Topic: D&D 4th Edition.

[Nemesis]

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While there are changes in play (such as incorporating “epic-level play,” with 30 levels instead of 20), they are described as “evolutionary” rather than “revolutionary.”  Other changes include new power sources, changes in resource management, and new encounter design, and more clearly defined monster roles.  Changes will speed play, make the game easier to learn, and make DM-ing easier.  Concepts for 4th Edition gameplay were tested in the new Star Wars RPG, and the Book of 9 Swords.

[FRA.E.Kehakoul_XC]

Ahhrg, another dumbed down game , reminds me  on Warhammer 40k  and their "Overhaul" of the rules..,everything  for the brainless youth of today.. sigh

[Javora]

I played that game way back when it was AD&D and there were no level limits.  The best modules were the likes of Keep on the Boarderlands, Baltron's Beacon, and Ravenloft.  Once they put out the second edition with 20th max level and killed off the Assassin class I lost interest.  Now I just read the Forgotten Realms books.

[Nemesis]

I played and DM'd 1st and 2nd Edition.  I made an attempt as DM to get the campaign going again in 3rd Edition but it fell apart due to a divorce among my players.  I actually liked all 3 and think that if I had been able to continue the campaign would have preferred 3rd Edition overall.  3rd fixed some of the defects and the feat system helped differentiate the classes and characters even more than was possible in the past. 

There were some things that I disagreed with in 3rd Edition.  One was the way that weapon finesse didn't seem to be allowed to combine with 2 weapon fighting.  It seemed a very natural combination to me.  Also the "everyone is literate" bugged me.  I made people choose literacy if they wanted it.

Among the house rules I added when DMing the 3rd Edition campaign was the maximum damage a non magical version of the weapon was also the maximum bonus (from all sources) to damage for that weapon type.  This helped channel high strength characters to appropriate weapons and high dexterity to others.  This also encouraged them to adopt different fighting styles rather than the "everyone armed with a long sword" that so often seems to happen.  Using variant weapons tables for rolling magic weapons for treasures and NPCs also pushed that a bit as there was far less of a tendency to roll only long swords, more of the rarer weapons as magic made them more attractive to players.

I also allowed players to choose a personality characteristic which could give them benefits and/or detriments.  The list came from a non WoTC book and they only heard the description of the characteristic without seeing the game benefits till after.  The characteristics helped the roleplay side as it encouraged them to maintain it to keep the benefit and to work around the detriment where possible. 

[Nemesis]

More information

If we didn’t know it already, it’s now official that huge improvements from Star Wars: Saga Edition and Mearls’ Iron Heroes/Tome of Battle will become core rules in the new edition of D&D. We can surmise from Saga Edition that feats and class abilities are replaced by flexible Diablo II style talent trees, and Skills have been consolidated into straightforward groups - finally, Hide and Move Silently are a single skill, while rubbish like Profession and Use Rope has been discarded. Double-fistfuls of dice are no longer required to roll attacks at high level, critical threats automatically confirm. From Iron Heroes, we can expect to see an emphasis on “action fantasy”: melee fighters who can learn special combat techniques, emphasis on cool character abilities instead of magic items and buff spells, much more tactical management, and a simpler XP system.

Even basics like class and race have been overhauled. Prestige classing is out, flexible talent trees are in. Multiclassing is much more feasible than the previous edition, and a dual-classed character is now balanced for his level. Even more significant is the new race system, and how this interacts with monsters, monster advancement and monster characters. You unlock new racial abilities as you level up, making a dwarf fighter very different to an elf fighter. Humans will no longer be the dominant race in all fields, and in a return to earlier editions, races will be more strongly suited to their favoured classes.

I do hope that they avoid the "Xena combat" system.

[Skawpya]

saw this myself, and while the system *might* be an improvement over what does exist, I was mostly annoyed with WOTC for choosing to make current players face either rebuying everything or facing a lack of new players a year or two after dnd 4 comes out, instead of shfting production to setting materials. If as hinted in the playtest blurp, the numbers of classes increases to include psions, and perhaps incarnates, binders, shadowcasters, and truenamers, I will  be slightly less annoyed.

[Commander La'ra]

My group completely abandoned D20 a while back.  Some folks might comment that the newer D&D stuff is 'dumbed down', but in truth, it's a far better, more steamlined set of rules than 1st or 2nd Edition.  Never mind all the silly restrictions they dispensed with.

The problem is that they still try and stick to the basics of a system that has been surpassed many, many times, and that hobbles their efforts at producing a game that works like it ought to.  At least in my opinion.

Fortunately, there's much better systems out there.

[RazalYllib]

Rolemaster...nuff said about RpG ruleset...covers every possible tech lvl  .... the ONLY thing it does not cover out of the box, is the Superhero genre cause ICE publishes one of those...

[Ferretlxix_XC]

Rolemaster...nuff said about RpG ruleset...covers every possible tech lvl  .... the ONLY thing it does not cover out of the box, is the Superhero genre cause ICE publishes one of those...

I have given up on D&D since the 2nd ed.  I have been playing ICE's new system HARP.  I find it player and GM friendly.