always right. Except when you're not playing.

In our group every player is also DM, and he will get some critique afterward if we found something bad or at least strange. (And yes, we would audit monsters! Though usually it were monsters from modules, nothing homebrewed, so it's not "personal")

Maybe with that in mind:
- The DMG contains advice on how much treasure to give out. It's a guideline, not necessarily a "rule". But: The treasure handed out would not make sense if the market price of items would be all over the place (and typically higher then described in the books.) The Points of Light concept was established when the rules for item prices and the treasure parcels where created.
- Ritual Components are "generic" by skill for the ritual - you don't necessarily need a specific component for a ritual (except those components and focuses explicitly mentioned in the ritual description.)
- The DMG contains the advice to say Yes (within reason.)
- A DM is free to ignore anything or everything in the DMG. But that doesn't have to mean it will make the game more fun, balanced, interesting or anything other positive. It also is no guarantee that it would be that.
- I personally do not think that much of the supplemental rules are overpowered or broken. Except the Battlerager, that one can be easily broken. with the right feats and race (Dwarf).
- A game can be bad or unsuitable regardless of the DM.
- A game could become good if it just had the right DM, or the DM just figures out how to run it.

 

[Retreater]

I'm amazed that today - 7 months down the road - that I have not spent more money on D&D. I purchased the core rules gift set and Keep on the Shadowfell, and then my group discovered that 4e would not work for us.

So I have saved $250+ by not purchasing books like Adventurer's Vault, Martial Power, and the adventure modules. If I had liked 4e, I probably would have purchased every release (aside from the Forgotten Realms guides). Since I did not, I have not dropped a dollar on 4e products since.

I dropped massive amounts of cash on 3.5, purchasing splatbooks and mega modules from WotC (not to mention 3pp). So it's a vast difference for me to be not spending as much money on gaming. Also I'm not visiting forums as much since a lot of the posts focus on a game I do not play, so I have more free time now.

In a way, it's liberating to remove myself from the standards of people on the Internet and instead focusing my energies on running the game that my players and I enjoy.

So today - 7 months down the road - I find myself with more money, more time, and more freedom to enjoy the game in my small circle.

Retreater