Nerrrrrrrrrrrrd

[eevilyounggirl]

Maybe it's good I didn't get into Dungeons and Dragons until age 26. I could see my childhood being very different had I gotten into it earlier.

For those of you fellow nerds out there: any thoughts on 4e, now that it's nearly a year old? I really only played 3.5 before it, but 4 just seems a lot better made.

Comments

[matt_m_mcelroy]

I'm not really a fan of either 3.5 or 4E D&D (so I'm probably not the target audience for this question).

Fantasy systems I like include Dungeons & Zombies (Unisystem), D6 Fantasy and Houses of the Blooded.

I've also heard good things about True20 from Green Ronin, which is more in line with 3.5.

[hagbard23]

I gave 4e a fair shot, but it wasn't the game for me. 3.X certainly has its issues, and it's no longer my go-to game. To me, Savage Worlds fills a lot of the needs they tried to fill with 4e (mostly that it's simpler and a lot less fiddly than D&D 3.X), but plays a lot better

[fornikate]

I don't like it. It seems to be for the 'power gamers' or new gamers.

[atropes]

4e does a much better job of codifying rules, so from that perspective it's way less confusing than 3.5. Problem is, 4e tends to be very inflexible, so it's not as easy as 3.5 to adapt to new situations, and the non-combat rules are really really lacking. Depends on what kind of game you're lookin to play really, both systems have some great strengths.

[lordaristar]

People talk about how 4E is quicker and more streamlined than 3.5. However, neither one is exactly speedy.

I find 4E, especially at higher levels of play, or with people who are good at using the system to its full effect, tends to involve a huge amount of fiddliness. You need to track which monsters the fighter has marked in which round, who's cursed, who's marked as quarry, what temporary buffs are ongoing from the warlord or cleric, which "save to end" effects are currently ongoing, etc. Unlike 3.5, where spells generally give a bonus for the entire length of a combat, in 4E, everything changes on a round-to-round basis. This is actually a lot harder to track.

Personally, I like Pathfinder a lot. I also love Exalted. Finally, I like to play with stripped-down versions of D&D; just throw in arbitrary rules like "Your character is really stealthy? OK, you automatically succeed at all stealth checks. However, that doesn't stop spells from finding you."