I'm not that wedded to system, particularly. I liked 3.0/3.5 and Pathfinder.
I don't like 4e at all, though, it feels like Dungeons and Dragons: The Gathering to me. Every character I built wound up being basically identical except for, say, damage-type descriptors because there is absolutely no reason to build outside the model of: pick a class. Pick two stats that are good for that class. Those are your main stats. Pick a race that gets bonuses to those two stats. Pick abilities that use those two stats. Pick feats that make those abilities better. Pick gear that makes those abilities better. The end. 4e is geared toward absolutely everything falling within a VERY narrow range of possible outcomes, so if you are as much as -2 off of what the game expects your numbers to be for your level, you are screwed. (Granted, if you can get as much as +2 ABOVE the expected numbers, you're pretty well-off.)
That, and the modules released for 4e are godawful. Bad writing. Bad editing. Every single one we played had MAJOR errors in it that any half-competent editor would fix, from two maps of the same area not matching (which left us all scratching our heads, let me tell you) to several mobs appearing in a fight but not being named or described anywhere so who knows what they were supposed to be. That and no individual attack does much damage, so fights are a *grind*. I hit. I do 40. I hit. I do 40. Oh, it has 800 hit points. Yay. Even our GM nearly fell asleep from boredom during the sessions.
Of course, now we're playing Scion (Storyteller system) which I like EVEN LESS. I detest Storyteller. Half the rulebook goes all out telling you how epic and tortured and awesome and weird and angsty and cool your child-of-a-god character is going to be, and then when it comes time to do something epic . . . you really can't. Part of this comes down to plain dice rolls--I mean, how much sense does it make when you have about a 33% chance per die to get one success to have it average out so that in order to HIT IN COMBAT, you, on average again, will need ONE SUCCESS PER DIE. You'll need a stack of over-successes to have a chance to do damage, too. Ugh.
I actually prefer games where there's lots of interesting character and world interaction, but I'll take this dry mechanical crap too as long as it's interesting. Often times, however, it ain't.
I don't like 4e at all, though, it feels like Dungeons and Dragons: The Gathering to me. Every character I built wound up being basically identical except for, say, damage-type descriptors because there is absolutely no reason to build outside the model of: pick a class. Pick two stats that are good for that class. Those are your main stats. Pick a race that gets bonuses to those two stats. Pick abilities that use those two stats. Pick feats that make those abilities better. Pick gear that makes those abilities better. The end. 4e is geared toward absolutely everything falling within a VERY narrow range of possible outcomes, so if you are as much as -2 off of what the game expects your numbers to be for your level, you are screwed. (Granted, if you can get as much as +2 ABOVE the expected numbers, you're pretty well-off.)
That, and the modules released for 4e are godawful. Bad writing. Bad editing. Every single one we played had MAJOR errors in it that any half-competent editor would fix, from two maps of the same area not matching (which left us all scratching our heads, let me tell you) to several mobs appearing in a fight but not being named or described anywhere so who knows what they were supposed to be. That and no individual attack does much damage, so fights are a *grind*. I hit. I do 40. I hit. I do 40. Oh, it has 800 hit points. Yay. Even our GM nearly fell asleep from boredom during the sessions.
Of course, now we're playing Scion (Storyteller system) which I like EVEN LESS. I detest Storyteller. Half the rulebook goes all out telling you how epic and tortured and awesome and weird and angsty and cool your child-of-a-god character is going to be, and then when it comes time to do something epic . . . you really can't. Part of this comes down to plain dice rolls--I mean, how much sense does it make when you have about a 33% chance per die to get one success to have it average out so that in order to HIT IN COMBAT, you, on average again, will need ONE SUCCESS PER DIE. You'll need a stack of over-successes to have a chance to do damage, too. Ugh.
I actually prefer games where there's lots of interesting character and world interaction, but I'll take this dry mechanical crap too as long as it's interesting. Often times, however, it ain't.
(My group refers to this kind of behavior as "cow from orbit"--you are suddenly and inexplicably struck by a cow. From orbit. Moo.)
