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

[pemerton]

I think I found it here. Haven't read it all yet, but thanks!

No worries!

Also, didn't have a chance to say it in the other thread, but your write ups of your 4e campaign was one of the examples of how the fans seemed to "get" 4e better than the designers ever did. Alas, my Dark Sun campaign ended early Paragon (for IRL reasons not related to 4e) but your work and a few others really made me want to make it to 30.

And thanks in return!

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I do want to point out that the 5e DMG has guidelines for running AoE in TotM. I don't believe this was ever provided for in 4e, but since I came from 20 years of 1e I didn't really need it.

Good point. I forgot to acknowledge that in my post.

I already posted about this upthread: the claim about "no/less lore" is not borne out if one actually reads the text and compares its content to previous versions.
Compared to the origiinal AD&D Monster Manual, or the 2dn ed AD&D one, there is typicaly less demographic information but more historical/cosmological information.

Yes, you corrected me on that point and I went back and realised I had been quite wrong about it.

(snip) Also, didn't have a chance to say it in the other thread, but your write ups of your 4e campaign was one of the examples of how the fans seemed to "get" 4e better than the designers ever did. (snip)

Good to see another fan of @pemerton 's work.

The comment about fans grokking 4E better than the WotC designers is very, very true, with few exceptions. Unfortunately, this was also true in 3.xE when the CharOp community on the WotC boards had an infinitely better grasp of the rules than any of the designers (not to say CharOp always got it right, either).

I remember watching a 4E DMing panel at one of the PAXes with Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls. Mike had to admit that he wasn't even running a 4E campaign - and yet WotC thought he was the guy to put in charge of Essentials. It clearly wasn't his bag as his products - beginning with the atrocious Keep on the Shadowfell and ending with Heroes of Shadow - generally weren't very good. Anyway, you cannot be a good designer of rules for a game that you're not running or playing in any sort of intensive way.

 

[Garthanos]

I think this link will not timeout.

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[MwaO]

I think this link will not timeout.

Join the D&D 4e Discord Server!

Check out the D&D 4e community on Discord - hang out with 4860 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

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Please don't put infinite time links for the Discord. People can continually ask, but this way we don't get spammed

 

[Garthanos]

Please don't put infinite time links for the Discord. People can continually ask, but this way we don't get spammed

The potential value of timeouts had not occured to me

 

[Weiley31]

While I have never played 4E, I still use a lot of ideas from it for lore purposes in my games. Like when I mention the power source of Druidic magic in my games, I refer to it as Primal energy, just like how Wizards use Arcane energy and ETC ETC. Of course a lot of cool stuff from it like the Shadowfell, Feywild, parts of the Dawn War, Gnome lore, etc etc are used in my 5E games.

In my current game, I am using the destruction of Neverwinter and its restoration as part of the background lore that is going on and for most of the primary cause for a number of things happening within The Dragon of Icespire Peak from the 5E Essentials Starter book. And for the purposes of the Raven Queen, I use her entire 4E background and mix it in with the more non "stupid" aspects of her 5E lore and 4E Portfolio while having her full conflict with Orcus going on full effect. So I'll probably want to do the Raven Queen/Orcus related modules done at some point for a 5E campaign.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Well there is Neverwinter, it uses the 4e system of powers, it is in no way PnP compatible but basically it is 4e and it is free to play, and many people play it.
It is a bit lame for people wanting riddles and RP in their CRPGs though, but for flashy combat it is fine

Played for about an hour. Rolled up my favorite style of character...the high STR cleric who busts heads and heals. Kept waiting for a melee weapon to drop. Never saw any 4e in it, other than names of things. Maybe it shows up past one hour in, though....there is no reason to not try it out....it being free and all.

 

[Coroc]

Played for about an hour. Rolled up my favorite style of character...the high STR cleric who busts heads and heals. Kept waiting for a melee weapon to drop. Never saw any 4e in it, other than names of things. Maybe it shows up past one hour in, though....there is no reason to not try it out....it being free and all.

Well the at will /encounter / daily are basically 4e though the recharge is much faster. But as I said, it is probably not very alike to PnP 4e

 

[shroomofinsanity]

I've been reading through this entire thread as a delicious bit of nostalgia. 4E for me was the first edition I ran, and i fell in love with the pure balanced elegance it promised. I loved that each race had a cool and unique power, that the classes had a strong idea behind them, at least to where they fit in a party, and that different power sources had different spins on the same role.

I ran the game right up until the dnd next playtest religiously, sometimes 3 or 4 times a week, for 8 hours or more(oh how i wish to have that kind of free time again). It was so easy to create new powers, items, or even monsters on the fly that worked well in the rules, and led to interesting experiences.

It is my favorite edition and I defend its strengths, and while I admit it has its own host of flaws, I would run a game of it right now if I could.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

4e is an awesome game. I would still be running it today if not for:

1. Combat takes too long.
2. Rituals should have been utility powers.