More 4E stuff.

[subplotkudzu]

 This review captures my concerns about 4E. I still haven't read 4E, but while this guy's tone is favorable overall, everything that irks him irks me even more - except perhaps the animation.

Comments

[daftnewt.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm moving in this direction too. It looks like it could be a fun tactical miniatures game, but basically everything I really liked about the old game - the way it provoked you to learn all sorts of odd stuff, the way you could tinker together the various bits to make a unique setting - is gone from this.

There's also nothing about the game that really encourages you to roleplay anything beyond shouting your war cry or customizing your combat abilities.

I'm still mulling the idea of running it somehow, but the big question for me is how much I'll have to break it to get a game that's going to be more than a simulation of a computer game.*

I admit I'm looking forward to bunches of 3.5 books turning up in the bargain bins in game stores.

(*the value of this I leave as an exercise for the reader)

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

I'm also frustrated by the lack of character development paths. Yes, AD&D 1E didn't have much by way of these - your fighter had a choice of weapon proficiencies and armor - but 4E gives the illusion of choice by filtering you onto a number of pre-set paths as opposed to the 3E array of skill choices and prestige classes. if AD&D1E had Prestige Paths for characters at 10th level at up I would have thought it great. 20 to 30 years later it's a throwback rather than a feature.

In many ways it reminds me of Earthdawn with the highly specific character types that had X powers that could be purchased at Y "circle", but that ritual feel was built directly into the game world so it felt real (if confining). And, as with Earthdawn, there's no class that says "here, this is simple, you can play this without having to learn a bunch of crunchy bits".