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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8959746" data-attributes="member: 7006">The one thing I think that worked in Essentials favor was that it split the difference in usefulness vs presentation to appeal to both sides of the equation.  [USER=67296]@Laurefindel[/USER] is right in that the presentation of the original 4E PHB was such a move away from the faux-medieval style of book presentation that it rubbed some people the wrong way.  The fact that all the powers in the original 4E PHB were also written in that "game card" power card style with the green, red, and black borders was also a large jump away from faux-medieval immersion and into more of a "game", with those cards able to be printed out as used as though they were for a customizable card game (for better or worse).  For some people it didn't bother them or even were a boon... but for others it was a leap too far.Essentials removed the "game card" style of power description and went back to more of the classic "spell listing" for better or worse.  Had the game originally started that way... I do wonder if there wouldn't have been as much of a blowback?  There would be some still obviously (because there always is some)... but I do think a lot of people would have had less of a reflexive reaction against it had the Essentials style been used from the get go.But let's also not forget that any one of us could turn a whole heap of 5E martial maneuvers and magic spells right now back nto the 4E green/red/black power card style if we wanted to, as most of the abilities are really not much different.  You can re-write the 5E Fireball spell into the 4E power card style to match if that is your preference.  And all the cantrips into green at-will cards?  Easy-peasy.  Sure a number of spells won't match exactly between the 4E and 5E counterparts (because not all 5E spells would fall into the Burst/Blast effect areas that 4E used)... but with a subtle addition to standard 4E verbiage you could get most combat spells at the very least formulated in a similar way.  A lot of the mechanics at a baseline between 4E and 5E abilities/features/powers really aren't as different as people go on about, it's really just how they are presented that makes them seem widely disparate.</blockquote>

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