Last night, I got to play my first game of Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Bottom line up front: I fail to see from where all the hate for 4E comes. It’s very similar in its rules foci to 2E or (dare I say it?) 1E. Having grown up on those games, 4E is certainly no paradigm shift to me. The only difference is that with healing surges, the cleric doesn’t have to be the healing battery. And for those who are saying it doesn’t facilitate role-playing—it has skills like Bluff and Diplomacy, which actually puts it a few steps further along the role-play road than its illustrious forebearers mentioned above.

I played a Githzerai Runepriest (both from the Player’s Handbook Three). We started at 6th level, which meant, for a complete newb like me, character creation took the better part of an hour. So many choices, and so many things different than in 3E, it really did feel like a different game.

I recall all the hype about how broken 3E was, and how 4E was going to fix all that. Maybe it did, I don’t know about grapple, but with so many powers and so many situational modifiers and prerequisites for using them, it’s confusing in its own particular way. Likely—as with 3E/d20—regular play would smooth out these difficulties.

And while 4E does try to cover every possible option with a rule, this happened in 3E as well. This is unfortunate, as it tends to straightjacket player choice and stifle creativity. It’s one reason why I’ve been moving to more and simpler systems recently. It’s why I enjoyed Old School Hack, which has 7 pages of rules, and adequately covers everything I need it to in those 7 pages.

So, I found 4E mechanically a very large step away from 3E, yet philosophically close to 1 and 2E. I’m not about to become a 4E disciple, but by the same token, I don’t buy a lot of the hyperbolic denunciations of it.

But would I request this game? Would I ever run a 4E game? Would I ever buy any of it?

No to all three.

I also recently played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, third edition, and if I’m going to go crunch heavy, that’s the game I’d play. Yes, Chris wins.

Walking in to a WFRPG 3E game as a newb was pretty easy. I did not build my character from scratch, but I would imagine there would have been a time outlay on the same level as 4E. For those who regularly play WFRPG, I’m sure they can build a character relatively quick, but for a newb, there’s a lot to consider there. The big difference comes in the ease of play and the entertainment multiplier of the WFRPG components.

I did not spend a lot of time considering my actions and deciding on tactics with WFRPG. In 4E, a lot of the powers seemed relatively similar, with very specific—and it often seemed minute—differences in effect. With WFRPG, the different powers seemed much easier to differentiate, and therefore choice seemed easier. With the effects so different, choice became easy based on situation. It’s kind of like a multiple choice question in which two or three answers all sound very similar and correct, with each having only one word different. You can spend a lot of time answering that question, even if you have the required knowledge, while you could answer a similar question with four very clear, very different answers quite quickly.

There’s also a lot to be said for the cards, tokens, markers, and different kinds of dice in WFRG. Everything seemed to be at my fingertips while I played—no referring back to manuals for this power or that attack. The interplay of different kinds of dice for different kind of actions—success vs. banes and boons, stuff like that—seemed both more interesting and—in an odd way—more exciting. It also seemed really intuitive to me, dividing the success of an action from the beneficial or baleful repercussions of that action.

So, 4E? Interesting. It’s fun for an RPG with rules focusing on tactical combat, and it has some very interesting races and classes. It is not visionary enough to be exciting, nor does its mechanics address the kinds of narratives and actions I like to run. It’s not going to be a buy for me, nor would I ever request it. If someone wanted to run a game and asked me to play, I’d certainly join a game. It’s just really not what excites me for RPGs.

One example can illustrate this: the group was getting its ass handed to it by some uber-psionic using dude. We were on the balcony, he was on the ground floor, and the stairs had collapsed. My character jumped down, then tried to catch the floor of the balcony, and swing under, smashing into the foe. I would have expected to get some kind of mechanical recognition for bringing the cool to the game—and everyone, including the DM, agreed this was cool—or at least not be penalized for doing so. Of course, 4E isn’t geared for this, and I got actively penalized for trying to do something different. My Githzerai, of course, failed his acrobatics and then his athletics checks, so he landed on his ass and took damage for the fall.

