I'll never live long enough to experience all of 4e

[Nymrohd]

Problem: You won't live long enough to experience all of 4E!

Solution: Lichify yourself!

Necromancy is the answer to all your problems

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Or, you could be a DM and play a DMPC, which you discard and replace every month or so. So far, either as player or DMPC, I have played:

Cleric--Honestly haven't played a Cleric
Fighter--Too many to count, I've played almost every build and variation imaginable.
Paladin--Played Chaladin
Ranger--Played both Archer and Str/Dex TWF/Archer
Rogue--Played Brutal Scoundrel and Artful Dodger, both multiple times
Warlock--Played Starlock and Feylock. Starlock multiple times
Warlord--Always seem to play a Tactical Warlord. Every single time...
Wizard--Played mostly Staff Wizards, though I have done Orb and Tome
Artificer--Haven't played one
Swordmage--Have played Assault and Shielding
Avenger--Built a Pursuing Avenger that I didn't get a chance to play
Barbarian--Played both Rageblood and Thaneborn
Bard--Played Con Bard and Bow Bard
Druid--Played both builds
Invoker--Haven't played this
Shaman--Currently playing an Int/Wis Shaman, and its my favorite Leader class ever
Sorcerer--Played a Dragon Sorcerer for one game
Warden--Played both versions

 

[Mistwell]

Klooge Werks, along with Skype, work well for us on a weekly basis to play online.

 

[DaveMage]

3.5 is the same way.

There are multiple lifetimes worth of options and adventures available.

With Pathfinder, 4E, and the Old School Renaissance, it's a really good time to be a D&D player.

 

[Stormtalon]

Thirded on MapTool. Stuff is pure liquid free ninja community awesome. Even something produced in-house for WotC will have an uphill battle against that thing (and it's cross-platform!).

I use MapTool + Ventrillo for one of my 4e games. We're looking for players right now, so if you've got a sunday afternoon free and want to play in a campaign....

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter....

Seriously, I don't know if I could do EVERY sunday (as I have periodic trips to my RL D&D group on the weekends), but I could probably be at least semi-regular. And I'm DYING to get out from behind the bloody screen...

Ok, back to the topic at hand....

 

[Herschel]

Problem: You won't live long enough to experience all of 4E!

Solution: Lichify yourself!

And the perfect way to get around a "lifetime ban" too.

 

[EATherrian]

I'd probably be more excited for 4E if I was younger and knew I had seemingly limitless time to play around with the different character classes and such. As it is now, I feel overwhelmed both by the amount of classes and the number of powers each class has. I miss the old fighter where I would just walk and hit. Now I need to look at the mat (never played with miniatures before 4E) decide the best move (can't play my character to anything but their full potential) and then wonder whether this is the time to use my Encounters, maybe even Dailies. As I get older I want simpler, 4E and 3E to the same extant are too much. But if I were 13 again I would love this system, so much that can be done. I think I'm turning into a curmudgeon. By the way I don't think this is an anti-4E post, since that's all I can play now and I do enjoy playing it. It's just overwhelming to me, it's ASL writ RPG.

 

[Badwe]

If a group does 10 encounters of their level, ignoring quests or encounters of higher level, they level up. therefore: 30 levels * 10 encounters means 300 encounters to level up. If a standard group plays quickly, they can reasonably complete 3 encounters in a session (all you RP heavy fans twitching can just assume you're handing out equivalent experience for roleplaying, relax!). That translates to 100 sessions. If one of these sessions happens every week at 52 weeks a year, you have just under 2 years to level one character from 1-30. Of course that's effectively a worst case scenario. if you put harder encounters in front of your players and regularly award quest XP, you might get 5 encounters worth of XP, level up every other week, and need a mere 60 weeks to finish.

Those of you poo-pooing number-crunching: go try doing improv. that's basically what D&D is if you scour all numbers and math and models from it. Don't get me wrong, improv is fun, but a part of D&D in some way involves playing with numbers. It also involves storytelling and all that good stuff. It has many aspects. The aspect we're talking about in this thread is ways to arrange all those numbers. If you're not ok with this, feel free to make your own thread. That is all.

I have tried OpenRPG and ventrillo/skype but have been largely non-plussed with the results. Much as i love all forms of computer and online gaming, i can't seem to do anything but D&D in the flesh. Ironically as new editions come out, they make it harder to simplify D&D down to something easily transmitable.

I would also like to see a fairly faithful tactical CRPG created with a 4e model. I immensely enjoyed the otherwise poorly made "ToEE" simply because it fairly accurately modeled the 3.5 rules (with some omissions). I find that games like that help get out some of the D&D frustration/tension of not having a game going on and wanting to try out a clever mechanical set. For example ToEE let me try out my Archery Fighter build even though i couldn't get a game.

 

[Mistwell]

I'd probably be more excited for 4E if I was younger and knew I had seemingly limitless time to play around with the different character classes and such. As it is now, I feel overwhelmed both by the amount of classes and the number of powers each class has. I miss the old fighter where I would just walk and hit. Now I need to look at the mat (never played with miniatures before 4E) decide the best move (can't play my character to anything but their full potential) and then wonder whether this is the time to use my Encounters, maybe even Dailies. As I get older I want simpler, 4E and 3E to the same extant are too much. But if I were 13 again I would love this system, so much that can be done. I think I'm turning into a curmudgeon. By the way I don't think this is an anti-4E post, since that's all I can play now and I do enjoy playing it. It's just overwhelming to me, it's ASL writ RPG.

Well this may be a matter of experience more than anything else.

I vaguely recall in my youth the number of options open to me under 1e were overwhelming. But, as you gain experience with the game over many years, the better options become well known, and you gain the ability to use them without dependence on a character sheet or battle board.

So, maybe in 9 more years, you will instinctively know when to use an encounter or daily, what distance you are from a foe, and what powers to use in any given position described by your DM.

 

[tmatk]

I like all the options, but I just worry about the future. Exactly how many PHBs, powers books, and AVs are they planning? It feels like every addition bends the game a bit... don't break it!!