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There was enough familiarity there that the game still felt enough like D&D, only a version that was new and exciting.

I’m a little disappointed at the wizard spell selection but the arcane book hasn’t come out yet, besides, how often did a wizard run out of spells at 1st level and just suck? In 4th edition you can feel like a wizard at all levels with your at-will Magic Missiles and the rituals and cantrips.

It absolutely does feel like an MMO with the character roles of healer, tank, etc but it also makes player groups more cohesive and cooperative.

As far as role-playing or playing different alignments etc, there is nothing in 4th edition different from 3rd, 2nd, and 1st editions that would prohibit or discourage you from doing so. How much any of that happens is up to the individual DM. Yes, most of the powers are combat oriented but there were a glut of powers in 3rd edition that rarely got used and make better sense as rituals now.

4th edition is an exciting blend of old D&D, MMO, and miniatures game. Just because it is radically different doesn’t make it less fun. I like it better than any version of D&D so far but if my players want to play 3.5, I have those books too. There’s no reason that someone can’t love 3.5 and 4th edition as they play like different games in many respects.

Roleplaying is roleplaying, a simpler system opens up the game a little for a better experence.

Not that it doesn’t have it’s faults, but it not bad, it’s a good change that we will just have to get used too

Ive played every version of dungeons and dragons from 1e (with first edition, rapiedly recalled lawsute pending set) all the way up to 4e and I have to tell you 4e is the best its ever been. Oh shure the systems only been out a couple of months and new expansions for wizards warriors and prests are on there way, and yet some people wine that they cant do blah blah anymore.

the simple fact of why 4e and not continue 3.5? Is realy easy… They beat that horse to death. with each new expansion the question became, how can i min max and power game this week george? admit it it was getting stale and not only that there was little continuity between things from one book to the next. dont thing Im bashing 3.5 though because it was SOOOOO much better then 2nd or 1st ed’s “well mmmm mmu Mr. DM sir can I uhh….” DM -”No! your disintigrated”

4e mmorpg ness that everyone keeps talking about, yeah um I dont see it. Ive been runing since release every weekend and guess what… 10 encounters the whole time… the rest role play, why? cause I know how to dm. asides from me every other dm i know runs the same thing dungeon crawl, Ive been runing story mystery adventure discovery /scocial interaction with the occasionaly villan poking around- and my players love it, infact it seems every time i run 4e someone brings a buddie and my game is getting massive.

the 4e at will powers are mostly basic attacks(the equivelent of) with some minor MINOR effect, whoo Im super man now! I might deal 2 damage to your buddie.
the abillity scores wont get out of controll if you notice this: POINT BUY IS STANDARD.
now for you folks who like to power game and cheat by saying you rolled an 18 when you realy rolled a 7 arnt going to like that but tough. point buy allows you to build a reasonable charicter and custiomize there strengths and weaknesses to some thing you can role play and enjoy while slaying the local dragon or… orphan…age…yeah…

and clerics and wizards have pritty much always had there prayers and spells the same, the just varyed in damage and in flavor txt. show me a 3.5 cleric with the fire domain that cant cast flame sphear and i will show you a lyer

over all Id say 4e is the best thing since sliced bread and waffles.

Here’s a clue - TTRPGs are NOT MMOs! For a start, they don’t have to be about combat. In fact, none of my memorable gaming experiences have involved combat - they have involved puzzle solving, adventure, and above all ROLE-PLAYING. Then again, with Blizzard raking in 2 billion a year in subscriptions, you can’t help but feel like WOTC has a 2×4 in their collective pants re the thought of drawing in even part of the MMO crowd.

So what you get is 200 odd pages about daily/encounter/at-will powers, skills, and feats, which basically boil down to how to chop someone’s tits off before they do the same to you. I’d say that 99% of your readership will correctly imply that this is what the game is all about.

So what is missing - perhaps anything to do with creating a story! Rather than trying to fit people into roles such as healer/dps/tank, why not try something new and original and try to think about character roles in stories - the main protagonist/hero, anti-hero, sidekick, love interest, comic relief, etc. I’d rather see something focused on what goes into a good story than yet another edition that presents revised game mechanics for the same old powers and how I can use them to push miniatures around a table for 3 hours.

I cannot believe how homoginized every class/race combination feels, not to mention everyone is a super-hero with their at-will *powers*

The most hard hit - or at the least, the most I feel is missing - is in the cerics/wizards with the new spell system.
Some of my fondest memories from 2e when creating a cleric was choosing your deity + spheres of influece for spell choice; Or creating a wizard and choosing the school of magic for my spells. Both really helped flesh out what made them unique, it added to my ability to role play them.
Not to mention choosing an awesome kit within that class to further define the character and give you an edge right out of the gate… Now you have to wait till level 11 to choose a path (I guess that’s like a kit?) but WAY later in your career.

…also, why would a cleric and a wizard both be able to cast the same rituals as they do in 4e?

Everything seems so combat orientated, my initial take is it looks like a tactical minuatures game with bouts of roleplaying sprinkled in.

BUT I am going to give 4e a chance and reserve final judgment until then.

Given that Gygax actually said this of 3rd Edition, it makes me actually wonder what he thinks of 4th Edition. Would he really be happy about it being so simplified? Or would he pissed off that it was basically made into a generic MMO?

But then, taking a closer look at his quote, may he is rolling in his grave after all. With alignments having been merged a bit, very small skill list, and excessive focus on combat, there seems to be hardly any RP value left. But again, I still have to withhold my final judgment of it, since I’m still struggling to read even through the PHB, and still have yet to even play with this new system.