What about 4th edition made you go AHHHH this is D&D to me.

[Voadam]

The Yeenoghu Demonomicon dragon article.

I own the DMG and I'm reading it straight through after browsing what I thought would be fun parts (gods, planes, artefacts) I'm up to the traps right now. The artefacts that I skimmed did not do that much for me. Same for the god descriptions. Planes were better.

I browsed the MM and I noticed no physical descriptions, and 20+ hp for 1st level kobold monsters on the downside with good art, neat looking simple powers on the plus side. Both books had neat things but not a warm fuzzy "AHHHH this is D&D" homey feeling.

I really liked that 4e Demonomicon article though. It had a "this is cool D&D" feel to it.

 

[apoptosis]

So far... nothing. I think 4e has a lot of potential as a Fantasy RPG but nothing in it seems particularly D&Dish to me.

I can think of half a dozen games off the top of my head that feel more like D&D to me and none of them have D&D in the title.

I wonder if this is a perspective thing. One of the guys in my local group was saying "It has classes, levels and you roll dice! It has orcs! It's D&D!" to which I replied "Well what makes it feel more like D&D than PFRPG, Talislanta, 5th Cycle, or WHFRP?" "His reply was "I dunno, I had to look all those up on Wikipedia."

Have those of us who have seen more D&D knock-off games developed finer (not better, look it up) discrimination for what qualifies as D&D to us? 'Cause frankly Earthdawn feels more D&Dish to me than 4e does.

This is kind of true for me. I have played so many friggin fantasy RPGs it takes more than orcs, dice rolling, classes and levels to seem D&D.

Axe of the dwarvish lords and hand of vecna...now that gives it more of a D&D feel.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Have those of us who have seen more D&D knock-off games developed finer (not better, look it up) discrimination for what qualifies as D&D to us? 'Cause frankly Earthdawn feels more D&Dish to me than 4e does.

At the risk of encouraging other posts like the one I quote, despite the plea from the OP, I must say: Earthdawn feels more D&Dish to me than 4e does as well, but 4e is growing on me. (And 4e is about fifty-seven times a better game.)

I suspect this is normal. 3e didn't feel like D&D to me when it first arrived, but it grew on me like a shadow-covered fungus.

My "ahhhh" moment wasn't from getting a "D&D feel", but from getting a "this is fun again" feel. The latter's more important, and I suspect the former will come shortly.

The WP

 

[Wil]

For me it was the concise, relatively basic nature of the classes and races and the "Points of Light" setting. It took me back to playing BD&D when I was 10.

 

[blargney the second]

When I played my first game of 4e on Worldwide Game Day, I hadn't even seen the books so I got to sit down and play it sight unseen.

It just plays like a game of D&D - my human cleric of Pelor healed a dwarf fighter ally while fighting hobgoblins, skeletons, and animated statues. We had to overcome traps, rescue villagers, and fail to figure out a badly designed puzzle. I got to turn undead to send them scurrying, and the party wizard blasted off a bunch of neat spells from the back lines. The rogue sneak attacked everything possible, and the table cheered whenever someone scored a critical hit.

-blarg

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Actually playing it. I was quite unsure until then.

There are still some "WTF" things about it, things that make me go "Is this D&D? This doesn't seem like D&D", the treasure packages for example, but having played it, I can confidently assert that for me, it's D&D enough to be D&D. It's as D&D as 3.5E felt to me, which is to say less D&D than 2E, but more D&D than, say, Runequest. If it hadn't been branded D&D and all D&D references had been obscured, and the fluff removed, I'd have thought it was a d20 version of Earthdawn, though, to be honest. That is NOT a bad thing, but I'm just saying, for the sake of posterity.

Also, let me be clear, what it FEELS like in play, to me, is RC D&D, not AD&D. Take that as you will.

 

[Wormwood]

I got the "AHHHHHHH..." factor when I saw that I could once again concentrate on running the game and less on making sure I had the math right.

1. This. It felt like 1982 all over again.

2. When I read Dragon Magazine and said, "I can use this---all of this---in my game".

3. When I realized that I could run D&D without feeling I needed a campaign setting to make it interesting.

4. Adventurer's Pack in the equipment section. That took me back.

 

[Dice4Hire]

The name on the front cover?

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

...the treasure packages for example...

Ah, man, I like the whole treasure parcel idea. So much better/easier (IMO!) than a Character Wealth by Level approach.

 

[jdrakeh]

Also, let me be clear, what it FEELS like in play, to me, is RC D&D, not AD&D.

Sweet.