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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riastlin" data-source="post: 5570864" data-attributes="member: 94022">Personally, I think there are a few issues at work here (in no particular order):1.  The multitude of powers a PC has detracts from their RP ability in combat.  In older editions, the fighter more or less swung.  Occasionally charged, maybe even grappled or bull rushed (though those were often rare depending on the group).  As such, it was always "clear" what action the player would take, so instead, they focused on what they'd "say".  "I glare at the orc and let loose a shout of defiance.  'For Tempus!' *roll* "Yeah! That's gonna hurt!"  Now the player often has to wait until its his or her turn to know which power to use and then each power is a little bit different meaning that a saying that works for one power might not work for another.  Instead of spending their time between actions thinking about what they'll say, they're thinking about what they're even gonna do.2.  Combats are much easier to design for DMs now.  I can design for encounters in less than half an hour if I'm really pressed.  Not only that, I can make them feel as though they belong together.  In earlier editions though, it would sometimes take an hour to design a single encounter if I wanted it to be more than 'just an ogre'.  If I wanted an encounter with a major villain or recurring villain?  Yikes, it could take me more than hour just to stat out that one villain -- then I had to give him body guards and the like, then hope that the encounter fell into an appropriate difficulty range, etc.  The result was that I often threw in a "roleplay" encounter strictly for the purpose of eating time in a session because I didn't have enough encounters planned out.  Add to this the fact that (at least for me) skill challenges are the hard part of the game to design now and you have even more incentive to go from combat to combat.  I love the skill challenge concept, but I confess that I am not very good at implementing it.  Worse still, players know that when a SC crops up, they really need to make sure they get it right because there are now tangible rewards (XP) for doing it right and tangible penalties (less XP, loss of surges, etc.) for doing it wrong.  This leads a lot of players to simply say "Arcana!" rather than taking the time to describe it.  Rather they know Arcana is their strong suit so they try to use it.3.  Combat was made much more dynamic.  In earlier editions, a combat was often decided (or at least heavily weighted) by the initiative rolls.  This was particularly true (and still is to an extent) with single creature encounters.  If the bullette came up last on initiative, it might not even get an attack in.  Now, even if the PCs all get to go first, its still going to take at least 2 - 3 full rounds (likely more) to decide a combat.  Personally, I think that this actually makes combat more fun, but that's a different discussion.  The side effect though, I think, is that we spend so much more time thinking about combat now because we have to.  When we get out of combat though its almost like we need a breather since we've been on edge for the last 45 - 60 minutes.  Unfortunately, this isn't a good time to then try to get involved in a deep philosophical discussion with the local duke.  Players are running to the bathroom or refilling the soda, etc.  Ironically though in older editions, in some respects (particularly for the martial classes) combat was a bit of that breather time since it was often "I swing." (yes I know I am over simplifying it).4.  Power Cards.  Finally, as previously stated, the power cards naturally draw our attention to them.  Unfortunately though there are no cards for roleplaying (nor could there be really).  Although its in no way true, it seems at times as though roleplaying is that thing you do between combats which kind of gives it second class citizen status to many.All of these are simply my personal opinions and experiences; however, I really think that they have kind of combined to create this perfect storm wherein people believe that there's little to know actual RP in 4ed.  As stated previously, there's absolutely no reason you can't RP in 4ed.  However, it often seems as though the system is really encouraging you to ignore roleplaying in favor of rollplaying.Just my 4 coppers.</blockquote>

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