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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 9573983" data-attributes="member: 42040">Most recently, I had run it often at my FLGS for D&D Encounters. That was a very different experience than in a home game.1) The sessions were designed to be short with one combat encounter and maybe one trap, puzzle, social situation. The home experience of running for 4 hours was exhausting and repetitive.2) Players either had access to the D&D 4e tools OR sufficient play aids existed for them to take a pregen. In my case, I was the only one with the 4e tools, so I had to manage all the PCs.3) Encounters seasons covered levels 1-3 then started over. In the home game, complicated strings of reactions, triggered actions, magic item effects, etc, slowed combat to a crawl. 4) Creating my own adventures was a hassle because I had to make tactically interesting encounters AND roleplaying AND award appropriate magic items, etc. 4E adventures are bad. I started off trying to run a season of D&D Encounters, but the players balked at the restrictions that were placed on the organized play structure (such as using daily powers once per chapter). 5) I'm not as young as I was then. It was physically exhausting. It's hard to explain, but I felt like I had been in a real fight every week after the session ended. 6) Times have changed and I don't think 4E holds up. There are easier, faster, and more satisfying ways to do tactical combat: Gloomhaven, Baldurs Gate 3, Pathfinder 2 on Foundry VTT, etc. There are skirmish-level wargames like Kill Team and War Cry. 7) The design isn't interesting to me. Let's look at what a 1st level character gets: 2 at-will, 1 encounter, 1 daily power. Each combat, you have these choices. Sure, there are more choices than you might have as a 1st level character in another edition, but the combats take longer, and you need more of them to advance (than you do in 5e anyway). And now that there are 30 levels, you need more encounters to reach the "endgame." It's so boring. And I timed this. At 7th level, we were talking 45 minutes to go around the table once. I had a character who was stunned and unable to act for two of those turns. The player sat there and did nothing for an hour and a half, except getting bored and distracting the other players. Essentially, the juice of 4E isn't worth the squeeze. Combats should take half the time. Scenarios should be laid out like you'd find in Gloomhaven. To be interesting, characters should probably have 5+ powers they can choose from. Actions should require one roll and do a static amount of damage based on the roll (and trigger an effect based on that roll). Average monsters should die in 2-3 hits.</blockquote>

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