D&D 4E Anyone playing 4e at the moment?

[Garthanos]

Still playing 4e; works excellently on Roll20 (or other vtt). My favourite D&D edition by far. I really don't think you need the digital tools at all; character generation is pretty straightforward if you don't try and bring in all the available options for every class at 1st level.

Sold most of my 5e books, but I'd be interested in advice on useful/good things to grab from 5e for running in 4e, if there is anything.

I have seen inspiration work

 

[Garthanos]

If you can get hold of the essential line, use it.
The classes are a lot more true to classical DnD and feel even more distinct than the standard 4e ones.

I found essentials redundant and the characters far LESS customizable for the most part. With a few minor exceptions wrt redundancy (Hunter for example)

 

[cavalier973]

I like 4e Essentials; I really do. I like the classes; I like the updated monsters. Essentials dragons get two turns in the first round (they roll initiative, then add 10 to the roll for their first action, which means they have a good chance of acting first, even if they roll lower initiative than some or all of the PCs). I like the Red Box and the Twisting Halls adventure. I like the DM screen that came with the DM Kit. I like Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium for magic items and treasure.

What I dont particularly like,is the Essentials DM Book, even when you pair it with the Rules Compendium. The Core DM Guide is far superior. There is so much info stacked into the DM Guide--more trap, poison, and disease varieties, how to create your own monsters, how to set up random dungeons and random encounters...examples of symbols to use when designing a dungeon and drawing out a map.

Seriously, one of the basic techniques a DM Guide should include, in my opinion, is how to design a dungeon.

Also, the DMG (as opposed to the Essentials DMB) has all these side bars with tips given by experienced DMs. For example, in the map key for the Town of Fallcrest, #1 is theTower of Waiting. The DMB just mentions it's abandoned. Boring! The DMG has a side note that the tower was used to hold prisoners from the nobility and royalty, and that the ghost of a demon-worshipping princess is said to haunt the tower, and that the DM can design a dungeon beneath the tower. Excellent stuff.

So...if one wanted to go with the Essentials line, my recommendation would be to skip the DM kit, get the Rules Compendium (for the updated math for Difficulty Class and such), but get the Core DM Guide for all the rest of the info a DM would use.

 

[Myrhdraak]

Still playing 4e; works excellently on Roll20 (or other vtt). My favourite D&D edition by far. I really don't think you need the digital tools at all; character generation is pretty straightforward if you don't try and bring in all the available options for every class at 1st level.

Sold most of my 5e books, but I'd be interested in advice on useful/good things to grab from 5e for running in 4e, if there is anything.

I have put some effort into merging the two into a 4.5 version. What classes and races do your party consist off?

 

[Nefermandias]

I wish I was! Still got all my 4E books. It's a great game.

Not sure why people here are saying most players didn't bother buying the books. I've been playing this game since late 2e AD&D, and 4e was the only edition I've made a point of buying every single book. I just love those.

 

[Parmandur]

The most bizarre phenomenon I've seen over and over is people loving 5e for feature X while hating 4e for feature X. I've also seen podcasts where 5e is lauded for introducing a design feature that was actually introduced in 4e.

It's pretty clearly that the presentation of design in 4e was a much larger factor in its reception that the actual design itself.

For RPGs, presentation is literally everything.

 

[Parmandur]

The thing that power source/role did that a lost a lot of long-time fans but I think was really brilliant, was it made classes bottom-up design, where in every other edition of D&D, they had been top-down. What I mean by that is, in other editions of D&D, classes are primarily archetypes, and their mechanical design follows from that fictional concept. In 4e, classes are primarily game constructs, and their story concept follows the design.

I think this precisely nails what made 4E not work for me at all, elegantly and without vitriol. Thank you!

I would go so far as to say that "top-down" design approach is precisely what makes D&D itself, and work as something distinct from other types of games, and is perhaps the seed of the "it feels like a video game" canard.

 

[Garthanos]

Not sure why people here are saying most players didn't bother buying the books. I've been playing this game since late 2e AD&D, and 4e was the only edition I've made a point of buying every single book. I just love those.

I am still buying books even... just purchased the Draconomicon.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think this precisely nails what made 4E not work for me at all, elegantly and without vitriol. Thank you!

I would go so far as to say that "top-down" design approach is precisely what makes D&D itself, and work as something distinct from other types of games, and is perhaps the seed of the "it feels like a video game" canard.

Yeah, I think it’s a good way to express the nature of the disconnect many felt with 4e, in a very non-judgmental way. I really like both top-down and bottom-up design, though I can definitely see why either would put someone off a game.

 

[Garthanos]

Perhaps I do not understand the terms used .... Top down sounds like it means not having a consistency of structure meandering all over the place because you didnt build the bones first.