NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 6578724">I don't know. I think one of the things that captured peoples imaginations wasn't so much the mechanics (which I do think were sound) as the way Gary and company warmly talked about play, how new it felt and how much enthusiasm they conveyed. I think a lot of the later editions haven't been able to match that by their nature because in a lot ways they are just restating things. That said, I think mechanics could have served as a deterrent to its popularity. Would 4E have been able to achieve what earlier versions achieved? I don't know. That is a pretty hard hypothetical to weigh. One thing to consider though is 4E effectively makes everyone function mechanically like a spell caster. This isn't a criticism, but it does add a layer of complexity to the game for every single player (not just the spell casters). I think most seasoned gamers don't have any problem figuring that out and adopting it, but I do wonder if that would have effected its ability to appeal to the audience it did, without the "i just play a fighter" as a simple option because every player now has to keep track of their abilities in a way they didn't in earlier versions of the game. I know when I started playing D&D we always had people in the group who seemed to gravitate toward the simpler character options. 4E is unusual because it has a certain simplicity but also a lot of moving parts through its powers system.</blockquote>

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