I've already commented some, around, about my thoughts on 4E, but for those not in the know, I think the game ROCKS!
Who am I? Started playing in '89 the 2nd edition D&D (before 1st edition AD&D), loved it, loved both AD&D editions, HATED 3rd edition, including 3.5
I figured from the beginning that I was going to hate 4th edition as well, after all, they'd left the path of proper evolution when they went to third. I hated 3rd because they remained in classes. The proper evolution of the game was to remove classes entirely, or to wargame it in a nice merger of RPGing and Battles. Admittedly, after a few years, 3e didn't look so bad with all those options, so many classes that it really didn't matter that they had classes, you'd find something that 'fit' your character concept. But it was still wrong.
Now my 4e game is already up to 11th level (one of the only flaws in the game.... rapid advancement). Took 12 games, and poof, I'm 11th level. I love the game, I'm so glad for bursts, blasts, grids, models, etc. I'm happy for movement rules. As for the "role" part of the game, that's ALWAYS been up to the player and DM/GM anyhows. Anyone who whines about 4E for being anything other than an RPG is just playing poorly or with a poor DM.
So anyhows, the games have been awesome, and for the first time ever in an RPG, I'm riding around on a hippogryph chasing a Vampire Lord down who is on an Adult Black Dragon. That's just cool.
The weakness, as I've already alluded towards, 12 games, 11th level. By 30ish games (that's less than a year easy, especially at 1 game a week), and the game is over, character turned Demi God. Sure, few games ever even last til 30 games, so in a way it's nice that I'll actually have a maxxed out character for the first time in my gaming history (well, my 3rd ed Shadowrun cyber-shaman was pretty maxxed out....). But it also kinda bites that it's coming so quickly (already 1/3rd of the way there). Aside from that though, there's nothing at all negative about the game.
Ok.... of you go into the game, totally expecting something instead of being open-minded about it, yeah, it could suck. Shoulda just stuck to the game you were expecting it to be like.... But if you went in open-minded, it is definitely a top-notch game. And as the best fantasy game to come out since AD&D, I'm GLAD they gave it the D&D title (since Ars Magica isn't ever gonna make an official 'fantasy' game).
Perfection.
Anyhows, although I may blog a bit about politics (huge Obama supporter), most of my followup blogs will be a synopsis of each game so far, from the Zombie invasion we began with (can you believe we beat a SkullLord at 1st level?!?) to our Paragon quest where we killed the Adult Black Dragon, and a few days later, a 16th level Vampire Lord!
Tags: 4e 4th DnD Dungeons Dragons D&D
