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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5452169" data-attributes="member: 42582">OK, I follow you, your interpolating a step that I hadn't taken the first poster to be suggesting - namely, that before implementing the newbie's action in mechanical terms, the GM paraphrases, in simple language, what that mechanical implementation will be.I think it's tactically richer than Rolemaster - a type of complexity. The actual search and handling time on action resolution is quite a bit less - a type of simplicity. Character build is quicker to start up but probably more complex to manage - I'd call it a wash.I can't compare to 3E very well, because I have only limited experience of 3E, but I personally found the 4e PHB and DMG made it clearer to me how 4e was going to run (when I first GMed it) than is true of the 3E rulebooks. But that could easily be a fact about me rather than a fact about the books.If I actually had to recommend a fantasy RPG to a newbie, I'd suggest Moldvay Basic, or if they are playing with an experienced GM, then either Runequest or HeroQuest. Surprisingly, RM can also work for newbies provided the GM is prepared to do the search-and-handling work and the newbie only looks after the basics of character building. This is because there aren't very many traps in RM, so if you set out to build a PC with big numbers where you want them you'll probably do OK.I think a newbie building a 4e PC would benefit from a bit of coaching - unlike RM, it's not just about building up big numbers where you want them.This is the only point of yours I really differ on. I'm not sure how much experience with 4e you're basing it on, or what sorts of things you have in mind, but in my experience this hasn't proved true at all.To give a bit more content to that - I'm not thinking so much of minutiae of combat manoeuvres, but improv/stunt stuff more generally - jumping over swarms, using prayers in combat to get advantages against undead, concealing magic, using fire magic in a library without destroying the books. I've found 4e handles this sort of stuff cleanly and evocatively - certainly better than RM (speaking from a lot of experience) and I feel also better than 3E - with the 3E rulebooks, I really wouldn't know where to start for a lot of this stuff.</blockquote>

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