I have read a lot of odd responses to 4e on many forums and I suspect that it comes from some basic square peg / round hole confusion. So here's Spinachcat's Guide to Grokking 4e. (And I'm currently banned for RPG.net . . . yet again)
First, I am an old school traditional RPG fan. I wrote and ran dozens of Classic D&D tourneys for many years at the local conventions in SoCal and I enjoyed showing many new and young gamers that there was another way to play D&D than just D20. Over at RPG.net, I am found on the Palladium, T&T, C&C, Gamma World threads and I writing two RPGs now that are firmly old school style traditional RPGs. I am not going to sell you on 4e, just try to give you a way to grok what 4e is and what 4e is not.
A NEW FANTASY GAME
4e is not any D&D you know. It is an entirely new game that uses the Dungeons and Dragons name and many of its proper nouns like Fighter or Tenser's Floating Disc and some of its concepts like Kill Things And Take Their Stuff. But that is where the similiarities end. This is a new game. Think Battlestar Galactica. Think Adam West vs. Dark Knight. Think Dave Prowse vs. Hayden Christensen. 4e is not 3.75 and has much more in common with Exalted than with Arduin. Approach the game as you would any brand new fantasy RPG on the market and not an extension of what you have played before. If the idea of attaching familiar imagery to something utterly new is distasteful, you may not enjoy 4e.
NOT GENERIC FANTASY
4e is not a generic fantasy toolkit. This is not Fantasy Hero or GURPS Fantasy or True20. 4e has a very defined worldview and very defined concepts of magic, fighting and monsters. When you bought Warhammer Roleplay, did you enjoy the fact that game was tailored for that world? Or did you feel confined? 4e is very much tailored for the new WotC setting called Dungeons and Dragons. Can you modify it? Quite easily if you want to stay within certain parameters, but much harder if you plan to leave the reservation. Can you do Conan? Yes, in fact, Conan and Fafrd and Elric would all rock in 4e.
STORY / WARGAME
4e is a hybrid game. It combines a very fun freeform storytelling RPG with an excellent skirmish boardgame. Imagine Baron Munchausen combined with Warhammer Quest. If you like Descent or HeroQuest or Siege of the Citadel or Mordheim or Necromunda, you will probably like the skirmish boardgame side of 4e. If you liked the wild cinematic feel of Star Wars D6 or Tunnels & Trolls, then you will probably enjoy the freeform storytelling aspects of 4e.
But realize that 4e is Freeform Roleplay for transition scenes and Boardgame / Wargame for combat scenes. You will literally switch between two genres of games. Imagine if you were playing RISUS and then combat breaks out so you grab Warhammer rulebooks, figs and battlemat with terrain to handle the fight . . . and then go back to RISUS after the fight.
DIFFERENT INSPIRATIONS
4e is inspired by video games and modern CGI movies. There is no way to honestly deny this fact. I have read the classic fiction that inspired Gygax & Arneson & Hargrave & St. Andre and I have played the video games from Ultima I to WarCraft and watched the CGI action flicks and anime movies that obviously inspired Mearls & Company. But be honest, what LotR movie version did you like better: Ralph Bakshi or Peter Jackson? My personal answer is Rankin Bass rules them all.
This doesn't mean that WotC did not read their JRR and REH, but they are selling 4e to a generation that loves WoW and FF and LotR movies where Legolas shoots arrows like Rambo. This is a game where you start with kewl powerz and can take on a dragon at 1st level. Wizards shoot magic bolts at will. All damn day if they want to. This is Modern High Fantasy and the default ruleset is not Classic Sword & Sorcery...though you could do it via tinkering. As I said, you could really do an awesome Conan game with 4e.
BTW, 4e has other major inspirations - Magic:the Gathering and D&D Miniatures. Your character's powers are built akin to a Magic deck and many people are already putting their At-Will, Encounter and Daily powers on home made cards slipped in CCG card holders. The rules are written very clearly and consisely with just a few words of flavor - just like a CCG. The concept of the game is "exception based" where rules for specific powers and specific monsters trump the general rules - just like a CCG. Personally, CCG rules writing and exception based rules are something I admire and enjoy because they bring both variety and clarity to the game.
WotC has had great success with the D&D Collectible Miniatures game. 4e is built with the hope / expectation / desire that you will use their minis and their Dungeon Tiles, but more importantly, there is a much stronger rules lineage between DDM and D&D 4e than the lineage between 3e and 4e. I once posed the idea about using the original DDM game as a substitute for 3e combat rules and it turns out my brain was on the same track as the 4e crew.
SIT AT THE TABLE, NOT ON THE COUCH
4e requires miniatures and boardgame maps. WotC will sell you beautiful tiles and cool pre-painted minis. The squares are perfect for your lovingly painted Warhammer (or Ral Partha) figurines. You will be sending money to Chessex for some 2 x 2 vinyl. Sure, there are people who claim they are playing 4e without figs or a battlemat. D-E-L-U-S-I-O-N-A-L You gonna play Ogre or Car Wars without a board? I am sure you can, but let's get real. The board and the figs are essential items to gameplay. Otherwise you are playing some weird houserule hybrid and if you want RPGs that are not tactical boardgames, there are other 1000 RPG games on the market that let you play from the couch (including my own soon to be released RPGs called Goreblade and Dungeon Destroyer!).
A GOOD GAME MAYBE NOT FOR YOU
Spirit of the Century and Advanced Squad Leader are both good games that I never want to play again. Both those games know exactly what kind of play experience they want to create and both deliver on those promises. 4e sets out to be a high fantasy roleplaying game with engaging 3D combat that takes place on a board in front of your eyes as much as it does in your imagination. Your character is a Big Damn Hero from Day One and he grows into a demigod with just one year of play (two years if casual). 4e delivers wholeheartedly on this promise. 4e is a very good game, but it never sets out to be everything for everyone. 3e tried hard to be a toolkit, 4e says play inside our sandbox.
BUT BUT BUT
A lot of people feel they need to love D&D and then scrunch their face at the thought that one game can not do every style of fantasy and every style of playing. My suggestion is visit eBay and RPGnow and discover 30+ years of diverse RPGs. 4e does what it set out to do, but we have been blessed with a myriad of amazing game design talents over the decades who have made dozens of extremely fun games that may do what you are looking for better than 4e.
However, after 30 years of running "Spinachcat D&D" with my own house rules derived from B/X, AD&D, D20, Arduin, C&C and others, I have found that I greatly enjoy 4e. But I love games like Baron Munchausen and Warhammer Quest so the combo of the two for me is Peanut Butter and Sex.
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