D&D 4E Am I crazy? I've just gotten a hankering to play 4e again...

[Eyes of Nine]

Hey let's get to brass tacks here.

I've got PHB1, 2, and 3, DMG 1 and 2, MM 1, 2 and 3; Divine Power and Psionic Power. (as well as the two FR and two DS books). I figure I probably want Martial Power 1 & 2, Arcane Power, and Primal Power.

I'm sure I can run a game with those products. BUT, many people have brought up other resources that I have not heard of or ignored during the 4e time period.

Maybe some folks can list their favorite official WotC D&D 4e resources, 3rd Party resources, and finally Online resources - and why those are useful to them?

Thanks in advance.

Here's a list of WotC D&D 4e books

List of Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Tony Vargas]

I've got PHB1, 2, and 3, DMG 1 and 2, MM 1, 2 and 3; Divine Power and Psionic Power. (as well as the two FR and two DS books). I figure I probably want Martial Power 1 & 2, Arcane Power, and Primal Power.

I'm sure I can run a game with those products.

Absolutely.

You may also decide which 'updates' to run with, or whether to use any variants, or even not use everything. Around June 2010, I think it was, MM dropped an update bomb on 4e that brought it into line with Essentials - restoring some of the imbalance between casters, especially wizards, and non-casters.
There's a number of 'feat taxes,' that it can be a good idea to toss out or give for free, depending on what you want from your game. PH2 introduced 'Expertise' feats, for instance (and Essentials turned them up to 11), and some DMs prefer not to use them, or to throw them in for free.
You can cut whole sources if you feel they don't fit your game world.
PH3 Hybrids open up new PC possibilities but up the system-mastery factor - it's possible to build some pretty deeply disappointing hybrids.

Maybe some folks can list their favorite official WotC D&D 4e resources, 3rd Party resources, and finally Online resources - and why those are useful to them?

The official on-line resources were just taken down. So, bad timing, that. They were quite convenient.

There are some pretty nice DM-side resources you're missing:
Plane Above & Plane Below (both build on but do not supersede Manual of the Planes, but you can use either of them without it... which is a tad amazing, when you think about it)
Open Grave
The Draconomicons (chromatic & metallic)

The Essentials-era books you might consider would be:
the Rules Compendium, which is just handy, it's small, it's got the latest & best Skill Challenge, and there's only one or two updates built into it you might want to roll back. (Mainly items, post-E, magic items were made more significant, and item-daily limits were removed, then many of them were declared 'rare' to return them to the DM side of the screen. FWIW.)
The Monster Vault, which has MM3-updated classic monsters, and came with a bunch of handy tokens.
Heroes of the Feywild, which was about the best thing post-E, the classes in it are not intentionally imbalanced, and the Skald and Berserker are actually kinda cool.

 

[Undrave]

Hey let's get to brass tacks here.

I've got PHB1, 2, and 3, DMG 1 and 2, MM 1, 2 and 3; Divine Power and Psionic Power. (as well as the two FR and two DS books). I figure I probably want Martial Power 1 & 2, Arcane Power, and Primal Power.

I'm sure I can run a game with those products. BUT, many people have brought up other resources that I have not heard of or ignored during the 4e time period.

Maybe some folks can list their favorite official WotC D&D 4e resources, 3rd Party resources, and finally Online resources - and why those are useful to them?

Thanks in advance.

Here's a list of WotC D&D 4e books

List of Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Personally I loved the lore in the pages of Primal Power. And of all my 4e books, the only ones I didn't put into Storage are that, Martial Power 1 (I never got Martial Power 2) and Plane Above. Plane Above has some amazing stuff in there that I just adore.

I recall Arcane Power having support for Archer bards so that was neat.

 

[JeffB]

I prefer Essentials for several reasons

I prefer some of the classes vs. the Core class counterparts (Slayer vs. Great Weapon Fighter in PHB for example)

I prefer the format- As I essentially (npi) run "Moldvay/Cook/Marsh" type S&S games when it comes to races/classes, Heroes of the Fallen Lands was the perfect fit. Hand it to the players and tell them to have at it with anything in this book. I also dig the reduced size with larger page count and easier to read presentation. And the art is generally an improvement in Essentials vs. earlier core products which is not a big deal, but..

If I run 4E BTB- the included counters in the boxed sets are a godsend as I don't do minis (but normally I run a very "13Th Aged" version of 4E suited for TotM)

That said, I can run a Core game and be fine with it as long as I update all the Math that came out around the MM3/Essentials release.

My favorites

WOTC
Heroes of the Fallen Lands
Dungeon Masters Guide (probably best DMG ever, for teaching someone how to be a DM- I've noticed the 5E DMG has stolen a fair amount of text from it)
DMG 2 (A seriously good toolbox plus Robin Laws(!), Companion Characters, Better treatment of Skill Challenges etc,)
DM'S Kit (repetitive of the DMG- BUT- fantastic adventure included)
Monster Vault (and another fun adventure)
Threats to the Nentir Vale
Hammerfast
Vor-Rukoth
Manual of the Planes
Open Grave
Mordenkainens Magnificent Emporium
Dungeon Delve (great for impromptu adventure/map/location needs)

Goodman Games 4E adventures
Isle of the Sea Drake
Punjar Trilogy
Forgotten Portal
Mists of Madness
In Search of Adventure (low level S&S mini adventures-easily hacked)

And anything Sasquatch did for Primeval Thule 4E.

Best thing I miss is the WOTC tools- Monster Builder and Character creator especially.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I have the same list as @JeffB , with the addition of Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom.

 

[Aldarc]

My favorites

WOTC
Threats to the Nentir Vale

Threats to the Nentir Vale is probably the most vastly underrated book in D&D's history. I suspect that had it been written for 5e instead of 4e, it would have been regarded as one of the greatest books of 5e, if not D&D.

 

[Marandahir]

Makes sense. My ideal D&D game would be some weird admixture of 5E and 4E - taking the best of each.

4E was able to do a lot right but was (1) before its time, and (2) lacked sufficient input from its target audience.

It carved out new territory for D&D and set the stage for the 5E player-base revolution. It set the stage for online play and streaming. It brought the game into the modern, digital world.

But because 5E has to be pleasing to a number of different audiences, it has to be a compromise. 4E, for better AND worse, was uncompromising for the majority of its run.

I have friends who refuse to play 5E or even 2010-2013 4E (as that was when it started to dilute a bit with psionics, themes, and essentials alternate classes).

 

[Tony Vargas]

Makes sense. My ideals D&D game would be some weird admixture of 5E and 4E - taking the best of each.

So, 4e, but, replace combat advantage & penalties with adv/dis?

::ducks::

Serioulsy, though... (well, we all know my track record..)

4E was able to do a lot right but was (1) before its time

4e had many of the earmarks of a 90s 'new wave' game. It was probably 20 years after it's time. Still too much, too new, too fast for D&D, of course.

...yeah, still not that serious, sorry.

 

[jgsugden]

One idea to consider: 4E was - in the eyes of many - not a great implementation of D&D. However, it was a very solid system. I found it to be an excellent system to adapt for genres with a "flatter" power scaling. For example, I used it with a Wild West Game and a game that basically stole the plotline from Predator - both worked exceptionally well.

 

[pemerton]

the first two MM's did have a lot less fluff

This isn't true. I've done, and seen done, 1:1 comparisons of lore for the 4e MM compared to the AD&D ones (both editions) and 3E. Not every entry is identical in every respect, but there is no general reduction in lore. And for some entries (eg Goblins, Demons, Devils) there much more in the 4e MM than earlier ones.