Is 4E still D&D to you?

[Steely Dan]

Yes, it's still D&D. It still has the classic classes, races and monsters, is still an action-oriented midieval adventure game, still uses funny dice, and even still comes in 3 rulesbooks.

Yep, as long as I can pull of Fighting Man, Cleric, Magic-User, Thief, Dwarf, Elf and Hobbit, and roll a d20 to smack something, it will feel like D&D to me.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

And? Isn't fun the whole point? By this logic, if the holy grail of medieval-fantasy RPG's was produced by Acme Products and called E & E, you wouldn't play it, what sense does that even make?

The topic is not "Is D&D 4E the best role-playing game ever" or "I used to love D&D, but 4E is just so much more fun", it's just "Is 4E still D&D to you?".
Which can also mean "No - thank the gods. It's way better and I might actually be willing to play it!"

Not that some people don't fail to give me the impression they, for some reason, don't find the fun in playing the game the most important thing, but only that it's D&D. But that is certainly a failure in mutual communication, and not actually what anyone is meaning to say.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

IMHO 4E is more D&D than 3.XE and I'll explain.

I'll sum it up in one word... "Simplicity".

IMO 3.X got too complicated for it's own good. They also were going the route of Palladium games with ever more feats and prestige classes in each book. If you wanted to have all the options available to your character you had to keep current with almost every book released. Rifts did the same thing... each book had successively better robots, power armor, or magic than the one released before.

While I am sure that 4E will follow the same pattern it is nice to see a more simplistic take on the core rules than was present in 3.XE. It was definitely time to hit the "Reset Button".

 

[Seule]

From my point of view, of course it's D&D. It plays the same, just better.
I was wondering how so many people could believe that it wasn't, then I saw posts from several people saying that they hadn't actually played yet, and that could indeed explain some of the votes against. Not all, of course, everyone has their own views of what makes up D&D, but some.

--Penn

 

[Horacio]

Of course it's D&D, as 3.5e was, as 3.0e was, as 2e was.

D&D has changed over the years, as we have changed, as world has changed. But it is still D&D.

 

[Dragonbait]

If it ain't got THAC0 and plusses sometimes mean minuses and sometimes you roll a d6 and sometimes you roll a d10 to determine suprise and reptiles and insects are not animals when determining certain spells and shapechaning and non-humans and demihumans can't be healed or ressurected and every poison from the smallest spider to the largest wyvern means instant death the it ain't D&D


end-sarcasm: I like 4ed, and it feels like D&D to me.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Of course it´s still D&D. As long as people are telling me "you do not understand the true spirit of D&D" and "that game you play is only a pale shadow of what came before", it is D&D. The game is defined by the people trying to dominate the D&D definition process - and nothing is more D&D than the contested ground. After all, if 4e really were not D&D, nobody would give a damn, right?

 

[ProfessorCirno]

From my point of view, of course it's D&D. It plays the same, just better.
I was wondering how so many people could believe that it wasn't, then I saw posts from several people saying that they hadn't actually played yet, and that could indeed explain some of the votes against. Not all, of course, everyone has their own views of what makes up D&D, but some.

--Penn

Of all the arrogant...

Look, lots of people who voted "yes" have also never played it. The idea of "YOU CAN'T HATE 4e IF YOU'VE PLAYED IT!" is horrifyingly wrong.

 

[Festivus]

All that said, I haven't actually played 4e. Maybe in play it would still feel like D&D but based on what I know about it my initial assessment stands.

I was very swayed by actual play moreso than all the forum talk and previews wizards put out. It's a very enjoyable game. I can't wait to get a DMG and Monster Manual and see if the claims of the DM having an easier job creating are true.

I have also sat on both sides of the screen and it's been pleasurable for both seats.

 

[Byronic]

Well, better time to answer this poll now then when it first appeared 10 months ago.

Hit points? check
XP & Levels? check
Classes/Races? check
Fantasy? check
Polyhedral dice (especially that d20)? check
Sitting around a table with friends being heroes slaying monsters?

Still sounds like D&D to me.

If I took your statement literally then a game where all the classes were summoning types that summoned and channelled powers using rip offs from Yu-Gi-Oh cards would be DnD as well

Does it seem DnD to me? If this was edition was developed entirely out of fanwork then we wouldn't think it was DnD. If this was published by another company (maybe with a bit more changes) we wouldn't say it was DnD either.

Do I care? No. It seems like fun and that's what counts. I'm going to pretend it's an entirely new game and go on from there.