#Once again I am here reluctantly defending 4e's honor. because none of its haters seem to have played it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

magicturtle · 1 year ago

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I'd say "4e is basically unplayable without a DDI subscription" is a squarely revisionist take. For the range that most people play D&D you could absolutely do it off of the books and sheets.

Admittedly we played into epic tier and if you have a level 27 character you definitely need some sort of builder support.

If you look at things like CompCon today, it's very clear that DDI for all its flaws was actually in the forefront of what supported TTRPGs would become, essentially allowing groups to play complex tactical games while shouldering a lot of the mechanical load.

4e may have been born from a corporate mandate to create a version of D&D a computer could run, but the result was the most mechanically tight version of D&D we've ever had.

Certainly MY recent wave of "wasn't 4e great?" posts doesn't come from forgetting what 4e was. It comes from having played 4e for a literal decade and, although it certainly had plenty of flaws, recognizing that it's actually the best D&D has ever been.

#some legit flaws: everything has too many hit points - you fix that by increasing enemy damage and reducing enemy hit points #skill challenges were almost good - look at the pinned post on my tumblr page for a well-regarded fix #combat takes too long - yes. totally. You fix that by adding missions and contingencies that can end the encounter early if PCs play smart #and it's easier for PCs to play smart in 4e since it has the best and most satisfying character movement rules/options of any D&D edition #They made it too much like a video game - 1 not a flaw 2 no they didn't - 4e borrows more from other RPGs than it does from video games #3rd edition literally had timed cooldowns - like “this is up for X minutes” 4e had scene-long stuff #you know - like white wolf games (and also most other games)#Once again I am here reluctantly defending 4e's honor. because none of its haters seem to have played it

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