D&D 4E My First 4E Game: Disappointing. Yours? (UPDATED with player feedback)

[Iron Sky]

I think what they wrote back makes a ton of sense. On a night where they weren't going to be able to play what they were hoping for, they end up with pre-gen characters in which they have no investment, to play a game that only a portion of the rules are available for in an adventure designed around those partial rules.

Honestly, I think it would be hard to get most people to really enjoy that, unless they were doing it specifically because they wanted to playtest 4e.

Once 4e is out in full, people have a chance to digest the rules a little, and more importantly have a chance to make their own PCs, imagining the things they will be able to do with them as they grow and play in a campaign where what they do might matter beyond the end of the next fight, there will probably be a little more enthusiasm.

This was the same experience I had. My characters saw trying out 4e not from a "another system to try out, interesting" perspective, but from a "wait, this means we have to wait another week before we play your game again? Our characters are pre-made? *sigh*"

They were polite enough to give it a try, but two of them quit early...

I chose to take it as a compliment about my current campaign - as the OP probably should - even if it was hard to have so much enthusiasm for running 4e and have them not mirror it.

 

[Spatula]

EN World screen names, actually. Their points sound awfully familiar.

Yeah, it's impossible that they arrived at such ideas independantly. They must be tapped into the vast anti-4e hivemind...

 

[Firevalkyrie]

My D&D Game Day experience from last year was much the same: The adventure was amusing enough for basically a little two-hour hack and slash module, but overall I felt little or no connection to my fighter. That's OK, for what it's worth, for a "convention" module but for a game I'm going to sit down with my friends and play, I want a little more immersion.

 

[CleverNickName]

Yeah, it's impossible that they arrived at such ideas independantly. They must be tapped into the vast anti-4e hivemind...

It's probably my fault; I talk about the ups and downs of 4E all the time. Maybe I just need to drop the subject and let them develop a curiosity on their own. If that never comes to pass, then so be it...there's always Diablo2.

 

[phil500]

Excuse me?

(I am Wiccan, by the way.)

I guess it was a little rude- I didnt have to attack wicca to make my point.

It is that anyone who tries to discredit fantasy magic by saying "thats not how it works" is implying they know how it works.

They are introducing something totally unprovable in order to argue a point.

 

[Wolfspider]

I guess it was a little rude- I didnt have to attack wicca to make my point.

It is that anyone who tries to discredit fantasy magic by saying "thats not how it works" is implying they know how it works.

They are introducing something totally unprovable in order to argue a point.

It's ok. Let's listen to the moderator and not derail the thread.

Thanks.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

One of the problems with these game sessions is that they're not really using the 4E rules: they're based on a homebrewed fan created set of fastplay rules.

A lot of people are excited about playing D&D, and it just seems silly that there aren't already an official set of fastplay rules for us to run with. I mean why not just clean up and release the fastplay rules the GMs had at D&D Experience? That way everyone would be using the CORRECT version of the rules at least.

Would that have made things better? In some cases, definitely yes!

(By the way, that's not a slam on the folks who've put together the current PHB Lite: you are doing a fantastic job--you're just doing WotC's job!)

--Steve

I think that's part of the marketing. Maybe not all the specifics, but you see us drooling over all the stuff WotC releases in tiny bits. Everyone that contributed to the PHB Lite, and everyone using it, feels connected and now is invested 4E. Anyone reading on devoted fans creating the PHB Lite will think "Wow, the game must be something, if they doing all that work that will be mostly worthless when the actual game arrives!"

I don't really understand marketing, and sometimes believe it doesn't work as advertised (pun intented). But I also always have the nagging doubt that I am totally wrong and that it works, even on me (or especially on me?). Seeing the 4E marketing I might see how it can work, even without believing it wouldn't.

 

[abeattie]

Yeah, my players would never do that; they even get embarrassed and apologize if their mobile phones go off.

I/we don't even like it when one player is browsing unnecessarily through an actual PHB or what have you.

I almost always have a laptop at the table.

I use it to keep my sheets on, and to browse when I shouldn't be running over other people's scenes. Patience comes hard to some of us -- and the distraction is useful.

 

[abeattie]

I don't really understand marketing, and sometimes believe it doesn't work as advertised (pun intented). But I also always have the nagging doubt that I am totally wrong and that it works, even on me (or especially on me?). Seeing the 4E marketing I might see how it can work, even without believing it wouldn't.

Given the number of posts I've seen -- and my experience trying to run with the 4e-lite, I don't know that I'd agree.

My players that were interested, but not following 4e were frustrated with the form and format of the rules. The questions I could not answer bugged the hell out of them. They left with a very sour sense of the rules as written.

That said, they'll make the switch to 4e, because I'm the GM, and I will invite them to upgrade or leave -- but still.

 

[DandD]

Given the number of posts I've seen -- and my experience trying to run with the 4e-lite, I don't know that I'd agree.

My players that were interested, but not following 4e were frustrated with the form and format of the rules. The questions I could not answer bugged the hell out of them. They left with a very sour sense of the rules as written.

That said, they'll make the switch to 4e, because I'm the GM, and I will invite them to upgrade or leave -- but still.

It's understandable that they're frustrated with the form and the format of the rules. They were made by fans who scrapped the rules together they've read and experienced and are now still stumbling upon.