4th edition

A picture is worth a thousand words and that is well spoken

Here! Here! From what I gather, 4ed adds Roll to RPG.

I've been playing 4th for a while now with my gaming group every other weekend. When I first looked at the books and read part of the PHB I was, like many, very skeptical. My first game session with the new 4E was a bit awkward, and we all were getting to know the very basic rules.

After the game session I thought "Hey, This isn't so bad." Two weeks went by and we got together again. After that session I was thinking " I didn't waste my money buying the new PHB. After several more sessions I am thoroughly enjoying the new version.

I will be converting the campaign I had going for my group in 3.5 to 4E starting them at 21st level. I am excited to see them take on the ancient black dragon and a few beholders!

Yeah after a few sessions the group is now comfortable with the mechanics and really starting to roleplay.

3.0e and 3.5e were so intensive mechanically it was difficult to RP during fights, but man I am going back to my red box and 2ed days with the simplicity of the mechanics allowing for constant IC banter.

Its not perfect, it relies a lot more on the DM to make on the fly rulings without spending 10 minutes looking it up in a book, only to find what he was looking for wasn't even listed and he has to make it up anyway (3e or 3.5e).

I am not a fan of the gimp wizard class and I am not totally sold on the idea of a short rest to replentish your encounter powers (it is sort of like catching a breather). You should have a cleric but you can get by with a warlord for healing if you have a smart defender. You absolutely must have a striker or two in the party. Everything has a boat load of HP and you need the damage specialists to hit hard and often.

Overall I am pleased with 4ed.

It took our group a while to adjust to the new rules (still learning), but am pleased with 4E. After spending a lot on 3.5 books I rarely used, I vowed to not buy more than the CORE books for 4E, but here I am looking forward to MM2 for 4E.

I like the short rest to regain encounter powers and heal. It would just be up to the dm as to qualify when it is safe for the party to take that rest.

Our first high (21st lvl) game will be this weekend. Really curious how the Mage will do.

I'll be dm'ing.

Not much different from the old days nope... It makes it more accessible to new players who know RPGs only from MMOs like WoW and such.

Everything depends on your group though Like always