This post over at Critical Hits really struck a chord with me.  Not because it reminded me of my group’s adoption of 3rd edition.  We actually had quite the opposite reaction.  For years, we had been playing 1st edition with some 2nd edition tacked on.  We only had two Player’s Handbooks, and most of our books were in rough shape.  Most of our materials were treated as carefully as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

When 3rd Edition hit, and we saw how good it was, we all bought a copy.  Finally, we had enough PHB’s for everyone.  It was joyous.  There was some initial resistance to 3.5, but after seeing the improvements it made, and the broken things it fixed (remember 3.0 Rangers, anyone?), we eBay’d our 3.0 books and upgraded.

Now, in a little over a month, I am going to try to run my group’s first 4e game.

Most mentions of 4e are met with derision, even at the time when we first heard about it.  Admittedly, there is some things I don’t like about 4e (mosly about having to shoehorn new things into our game world), but there’s quite a bit I do.  I feel it’s important to stress to my players that this is a new rules system, and comparison to 3.5 is not exactly comparing apples to apples.

There’s a few things that I know already won’t go over well.  It’s funny how I haven’t heard these mentioned as negatives anywhere else, but nonetheless will cause groaning at our game table:

• Not adding con bonus to HP every level – adding their full con score to HP at first level may throw them for a loop, though.
• Fixed HP at each level – the more I think about this, the more I like it, especially since I’m always the guy who throws a ’1′ on my HP roll.  It’s gotten so bad that I usually have other people roll for me.
• WTF is an Eladrin? – I’m not too sold on them, either, and I’m not really sure how they’ll fit in my game world.
• Why is the cheese-tastic Dragonborn now core? – We may be able to put these people in somewhere, but for the most part they will cause women to scream and babies to cry if they show up in our established villages.
• No Druid or Barbarian (yet, anyway) – I was usually the Druid player, but we had quite a few that liked to play a barbarian.

What they may like, if given a chance.

• More balanced classes.
• More options in combat.
• Interesting terrain, playing a bigger role in fights.
• Skill challenge system, for situations bigger than a single DC.
• The Warlord.

So, I’ll keep you updated as to how it goes.

Tags: 4e, RPG