Thoughts on 4.0 now that the fervor has died down a bit

[haldir]

If you don't have a character sheet stained with pizza or soda, your not playin D&D!!! ha ha

[Bumble_B]

I prefer the new edition over the old ones any day of the week. The RP aspect hasn't changed. The combat has gotten better. Character generator is killer.

Everything just makes more sense.

 

And DMing ... o lord DMing is worlds easier now. It's nice being able to actually find DMs.

[yani]

I use ProFantasy's Campaign Cartographer....

 

I have that, but have never been able to use it. I guess I don't have the patience to learn the system, but I have the patience to draw in photoshop the maps I need!

[joshuaslater]

In my day we did it with graph paper and a pencil. You've never had it so good.

[Go0gleplex]

The 4th ed fiasco was the breaking point with being soaked for splat books and needing a library to play for me. From what I've read and heard it's simply a power monkey's game now...

 

 

Found Castles & Crusades by TLG and not only do I only need just two books to run a campaign, there's a lot less rolling and a lot more role-ing in the play, which goes faster, funner, and brings back what made D&D fun 30 years ago...

[Reaperbryan]

IMHO the splat books thing is no different than it was in 3.x or AD&D2e. WotC releases new book each month, so after a while, there's soooo many. This was true in the TSR days also.

 

when 3e came out I was less discriminating, and quickly snatched up any 3e book I found. Wihtin months, my 3e collection rivalled my 2e. now, with 4e, I'm much more discriminating, and have passed up more than half of what wotc offers, and am ignoring 3rd party stuff entirely.

[Lars Porsenna]

I think when ignoring 3rd party supplements you do so at your own risk. While this is no comment on the overall quality of 4e products, during 3e while there was a lot of crap, there was some really brilliant supplements too, such as Magical Medieval Society (a must have for anyone setting a campaign in a pseudo-Medieval setting)...

 

Damon.

[joshuaslater]

D&D will still leave less money in your wallet for miniatures than Savage Worlds, even with the supplements for that game.

[thetravis!]

IMHO the splat books thing is no different than it was in 3.x or AD&D2e. WotC releases new book each month, so after a while, there's soooo many. This was true in the TSR days also.

 

when 3e came out I was less discriminating, and quickly snatched up any 3e book I found. Wihtin months, my 3e collection rivalled my 2e. now, with 4e, I'm much more discriminating, and have passed up more than half of what wotc offers, and am ignoring 3rd party stuff entirely.

 

If you subscribe to the online stuff, almost everything from the books becomes available to you through the compendium anyway. No need to invest in a book unless you want the physical product in your hand.

[joshuaslater]

I remember when White Dwarf had AD&D and Call of Cthulhu mini-modules and monsters in it. I can't imagine subscribing to this Hasbro mess, even if I come across as Granpa Simpson.

 

I miss the gaming heyday of the eighties. Sigh.

[All-Terrain Monkey]

There's a big difference between subscribing to a magazine and subscribing to a comprehensive, search-enabled online database, js.

[Erion]

When I'm DM'ing a session, and we need to know what X-power does or the text of Y-Magic item, that compendium has been invaluable. I never run a session without it. Not to mention that it indexes and cross-links stuff from adventures, both online magazines, RPGA stuff and all the published books. I don't think I've used more than a handful of monsters directly from the MM in our current adventure. The compendium has all kinds of variants that players aren't expecting and can't easily metagame. It's a great resource.

 

Heck, the PHB 2 update was available online a week after the book hit shelves, and there's a monthly update with errata for everything published thus far. It might be late in arriving, but I think WotC might actually be onto something with D&D insider.

[Lars Porsenna]

I bet the compendium is great...until 5th Edition comes out. Sigh.

 

Damon.

[SIGIL]

I miss the gaming heyday of the eighties. Sigh

 

Amen to that. This is the very reason I started this topic, to see if the new lick of paint took the game any closer to it's roots. Alas after most of what i have read here, it has not. Horses for courses, though.

 

 

An interesting anecdote. I recently started gaming again with one of the guys who got me started in DnD WAAAAAYYYY back in '83. He has been completely out of the loop DnD or PnP wise for the past 15 years. We were gaming the OLD keep on the borderlands module, using what meager 1st ed rules we could find in his old DnD crate. It did not go very smoothly so he goes out and buys all the new books to get back into gaming right. He studies the books for a couple of weeks and calls me up......

 

" What the f**k is this s**t? " He says " it's like a pseudo medieval Superheroes game. "

 

And he is no churmudgeon either.

 

Anyway, as long as peopel are having fun what the hell else matters?

[chronoplasm]

I taught my nine-year-old sister and her friends how to play D&D 4E.

They loved it.

My sister played a Tiefling Fighter and role-played it by doing her best little-kid impression of a tent revival preacher.

"I AM THA DAVILL!"

 

I think it's a pretty good game for little kids. Character creation is fast and easy and the mechanics are simple and consistent. The kiddos needed a lot of advice and nudging along as far as tactics went, but they got a pretty good grasp for the rules and mechanics.