Caverns & Carnivores?

[cheezstk]

After some prolonged insanity at work, I got to try out the new DnD 4.0 yesterday evening.  My thoughts going in were basically "that's weird & different & I don't know if I like it."  After creating a character & running through some combat (and dinner at an inn), my impressions are that it is weird and different, and I do not know if I like it or

Comments

[theprimarydave]

(Of course, I'm sure some old school players said the same when presentented with 3.0, but still...)

Nope. Having "grown up" on 1st ed, with only a little bit of 2nd ed, I can pretty much say that 3rd ed was a huge increase in my enjoyment of the game, getting rid of many "rules for the sake of making it realistic" towards "rules for the sake of actually having a game to play." And with a good GM, you ALREADY CAN IGNORE any rules you want. Don't want to keep track of food? Fine, ignore it. Don't want to worry about traveling encumbrance? Fine, you get where you're going when you get there. Heck, want to change the outcome of something just because it'd be more fun/more likely/wouldn't end the campaign right now? Fine, do whatever you want, you're the GM. :-)

[cheezstk]

True, true. A DM should be able to figure that out for themselves, and it seems that 4.0 may have taken the idea of simplifying a bit too far. No polymorphing (too complicated), not really any summoning, as far as I've seen (too complicated), and none of the more complicated ambiguous spells (which wouldn't translate nicely to a computer game). :-(

I'm glad to have this game going again, but the jury is still out on the new system.