6 players, 5 hours, 4th edition

[Oldtimer]

Hm .... I guess all the metric users I've known have been atypical, then. They really have no idea how far away things are. And visualizing the height difference between 170 and 177 centimeters, instantly and easily? Is that possible even for you? I'm genuinely curious.

Hm... I have no idea what kind of metric users you know, but I live in a country that has been metric for many, many generations now (my grandmother knew nothing but metric) and we have no problem visualizing the height difference between 170 cm and 177 cm. Instantly and easily. Why should we? That's almost three quarters of a decimeter. It's a huge difference.

I've heard the argument that imperial units are easier to visualize, but I don't see that in real life. If I told anyone here that I'm sex foot four, they'll be pulling out their calculators. If I say 193 cm, they'll say "gosh, you're tall".

 

[Baron Opal]

Thanks Rodrigo, I appreciate your taking the time to tell us your experiences.

My initial impression is that I may have to rename the eladrin, "Hasturs".

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

As someone who is eagerly looking forward to 4th, I just want to thank you for the full review. Keeps some of my concerns, and eases others.

Hrm.... how different did the characters feel? Despite similar mechanics, did it feel like there were several different classes at the table? I know these were pregen characters and all with limited flexibility, but did it feel like the system could support characters with more mixed abilities?

They didn't feel wildly different; the paladin and the fighter got into melee and mixed it up, the wizard and warlock hurled spells from afar, the cleric did both, and, except for one one adventure on the ledge, the ranger stayed pretty much as far away as possible.

My initial impression was that the fighter and paladin showed a wider spread of abilities to differentiate themselves among the melee types than the wizard and warlock did. But that's possibly because I was sitting closer to the warrior players and could hear more of their discussion on tactics and such.

And these were first level characters, so the chance for differentiation wasn't as great yet. I'd exect that by 5th level, there would be a pretty wide variation in how they played.

 

[jaelis]

Whether imperial units have a natural basis or not, I've worked with enough Europeans to say that metric feels entirely natural to them. And I use metric enough to feel pretty easy with either one. (A cm is the width of your finger, an apple weighs about 200 g, 27 C is rather warm, etc.)

When I play dnd, I think in feet, and I'm sure I'll keep using feet in 4e. But I think it's nice to use squares in the rules so that metric people have just as easy a time.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Whether imperial units have a natural basis or not, I've worked with enough Europeans to say that metric feels entirely natural to them. And I use metric enough to feel pretty easy with either one. (A cm is the width of your finger, an apple weighs about 200 g, 27 C is rather warm, etc.)

Totally true. As a German living in UK, I vastly prefer the metric system - a cm is about a finger width, a meter about a step length - it is pretty natural, if you're used to it.

But more importantly, it's decimal. Which is muuuch more natural than that odd system imperial measurements use. After all, I have then fingers.

Cheers, LT.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

No. But according to Huey Lewis and the News, they do have hips.

*BRAIN EXPLODES*

 

[Qualidar]

They didn't feel wildly different; the paladin and the fighter got into melee and mixed it up, the wizard and warlock hurled spells from afar, the cleric did both, and, except for one one adventure on the ledge, the ranger stayed pretty much as far away as possible.

My initial impression was that the fighter and paladin showed a wider spread of abilities to differentiate themselves among the melee types than the wizard and warlock did. But that's possibly because I was sitting closer to the warrior players and could hear more of their discussion on tactics and such.

And these were first level characters, so the chance for differentiation wasn't as great yet. I'd exect that by 5th level, there would be a pretty wide variation in how they played.

Rodrigo,

Thanks for the review, but could you please stop threadcrapping this very important discussion of measurement standards?

Thanks.

 

[Piratecat]

Anyone who further distracts the playtest discussion with measurement debates and/or passive aggressive snarkiness will be beaten to death with a Huey Lewis video.

That is all.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Thanks for posting the review - it's given me a lot to think about.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

No doubt. And it's not discussing tactics that bugs me, really -- I accept that a group of seasoned adventurers that have been together for a while will work as a team.

And like I said before, it can be a slippery slope leading to one or two people dominating the group to the detriment of the others and the game as a whole.

I'm guilty of this in 3e, though. I try to stop myself, but it's a short hop from, "Helping the new players to remember the rules," to "Dictating the new players' most optimized action each round."

I also have the (perhaps completely unfounded and irrational) fear that 4e is going to degenerate even faster into a list of optimized button-mashing combats.

Not only will I not participate in forumlaic pre-combat meta-game optimization discussions in 4e, I hereby swear to actively thwart it and unleash my inner Leroy Jenkins as soon it rears its head.

I just pray there's still a Power Attack for me to do it with.