The Eternal GM
First Post
So we played last night.
4 players, with varying levels of D&D experience from lots (me) through to only a couple of 3.5 sessions. Only the halfling didn't get used.
So to most of us this was a 'new system test' session, and we were playing for laughs as for as the story went.
So I was Arthur Dent the Wizard (who spoke only in the third person), then there was Eric the Cleric, Beatrix the Dragonborn (w/ boobs!) and Hank the dwarf (with his battle cry of "Hank Smash!").
So WotC break the third rule of adventure design... The first mentioned NPC has a dumb name. Caralel (?) who of course alternated between Kal-El, Caramac, Caramel and Captain Cadbury. And the rest of the NPC's got ignored and abused equally... Poor DM, he suffered with dignity and even tried to keep things in character. I'm so proud.
We didn't TPK. Only two of us got killed, and I am proud to see I fled the field and abandoned Eric to his fate, which ended the session in time for folks to go home and eat.
It was a laugh, and a longer session than we would normally have played.
20 4th Edition Observations Thus Far... In no noteworthy order.
#1 - Per day powers are so ultimately awesome that we rested as much as we could. Utterly undermining the design logic.
#2 - The wizard still has a crossbow. It's a crossbow called magic missile now. But it's still a piss-poor ranged attack and very sad.
#3 - The per-encounter powers seemed to be the most fun and reliable ones. They had some noticeable effect (unlike at-will) and saw use as much as we could.
#4 - I hate minion rules. Some kobolds take one hit, but are a constant threat to my squishy wizard. Other kobolds are tougher than ocean liners... The hell?
#5 - Action Points... Again, resting is promoted by these being hard to get and keep, but easy to restore back to 1 with a good nap.
#6 - Book keeping. I hope you like it, it has lots. Tracking effects is no harder than in 3.5, but there's always more of them going on with ongoing effects. Marking is annoying.
#7 - Minis... You'll need them to play.
#8 - The fighter is crap at his job. Marking isn't much more than book keeping a few mods. The Paladin is great at the fighter's job, his marking kills monsters for no discernable reason.
#9 - the action/action conversion (standard/move/etc) was easy and saw lots of use.
#10 - The cleric's ability to save an ally from a critical hit got a standing ovation.
#11 - Critical hits as max. damage on a 20 are great. Book keeping cut down and no confirming is all good.
#12 - Dragonborn dragon breath and the wizard's burning hands exist purely to kill all the minions... And make us laugh.
#13 - Sleep is clearly meant to be renamed 'Make folks drowsy for a second or so' and is now an utter waste, especially as a per day spell. Expeditious Retreat is dumb fun!
#14 - The wizard is still a total wimp if more than one minion gets near him. The pre-gen should have had an area effect blast for such occasions, not three nigh-identical rays.
#15 - This whole 'every fight is a big tactical encounter' thing is getting old already.
#16 - Why aren't the character sheets separate pages? Why are the books made of toilet paper? We paid how much for this?
#17 - The maps are awesome, and will see use after 4th is out proper.
#18 - There is enough rules to play, everything we needed to know was in there.
#19 - Combat is more fluid and dynamic, it definitely does what 3.5 wanted to do in its latter years. Lots of hp going up and down, combat advantage shifting, etc.
#20 - They will come to fear the name of Arthur Dent, or they will be destroyed!
So ultimately, I enjoyed it. The focus on "The Encounter" is very irritating to me, as I'm a story-focussed kinda guy, and that's one thing the 4th Ed. rules don't appear to really support.
As a set of mini skirmish rules, they're awesome fun! If the new D&D mini rules are like this, I'll play it, but as a set of role-playing game rules... They're not to my taste. Better than 3.5? Definitely... But still heading away from the style of game I enjoy.
4 players, with varying levels of D&D experience from lots (me) through to only a couple of 3.5 sessions. Only the halfling didn't get used.
So to most of us this was a 'new system test' session, and we were playing for laughs as for as the story went.
So I was Arthur Dent the Wizard (who spoke only in the third person), then there was Eric the Cleric, Beatrix the Dragonborn (w/ boobs!) and Hank the dwarf (with his battle cry of "Hank Smash!").
So WotC break the third rule of adventure design... The first mentioned NPC has a dumb name. Caralel (?) who of course alternated between Kal-El, Caramac, Caramel and Captain Cadbury. And the rest of the NPC's got ignored and abused equally... Poor DM, he suffered with dignity and even tried to keep things in character. I'm so proud.
We didn't TPK. Only two of us got killed, and I am proud to see I fled the field and abandoned Eric to his fate, which ended the session in time for folks to go home and eat.
It was a laugh, and a longer session than we would normally have played.
20 4th Edition Observations Thus Far... In no noteworthy order.
#1 - Per day powers are so ultimately awesome that we rested as much as we could. Utterly undermining the design logic.
#2 - The wizard still has a crossbow. It's a crossbow called magic missile now. But it's still a piss-poor ranged attack and very sad.
#3 - The per-encounter powers seemed to be the most fun and reliable ones. They had some noticeable effect (unlike at-will) and saw use as much as we could.
#4 - I hate minion rules. Some kobolds take one hit, but are a constant threat to my squishy wizard. Other kobolds are tougher than ocean liners... The hell?
#5 - Action Points... Again, resting is promoted by these being hard to get and keep, but easy to restore back to 1 with a good nap.
#6 - Book keeping. I hope you like it, it has lots. Tracking effects is no harder than in 3.5, but there's always more of them going on with ongoing effects. Marking is annoying.
#7 - Minis... You'll need them to play.
#8 - The fighter is crap at his job. Marking isn't much more than book keeping a few mods. The Paladin is great at the fighter's job, his marking kills monsters for no discernable reason.
#9 - the action/action conversion (standard/move/etc) was easy and saw lots of use.
#10 - The cleric's ability to save an ally from a critical hit got a standing ovation.
#11 - Critical hits as max. damage on a 20 are great. Book keeping cut down and no confirming is all good.
#12 - Dragonborn dragon breath and the wizard's burning hands exist purely to kill all the minions... And make us laugh.
#13 - Sleep is clearly meant to be renamed 'Make folks drowsy for a second or so' and is now an utter waste, especially as a per day spell. Expeditious Retreat is dumb fun!
#14 - The wizard is still a total wimp if more than one minion gets near him. The pre-gen should have had an area effect blast for such occasions, not three nigh-identical rays.
#15 - This whole 'every fight is a big tactical encounter' thing is getting old already.
#16 - Why aren't the character sheets separate pages? Why are the books made of toilet paper? We paid how much for this?
#17 - The maps are awesome, and will see use after 4th is out proper.
#18 - There is enough rules to play, everything we needed to know was in there.
#19 - Combat is more fluid and dynamic, it definitely does what 3.5 wanted to do in its latter years. Lots of hp going up and down, combat advantage shifting, etc.
#20 - They will come to fear the name of Arthur Dent, or they will be destroyed!
So ultimately, I enjoyed it. The focus on "The Encounter" is very irritating to me, as I'm a story-focussed kinda guy, and that's one thing the 4th Ed. rules don't appear to really support.
As a set of mini skirmish rules, they're awesome fun! If the new D&D mini rules are like this, I'll play it, but as a set of role-playing game rules... They're not to my taste. Better than 3.5? Definitely... But still heading away from the style of game I enjoy.