Hey, /tg/, I'm not new to tabletop, but I never played 4th Edition. My players are now looking for a high fantasy game and I'm wondering if 4e would be suitable. I know it was hated at the time of its release when 3.5e was popular, but now that the dust has settled, has your opinion changed at all?
>>47063696
4e is a great game, don't let the haters hate.
However, it's not D&D. D&D is shit and 4e is great.
>>47063696
It's a good system. It's not the best for roleplaying, but D&D was always more about combat than storytelling. It's actually a pretty easy one to learn for new players too
>>47063719
Uh... Okay? I don't mind the MMORPG powers system seeing as I'm making a high fantasy setting, but still.
4th Ed is a perfectly fine fantasy adventure game.
DnD 4th Edition is basically Final Fantasy Tactics, but multiplayer and has no computer running all the numbers for you. If that sounds like a good time to you, you'll probably enjoy it.
>>47063735
I can add my own stories and such to the game, can't I?
>>47063696
4e has a lot of focus on tactical combat. minis aren't strictly needed, but the farther you get from grid based combat the worse the combat system is to use.
it's a very crunchy system, everything is laid out mechanically and for the most part as clearly as possible. most of the crunch has sone fluff associated with it, but can easily and without harm be separated from it completely.
Stats for monsters had HP bload and low damage that made combat very easily and uncomfortable slog until the MM3, so if you take prefab monsters the source does matter. alsotheD&D essentials line brought a lot of old asthetics to the system, tying fluff to crunch more than the rest of the systems and offering sone radically different class options, it's very divisive among 4e fans, and it's worth looking at separately from the rest of 4e before making any decision on
there is a lot of first-party digital content, if you like tons o' options then it's worth hunting down all the dungeon and dragon stuff for the system, and almost certainly worth finding the cracked character builder.
several options added later to the game are "optional" but have a good bit of mechanical weight. backgrounds and themes should be an all or nothing thing for your party, and forgotten realms backgrounds are way stronger than pretty much every other background.
>>47063768
When people say 4e "isn't great for roleplaying" what they really mean is "there are no rules for roleplaying and I am incapable of roleplaying without rules."
Ignore those people and you will go far.
>>47063871
How many systems have books on how to roleplay? Is this really needed? We aren't all Meryl Streep but acting isn't *hard*
>>47063931
That's what I'm saying. There are some systems where you have mechanical benefits for roleplaying, or systems that have rules for how hard you can talk, but honestly in a high-fantasy type of game like 4e you're not expecting a lot of drama and your character develops by gaining XP, loot, and levels, not new character aspects or madnesses or social interaction chips or what have you. There's some basic skills in 4e that you can apply to social interactions, but it's nowhere near exhaustive or complete.
But that doesn't matter because you can just roleplay without rules.
I guess the slightly more complicated issue is that 4e combat is so abstracted that it's difficult to apply your powers outside of combat, but I think a good guideline is that "it works and you expend the use of the power." Use healing surges as an out-of-combat resource as well. HP is for in-combat, but healing surges are long-term vitality and exhaustion.
>>47064048
I thinkthe other cause for "4e is bad at roleplaying" is because those rules it does have which are applicable to out of combat situations can easily feel stilted or poorly conceived. many powers with obvious out of combat application are still often odd in implementation or raise the question of "wait I can't do that anyway?" the skill system is intentionally not very franular and the skill challenge was a fine idea that was executed like ass leaving the possibility of an out of combat situation handled as crisply as in combat using the system a sad pipe dream.
>>47064133
Yeah, that would be a fair assessment.
When people complain 4e lacks support for roleplaying, it can also mean 'I can't solve problems with magic rather than thinking' anymore. 4e forces you to actually roleplay and think rather than casters fixing everything with a wave of their hand.
I'll agree with the first post in the thread, to a degree. 4e isn't D&D. 4e is better than D&D.