I want a game that rewards people for characters doing cool things. Action point, awesome point, some kind of bonus, extra dice, something. I want that because it signals to players “this is what we want, bring the awesome!” What incentive do I now have for acting outside of the strictures of my powers? Heck, I could have used a couple of move actions to get to the ground and back into the action, but I was thinking cinematic action while 4E is built for tactical considerations.

I prefer cinematic action, thanks.

I’ve honestly been fascinated with what Wizards of the Coast have done with Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons. The thing is, because I never use miniatures, there’s really no point in me investing the money. Further, it would be very much like learning an entirely new game, a crunch-heavy game at that. Still, I’ve been wondering what I could do with it and how it would play.

But maybe I’ll get the chance to check it out, if I’m lucky.

The Troll in the Corner blog is running a contest, the prizes of which, are the new D&D Essentials products, including the D&D Rules Compendium, D&D Essentials:Heroes of the Fallen Lands, the new D&D Essentials Tiles Master Set: The Dungeon and of course, the Red Box Essentials Starter Kit. You can bet your ass I’m throwing my hat in that particular ring. Those of you, like me, interested in 4E but averse to spending the dough (or those who already have everything 4E WotC has put out, and now want to complete that collection) should get in on this as well.

You can find all the details here.

Those of you entering, best of luck. Those of you not entering, throw some luck my way, will you?

Do yourself a favour and go read about Chatty DM’s Gears of Ruin setting/concept. The Campaign Genesis article is awesome in how it breaks down the creation structure into What If questions. This had never occurred to me, and it is brilliant. It is put to great use in the setting.

Here’s the thing: it’s stuff like this that makes me want to play D&D 4E. If I’m going to do it, I need a really good reason. Now, there is no reason that one could not use True20 or Savage Worlds for Gears of Ruin, but Chatty DM used 4E, and he seems to have put the integral system functions of 4E into both the world and the character creation. That means taking the 4E out of the setting would break it, even if only a little.

Will this get me to go shell out money for the 4E books? Nope. Though if someone wants to send me review copies or something . . . [wink, wink/nudge, nudge]

I’m thinking not.

I have no beef with Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I don’t own it, mind you, but I’ve read through parts. Two things turned me off: how class-based magic is handled and the requirement for minis. Having magic missile as an encounter power doesn’t jibe with my vision of magic. I like my magic mysterious, a little scarce. Without removing classes from play, this can’t be achieved in 4e.

As a side note, I’ve been told one could not model magic scarcity well in previous editions, and that 4e does it better. I find this a little startling, as I’ve always been able to do this (though I never actually tried with Basic D&D, but from 1e on, no problem) without removing character choice.

Anyway, I’ve never played with minis and I am not interested in investing in them. That’s not to say if someone brought minis to the game I would refuse to use them. They are certainly useful, I’m just not willing to invest in minis so I can then further invest in 4e when I already have games I know and run that do what I need them to do.

Okay, so that aside, I admit I am intrigued by the possibilities of 4e. If I got free books, free minis, and my players were clamouring for it, sure I’d run 4e. I think it would be easier if I just got the chance to play it.

And here’s what I wan to play: Nextwave, Agents of HATE as a D&D campaign. You see, Nextwave was all about superheroes who solved America’s problems by beating the crap out of sundry opponents. Wow, that does sound like a D&D campaign, doesn’t it? Considering that everyone says 4e is a rollicking good time, and that it looks like it’s all about the tactical combat, this could be the perfect match.

But Nextwave was also light-hearted. Well, more like cynically amusing. I don’t want anything too serious. The PvP/Penny Arcade 4e podcasts piqued my interest when I was still very disinterested in 4e. They were having fun. They were goofing off. Acquisitions Inc. could be Nextwave D&D.

If I were to run 4e, Given my track record, it is highly unlikely that I would run a dungeoncrawl. It’d likely be urban and based on intrigue. However, I’d be sure that all problems could be addressed by applying the proper amount of kick to the proper ass.

And hopefully, I’d get characters like Jim Darkmagic of the New Hampshire Darkmagics or Al, the Eldarin.