I also ran the Raiders of Oakhurst adventure for three members of my group. Fortunately, they were all open-minded. Overall, the reception was positive. We had the Fighter, Cleric, Ranger, Wizard and Warlock. 2 of the players each played 2 characters.
The only real complaints we had were with marking, saving throws and the cleric's bonuses. Marking was just annoying to keep track of, forgotten more than once, and overall just a mechanic we all felt the game would be better without. We used tokens, the problem is we'd forget to mark in the first place, but once we did, the tokens helped us remember who was marked. The Warlock player got tired of the curse mechanic rather quickly. He felt it was repetitive and annoying to do round after round, and wondered why the 1d6 extra damage wasn't just a bonus that is always applied to his attacks. Likewise, the bonus from the cleric's prayers were usually just forgotten about, rendering them worthless.
One of my friends, who has always been a simulationist, found the 1-1-1 diagonal movement "ridiculous", but after we played with it, it didn't seem to be all that bad. The only other thing that bothered us was the way saving throws work. The Wizard was very displeased at just how ineffective Sleep is now, to the point of being almost worthless. We got the hang of rolling saves against the repeated acid damage of the dragon, but it just felt akward somehow. Saving throws were definately something we had some reservations about. I, as the DM, really didn't like the recharge mechanic either. I'd much rather they have just said how many times per encounter it can be used, or how many rounds of recharge is needed before using it again. I felt like rolling every round to see if it recharged slowed things down and was annoying for me.
Despite the few negatives, there were alot of very positive opinions as well. Combat, except for the things mentioned above, seemed to go very smoothly and quickly. My group absolutely love the way the defenses work, and the overall streamlining of things. We also liked the passive perception mechanic, as it really helped to speed things up and eliminate the obvious giveaway of asking people to roll perception to notice things. We also really were impressed with how much fun playing a 1st level character is, compared to previous editions.
In the end, the players all died to the Dragon, which had 4 (not kidding, FOUR) HP left when it finally KO'd the last player. It was quite the fight, though I do think its HP are a bit extreme for a level 4 creature, solo monster or not. Overall, we went away with a positive, look forward to seeing more attitude. The negatives were mostly set aside as something we probably don't entirely understand yet or were just having trouble with because it was our first time playing it. Time will tell whether we adjust to those things or house rule them, but overall, our group is looking forward to 4th edition.
