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I marveled at how easily a novice can jump right into the game, and still do. It’s easy, especially when you have everything spelled out for you. Sure, character creation still takes around 30 to 40 minutes, but you can pick what you want and start using your powers. Great, huh?
Unfortunately, these powers are fairly static. That's the bad news. There’s no fluidity and precious little poetry. 4E powers are more like math problems actually. Two times your weapon damage + 12 versus Fortitude at a range of 10, burst 3. And you can do that once per encounter. I have no idea if that’s a real power or just an approximation because frankly, I’m shell shocked by the onslaught of these formulas. So much variety, yet all the same… but little variation and each one is different! Yes, I know that sounds contradictory and crazy, but that’s what it feels like to the DM who’s been running 4E for a dozen sessions.
Race is little more than an excuse for character ability tweaks. At first, I thought the lack of setting in the core rules was a plus. A Dungeon Master could do what he liked. It didn’t take me long to think up the name of a new realm with a few paragraphs of flavor text. Then I came up with a couple sentences to describe how each race lives and prospers in this new world. After a couple sessions of adding more stuff to the vast emptiness out there, I became discouraged, if not exhausted. Did any of it hold up? Did my tying the Tieflings with the Eladrin work? Did it matter? That depends on one question… how much of it related to combat?
There are a lot of arguments about the roleplaying aspects of 4E. Does the system allow for too little? Is it the DM’s discretion and opportunity to provide the roleplaying? The DM’s campaign in 4E will be well meaning, I’m sure. There will be wonderful seeds, many hopes and plot layered aspirations; however, everything seems to play second fiddle to the wargaming. Why is that? I couldn’t figure out what was so different between 3E and 4E. Was it the rules? The mechanical feel? The lack of pre-generated setting? No, it was none of these (although, I’m sure they contributed). After a dozen sessions, I finally realized what it was! It was the combat itself that killed the roleplaying; specifically, healing surges.
Many of you may be saying WTF about now, but hear me out. Healing surges come in different varieties (second wind, laying on hands, potions, etc.), but they have one goal – to keep you alive for longer periods. Yes, greater access to healing provides more hit points, and more health allows your character to keep fighting. It’s the increased survival which prolongs combat.
If I’m going to give my player characters a nice, full battle which taxes them sufficiently, then I need to have a ton of lesser monsters, a couple greater monsters, or something in between out on the grid. Unless the party heals themselves fully once or twice during the encounter, I really haven’t given them something to worry about. Next thing I know, the battle is over and two hours have gone by. It takes awhile to find and divvy up the loot; even longer to get back into “character”. If there’s a second battle later on, then that’s at least another whole hour of the session devoted to combat. Pretty soon, everyone’s mind is on killing stuff and gaining experience. It’s difficult to go back to civility after ripping an enemy’s spine out of his body.
That’s fine, but if that is all there is, then why bother having a DM? I sometimes feel little more than a stand-in for a combat simulation program. Four hours of combat plus an hour of getting everyone’s attention, bathroom breaks, food, and talking about geek culture… which usually leaves less than an hour for the roleplaying itself. And even when the non-combat playing of roles takes center stage on those rare occasions, it feels out of place without all those numbers, formulas, equations, and the like. Seems like we’ve switched games suddenly, going from ultra mechanical combat to no rules social interaction (I just couldn’t get into skill challenges, sorry). And after the talking, we all know what’s going to happen… someone, somewhere is going to get his ass handed to him. Fight!!!
All character abilities and powers are defined to the last detail. This power does this much damage and immobilizes, save ends. Immobilization does this and only this. Dominate allows the user to choose a character’s next standard action. No room for interpretation, for the DM to work his magic, for the meaning behind the words to shine… at least not without changing the rules. And then where would we be? Don’t misunderstand, I’m all in favor of discarding rules that get in the way or don’t fit my campaign; however, D&D is all rules, all the time. Take away one or two and that leads to the unavoidable ambiguity of others. Pretty soon, everything is thrown into a huge gray area of the unknown where a judgment call is required for every rule thereafter. Changing a rule in a rules light game is one thing, but a rules heavy game like D&D 4E can lead to chaos. Where does it end? It’s like making 2 + 2 = 5 in a single instance and then trying to end it there. One inconsistency in a super-consistent rule set can send the whole enchilada tumbling down.
Three months without anything more than the core books... I thought that would be enough, and if it wasn’t enough I thought it might be liberating. No and no. For all the options characters have, half the party ends up taking the same feat because there are so few kick ass feats. All the magic-users share at least a couple spells because there are so few spells period. The repetitiveness of At Will, Encounter, Daily… At Will, Encounter, Daily… At Will, etc. Another room, another dungeon, kill, kill, eye bite, magic missile, marking, cursing, action point, critical hit, woohoo! God damn it!!! I just can’t take it anymore. This DM has had it.
Venger As’Nas Satanis
Cult of Cthulhu High Priest
