D&D 4E Comparing notes: Differences in play experience in 4e

[Tony Vargas]

Published adventures - modules - were commonplace when I started in 1980. I think it's always been a matter of personal prefrence with DMs, how heavily they used modules or published settings vs coming up with their own stuff. I've always tended towards world building and creating my own adventures. I've known other DMs who prefer to use published settings or create campaigns by stringing together modules. Both aproaches work just fine.

While I can see how modules might logically encourage sticking to standard rules, they've always been there, so I wouldn't look to them as the cause of the shift. The emergence of large on-line communities, OTOH, does correspond roughly to the waning acceptance of house rules. In the 80s you just had BBSs. In the 90s, there tended to be many fan sites devoted to a game, with discussions in chaotic usenet newsgroups. It was more recent (if you consider 10 years or so 'recent.' That on-line fan communities shifted to very centralized forums. And it was only once the WotC D&D forums were up that you started hearing people preaching about 'The RAW.'

 

[Votan]

Published adventures - modules - were commonplace when I started in 1980. I think it's always been a matter of personal prefrence with DMs, how heavily they used modules or published settings vs coming up with their own stuff.

I think that this time period had a number of very good modules that were easy to adapt to local groups. Most of my early D&D experience had a heavy influence of medules and they were very popular in my experience up until second edition; 2E seemed to be the era of sandbox campaigns and I saw far fewer modules being used.

 

[KidSnide]

I think that this time period had a number of very good modules that were easy to adapt to local groups. Most of my early D&D experience had a heavy influence of medules and they were very popular in my experience up until second edition; 2E seemed to be the era of sandbox campaigns and I saw far fewer modules being used.

This matches my experience as well. I think of 1e as being very module focused. In contrast, 2e games might use a TSR game world, but were more likely to involve GM-created adventures. My experience with 3e was totally dominated by GM-created worlds and adventures (with occasional breaks for Living Greyhawk), although I understand that many others went through the canonical 3.0 and 3.5 series of WotC modules.

Although I run a home brew session of 4e, I find it much easier to run modules. (I also run a WoBS game.) It's very easy to throw together an encounter, but it's much harder to run a good encounter. Careful monster design and selection are important and building a good map is surprisingly difficult. Similarly, it is very easy to throw together a quick skill challenge, but a good one can require a lot of thought.

-KS

 

[UHF]

I'm inclined to say that the raw experience is pretty much what everyone gets in 4e. In the WOTC forums I've noticed very few players using anything but off the shelf rules and play. Many DMs have house ruled things which later got them into trouble. Probably the most common deviation is using rolled stats, but those DMs aren't complaining.

In terms of play, I have to say that I never met a good 1e DM until I hit university 20 years after I started playing. Since then I have met 2 good DMs and frankly I can't understand why they would ever change game systems. They are good at it and their game is fun. They also don't run with a lot of house rules.

I would like to note that I think the 9 original 4e modules that WOTC released did a lot of damage to 4e. They were simple dungeon crawls that really gave the feel to 4e detractors that 4e was a video game or miniature game without role playing. I think H1 was pretty much where many players started, and I don't think it was a good experience. (As a 4e fan, I have to say that I feel that any Pathfinder Adventure Path kicks the pants off the WOTC 9.)

All that being said, I now DM 4e, and I have to say that my games are far easier to run and my battles are far more cinematic and epic than anything I ever had before. My 1e pall and DM is in fact waiting for Essentials because of this.

I went down to one evening of 'Encounters' at the LGS, and I want to say that even half assed DMs (of the kind I grew up with) can produce a reasonably entertaining time with 4e. I don't like the whole 'encounters' thing, its not my style, but even substandard guys can entertain in 4e. This is not true of 1e\2e\3e.

I believe that when WOTC says bad things about play experience in older D&D or 3e, they are really referring to DMs of average or below skill. 4e really does level the playing field for those DMs to at least play and entertain.

 

[GRStrayton]

I agree with all of the above statements. I played 1st Edition all the way through until 4th Edition came out (well, even before that, as a playtester), with some 2nd, 3rd, and 3.5 along the way. I've played on both coasts as well (just moved back to NYC from LA) and I've been to a lot of conventions where I've both played and DMed. The system itself seems almost entirely consistent among the various groups (with a few arguments here and there over the interpretation of a specific rule). The difference lies primarily in two areas: 1.) House Rules (I allow the spending of healing surges to regain expended encounter and daily powers, for example), and 2.) Play Style. I happen to prefer an exploration-focused style (I won't go into that here; you can check out my blog if you're interested), and players at conventions have commented on how it feels different from what I'll call the "standard" play style expressed in the official books (and RPGA adventures). But, overall, I find the game much more consistent than 1st Edition in terms of game mechanics (I had a ton of house rules, as did all the DMs I played with over the years).

 

[evilbob]

The internet -> communication.

Before the internet, if you didn't understand a rule or didn't know what it meant, you had to make up an answer for your group. Thus, each group had a different answer. Now, you can go online and quickly ask a thousand people what it means and get a much more detailed explanation and reasoning.

Also, as others have said: current rules are written to be more easily understood; current rules are simpler overall; character builder use strongly discourages house rules.