D&D 4E

primesuspect

Tycho and Gabe from penny arcade are playing a 4E campaign for promotional purposes.

Gabe has never played any form of tabletop in his life, and normally hates them and is disdainful (I see him as being like Keebler)

Tycho is a very experienced dicechucker.

They are also playing with Scott Kurzweil (another comic artist) and an official WotC DM (as in, this guy's job is to be a DM.)

They're recording their efforts in a podcast. It's pretty cool to hear how it pans out. I know some of you raise your noses and sniff disdainfully at 4E but it sounds ****ing awesome to me. Check out the blog post and then the podcasts if you have some spare time. It's neat

CB

It does sound neat, from what little I've heard, but it seems like the changes are so sweeping that it would be a bad idea to switch to it when everything in our game has been rolled out and designed for 3.5

Also: I just bought the 3.5 books, and I would hate to make them obsolete already...


While I was working on the campaign, I considered asking if everyone wanted to wait for the new one, but at the time I had only heard bad things about it ("OMG WTF!! It's WoW D&D!!) and everyone was already a bit impatient to begin.


The coolest thing about what Gabe and Tycho are doing: Gabe is drawing the sessions.

I've had artist players before, and it's neat to see someone else's visual interpretation of the story.

Thrax

Brian likes it because it makes power and loot easier to obtain.

primesuspect

I wasn't suggesting that we switch to it, CB. I think that would be a horrible idea, plus I don't think any of us really wants to or can afford to

I was just putting this here for like-minded discussions' sake.

This is the part that excited me the most: "They broke with bad traditions while retaining the iconic stature of the classic archetypes - but these aren't the classes you remember. Or the races."

I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics a lot lately, and the job system is really, really well thought out and implemented. It got me thinking. It's nothing like D&D3.5 but it's still really well done.

If you wanted to bait me, Rob, you win.

The reason 4E sounds compelling to me is because it sounds like (from the limited info I've gotten so far from listening to the podcasts and reading) that there is going to be more flexibility and realism with the rules. There were a couple of times during this current campaign where I felt the rules were unreasonable insofar as thinking "I really should be able to do this though" even though the rules say I can't.

Thrax

I wouldn't call it baiting so much as just being an ass.

BuddyJ

Man, at my game store, I've seen a lot of the stuff they've been sending as we get ready to roll out. It does seem pretty cool as much as I don't want to admit it. From the big session reports I've seen from playtesters, they said it was hella fun because they got less tied up in rules/PHB discussions, and more involved in what they were doing.

CB

One of the biggest critiques I've heard from other DMs is that the rules encourage more glass walls. While past versions encourage less.

Some DMs have gone so far as to say that the system punishes players for attempting to do things outside the DM's original plot-line.

It seems odd to me that this is even possible, but I haven't actually looked at the books yet, so I'm not sure.

GHoosdum

< OT >
The book series mentioned in the blog post sounds like the werewolf version of that Vampire Sex book that Betsy made us read...
< /OT >

BuddyJ

Went by the game store today on my lunch break. Helped unload this and set up the display.

primesuspect

shiney

BuddyJ

The new PHB is a massive tome. Sucka be thick.

primesuspect

do....want....