[D&D] Con4eR - D&D4e Online Mini-Convention

I've been advised that 27/28th is American thanksgiving weekend, so moving it to 13/14th November. (Now moved)
 
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Thank you very much FirstAge, for running another memorable 4e session with a climatic ending.

And an honour to be present to witness Guvnor's first full 4e session and in the presence of a GenCon veteran GM too..

Goblin also thanks you for teaching the word "crit".
 
Thank you very much FirstAge, for running another memorable 4e session with a climatic ending.

And an honour to be present to witness Guvnor's first full 4e session and in the presence of a GenCon veteran GM too..

Goblin also thanks you for teaching the word "crit".

Thanks for playing Remi!
 
@First Age, I think the (your?) whole 4E revival completely passed me by just as 3.5E and 4E themselves did. What's it all about? What is great about 4E? I am intrigued by a few voices in favour amongst the general clamour against the edition, and would like to know the details. You know, in case I want to join the next Con4eR.
 
It was a slightly abherrant direction on my part. Since AD&D 1e I hadn't done much in hte way of D&D at all, and pretty much 2,3,4, and even 5 passed me by. This wasn't due to any sort of RPG break, rather just exploring all the rich variety of other games and particularly those that eschewed the whole 'level and sack of hit point' design. I returned via Green Ronin's Dragon Age, which softened me up and then found 13th Age, which is supposedly the hipster successor to the 4th edition crown. I can see why it is thought that way, to the extent that i am often asked why I prefer 4th edition.

With my daughter getting into D&D through the current 5e version, I sensibly should have got the three hardbacks and gone for it in a big way. Instead I got Pathfinder 2e, finding the elegant successor to the 3e dynasty with significant and scalable game design applied. Thick, rich and option filled high fantasy, that scales through the levels.

All this is by way of introduction. I can't remember what persuaded me to eBay a 4e PHB. They were cheap, and I had become aware of the moaning and controversy. Perhaps I am, to most people's surprise, just a bit of a contrarian, so I thought I'd at least take a look at the differences and why people left. On a quick surface read, I immediately wanted to stay.

Some highlights:
  • clean white space layout, with the game clearly set out in a no nonsense and understandable way. The look and design of the layout was an immediate draw. the books (I got the classic trilogy) held me with them and encouraged my exploration.
  • class symmetry - the races and classes were all set out to have equal relevance in play and through the levels. Fighters had just as many cool combat powers as Wizard magics. Same with all the other classes. And yet the class roles were also different and felt so in play. This might have been a time constrained accident of design, but if so it is all the more marvellous.
  • rich flavourful monsters - with their own cool powers and everything needed to play in the well laid out and easy to parse stat blocks.
  • easy to design encounters - with an XP economy that guided you to create encounters that can be as balanced or tough as you want. Design encounters with confidence.
  • rewards for three things - combats certainly, arguably D&D is a monster fighting game, undertaking quests, and successful skill challenges.
  • a playable cosmology - the very planar and mythic fabric of 4th edition was designed from the ground up to playable and explorable. It is honed to gaming perfection, and accessible as you work up the three tiers of play, until your characters are heading to their own Epic destiny.
  • free tools - the character builder and Masterplan are two gems that help to make preparation a breeze. Made all the better by Masterplan encounter outputs being importable into Foundry TT!!
  • Points of Light - the conceit of a struggling landscape surrounded by danger, with the heroes navigating and preserving the world around them through their deeds and exploits, is just golden setup for classic D&D play. Nentir Vale is a great sandbox.
  • the legacy of books - of course coming to the game 'too late' means I have access to the full richness of four years of D&D output. There is a lot of great stuff in there and most of it is still available, if not as cheap as when the movement started :)LOL:). Some of the books contain priceless nuggets of great advice, particularly the DMGs.
  • fun in play - of course that is all well and good but how does it play? Very well. I'll be nearly two years when my Heroic Tier campaign concludes later in 2022. Rich roleplay, skill challenges, quests and fantastic tactical combat. I'd say it is the easiest and most consistent set of D&D rules that I have come across. OSE allowing.
I could go on, and others will have other highlights. Is it perfect? Well no. Combat encounters are very much front and centre (and hugely enjoyable), but I reject the notion that it is only a combat game. There are plenty of tools for other things. With combat encounters being central though, it also has a lot of temporary buffs and modifiers generated by tactics, class abilities and powers. Keeping solid track of these can be difficult. With the weight of power books, it is sometimes clear that later powers are simply better than early powers and so there is a sense that you need to pick and choose slightly carefully (I don't think it makes that much difference and the game pre-supposes that you can change selections as you level and grow). It plays best on a grid. My most experienced player disagrees and runs his games theatre of the mind.

The classic complaints of the edition seem to be completely off beam, though there is no smoke without at least a spark. The game is just like World of Warcraft? It's just a MMORPG on paper. No it isn't, but the codified and easy to play power structure, with 'At Wills', 'Encounter' and 'Daily' usage all colour coded for ease too, can take you to that conclusion. Magic items being body slot based also reminisces dragging and dropping loot onto your avatar. It just doesn't feel like that in play.

I missed all the controversy of 4th Edition doing things different and therefore doing it wrong. To my unblemished eyes, without the 3e investment, the game is still demonstrably D&D, though it is fair to say the class powers take the game in a different direction.

My online #4eRennaisance initiative was just a bit of contrary fun for me. I quickly found a community who still enjoy and actively plays this edition of the game. I will continue to organise occasional Con4eR events and get some actual play in.

I'm out of time for this post, but might return as I think.
 
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