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<blockquote data-quote="Festivus" data-source="post: 4774781" data-attributes="member: 34532">I find the following with regard to editions from my personal DMing point of view, having DMed both.&nbsp;1. 4E is easier to run as a DM at higher levels than 3.5 is going to be for someone new to the game. If you choose to make it so, 3.5 can get very complex.&nbsp; What I do is toss out a lot of the finer points to make the 3.5 game run faster at higher levels, but I attribute that to experience with the system.&nbsp; A newcomer may not know to do this.&nbsp;2. 4E takes longer to resolve conflicts.&nbsp; Not that this is a bad thing, but it does take more rounds than 3.5 did.&nbsp; To me that is part of the fun.&nbsp; It's not fun to take out the dragon lich in two rounds of combat (that would be 12 seconds of time).&nbsp; It should take some time to resolve.&nbsp; Downside, that pack of orcs also takes 8-10 rounds to clear out.&nbsp;3. 4E allows me to travel to gamedays with exactly one book, the Players Handbook contains everything I need to run a game.&nbsp; The monster manual isn't needed because everything I have run has the full stat blocks of the monsters in the adventure.&nbsp; The DMG isn't really needed at all unless you are designing adventures.&nbsp; 3.5 requires me to travel with the following books at a minimum (bear in mind we have a lot of options in play): Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual(s), Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, Rules Compendium.&nbsp; For a basic 3.5 game you really only need the first three books to play.&nbsp;4. 4E is more restrictive on player options (for now).&nbsp; 3.5 has dozens of splatbooks available to make characters &quot;interesting&quot;.&nbsp; I suspect that as time progresses, there will be just as many options for 4E.&nbsp;The above are all my opinions, as I currently run a 3.5 level 20 game and several 4E games of a variety of levels (highest being 16th).&nbsp;My suggestion is as the others have said.&nbsp; Download the Pathfinder beta and the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure, and run some adventures as a tryout and get everyone's opinions as to which they liked better.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Festivus, post: 4774781, member: 34532"] I find the following with regard to editions from my personal DMing point of view, having DMed both. 1. 4E is easier to run as a DM at higher levels than 3.5 is going to be for someone new to the game. If you choose to make it so, 3.5 can get very complex. What I do is toss out a lot of the finer points to make the 3.5 game run faster at higher levels, but I attribute that to experience with the system. A newcomer may not know to do this. 2. 4E takes longer to resolve conflicts. Not that this is a bad thing, but it does take more rounds than 3.5 did. To me that is part of the fun. It's not fun to take out the dragon lich in two rounds of combat (that would be 12 seconds of time). It should take some time to resolve. Downside, that pack of orcs also takes 8-10 rounds to clear out. 3. 4E allows me to travel to gamedays with exactly one book, the Players Handbook contains everything I need to run a game. The monster manual isn't needed because everything I have run has the full stat blocks of the monsters in the adventure. The DMG isn't really needed at all unless you are designing adventures. 3.5 requires me to travel with the following books at a minimum (bear in mind we have a lot of options in play): Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual(s), Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, Rules Compendium. For a basic 3.5 game you really only need the first three books to play. 4. 4E is more restrictive on player options (for now). 3.5 has dozens of splatbooks available to make characters "interesting". I suspect that as time progresses, there will be just as many options for 4E. The above are all my opinions, as I currently run a 3.5 level 20 game and several 4E games of a variety of levels (highest being 16th). My suggestion is as the others have said. Download the Pathfinder beta and the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure, and run some adventures as a tryout and get everyone's opinions as to which they liked better. [/QUOTE]

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