As I’ve mentioned in other posts I like the game, but at the same time I hate it. Some parts of it just don’t feel like D&D anymore. So I’ve recently decided that 4e is just not what I want. The downside to this decision has been the realization that I’m loosing interest in D&D period. I want something more freeform and flowing than what’s offered. I’ve always bought other games to serve as resource material, but lately I’ve actually started looking hard at them with the intention of replacing D&D after 25+ years of playing the game. It will be hard finding players as central Iowa tends to favor mainstream games more than less played products, namely D&D and WoD for RPGs and Magic for cards.
Thanks to the thread I started about Dragon Warriors (after stumbling across the mention of it in another post and deciding to buy it to see what it was about) I came across references to other games that led me to Hollow World Expedition. HEX is a pulp genre game that uses the Ubiquity engine and I liked the dice mechanics so ordered it. Then I found out that Desolation (post-apocalyptic fantasy) uses Ubiquity also. Ubiquity is very freeform and flows smoothly, offering almost exactly what I want and have been looking for.
I figured I’d get caught up in Desolation since it’s fantasy and I’ve traditionally as mentioned clung to D&D, but have found I really like HEX more. HEX has reawakened my imagination as well as hunger for everything that might inspire a game. I’ve gone out and bought tons of DVDs over the last couple of weeks related to Pulp fiction, including titles such as The Shadow, Big Trouble in Little China, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1950’s version), and Lost World (1960) just to name a few. I’ve really gotten into the genre. I haven’t been that caught up in a game, looking for inspiration, in a very long time.
I was excited about 4e, as I was excited about all the other editions, but after playing the game the last few months it’s not keeping my interest. I agree with one of the above posts with the mention that part of the problem is that you really can’t get much out of reading the books anymore. I use to read the books repeatedly but with 4e it just seems pretty blah reading wise, especially the FR book. Too much fluff was cut from it in my opinion.
I’ve canceled all my preorders. I’m not saying I won’t buy any books, but won’t be buying every book that comes out. That’s one of the nice things about HEX and Desolation right now. HEX has two books with a third pending and Desolation is only at the core book with the next in development. I can handle those numbers and since both games are fairly new it’s like the first days of D&D again and once more the game is growing as I am. After 25+ years I’m also getting tired of seeing everything rewritten just because there’s a new edition out. I know people have their favorites, but it seems TSR and now WotC refuse to create something new out of fear it won’t work. Eberron was the first really exciting thing to happen to D&D in a long time and I really was hoping it was something WotC would do again with 4e, but they appear to have let the idea drop.
The GSL has also brought about a lack of interest thanks to WotC. Their fear of giving other companies access really put a damper on the market which during the 3.x era 3PPs really helped keep me interested in D&D. I would pick up other products and wonder how I could incorporate it into the game, if it wasn’t specifically designed as an add-on. The launch of 3e was accompanied by quite a few products if not at the release date then shortly after. Add to this WotC’s decision to just abandon all connections to 3.x and you have the big wedge that was driven into place. 4e has only managed to fracture the fan base worse than previous editions ever did beyond edition wars. I’ve never seen an edition comparison still being discussed for so long after the new release as I’ve seen with 4e.
What I like about 4e is that fighters have been given more options making them worth playing and interesting to say the least. However I miss the flexibility of certain classes and the necessity of others. There’s no reason to play a rogue anymore and a wizard is no different than playing a fighter. If someone told me at my table I was judging “we don’t have a rogue, priest, wizard, whatever” my answer was and still is, “play what you want, let me worry about that.” A good judge will make a module work without a given class. WotC decided that eliminating the necessity of a given class was the answer for everyone when the real answer was just give some options so the judge can fix it himself easier.
The best thing I can say about 4e is that it is a great pickup game when you don’t have a lot of time to invest into a game. Want to play with your friends but only have a couple of hours or meet once in a blue moon then 4e is great as you spend less time thinking about the game as you do playing it. Although you now spend more time working through a combat unless you modify the monsters which should have been balanced to begin with through playtesting. Oh wait, they didn’t playtest or at least playtest the way they said they were going too initially. Some times the game plays like a paper version of an Activision game; I’m waiting for the next patch, i.e. Arcane, Divine, Martial, and Primal books. I don’t want to wait to play a class the way I really want to. I should be able to play any class the way I want straight from the book it first appears in.
New books should only introduce variants or themes to a class like past books did. This leads me to the next thing I don’t like about the game – the use of iconic classes, class features, monsters, and what not as a marketing tool so I’ll buy the next book. A good core book should be like the One Ring of RPGs, “One book to rule them, one book to find them, one book to bring them all, and at the table bind them.”
I’ll play 4e if I have too, but for the most part I will just sit back and ride this edition out by playing something else for a change. Change is good. Then when 5e comes out or as some here in Iowa have speculated on “Advance D&D 4e” I’ll take a look and play it. Then again who knows, maybe WotC will come out with a class or setting that really catches my eye and I’ll get back into it. Just have to wait for the dice to fall.
