Short version: if you enjoy Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea, you might like it. You really don’t need a group of people to play together, and in fact that might just get in the way. Two (one on each side) can play as well as a group. Yes, it’s pretty much a wargame.
Buy.com shipped early, yep.
It’s got aggro rules. It’s clearly a MMO. The DMG even suggests grabbing a bunch of monsters and fighting them with no DM.
It’s not nearly the open system 3e was. I’m not pleased. I’ll play it, but while the rules may be improved, it’s missing the potential.
They fixed all the annoying things from 3e, of course. Weapon sizes, so on. Multiclassing is really messed up, though. I like the monster manual and the new magical gear. That’s about it.
I feel largely the same way, which is kind of a shame because I really like a lot of the things they are trying to change from 3.5E. Making sure that every character always has some useful abilities, reducing caster power down to reasonable levels, and simplification of some of the more cumbersome gameplay aspects are all laudable goals. Unfortunately, it really does play like a wargame.
I like that they want to make combat longer (I really, really hate the one or two round combats that become the norm for higher level 3.5E, and I despise save-or-die spells with a burning, burning passion) but they took it way too far in the other direction, I think. A bear, for example, is a level 6 critter with 170hp. I think it would take a rogue of that level about a dozen turns to sneak attack it to death. That is just not right.
I want to like it, mind you. It’s not a hate of the new, either. I like the new skill system… and sure, power trees kinda work. But not really well for Wizards or Clerics.
Wizards feel really off somehow.
Interesting comments guys. Do you think the changes here are bigger than the shifts in previous editions (1 to 2, 2 to 3, or 3 to 3.5)? Any thoughts on how receptive the already limited RPG player base is going to be to it?
I playtested and thought it was crap.
Have they defined what an “encounter” is?
-Joe
Hm. No, the changes here are less than in previous editions. Slightly more than 3 to 3.5, but much less than 2 to 3. However, this is feeling much more like 2e than 3e to me. Eg, change for change’s sake, no real and great improvements. Well, some, but nothing we hadn’t houseruled around to begin with.
Basically, this feels much more WoWcentric than, say, _story_centric, and mimics the ‘every turn’ power ‘every five minutes power’ ‘every hour power’ thing.
The problem is that MMOs are imperfect copies of epic adventure… and an imperfect copy of an imperfect copy feels… plastic and unfinished.
The individual rules are improved, the system is self-integrated, the backing rationale works wonderfully. But man, it just does not feel right.
To use the Microsoft Analogy, as everyone loves!
DOS: Well, it worked. That’s 1e. It worked. Win95 (2e) wasn’t bad, but for some stuff you had to go back to DOS to make it work.
Windows 2000? My god. It’s beautiful. Really. It just works. Not a hundred percent perfect. But generally so. Windows XP? Better, but really, not a huge advantage over Windows 2000. (3e, 3.5) Either way, a golden age in gaming. Look at all the third party stuff! Mutants and Masterminds! Spycraft!
I smell Vista. 
It’ll sell, I guess. And maybe it’ll play. I don’t know. Depends on how Pathfinder works. Maybe we’ll find hidden depths to it.
But this colorful candy shell is a pain. And this D&D Online thing? $15/mo for a gametable? And the third party licenses are shaping up to be a pain.
I’ve seen it. Don’t like it. It feels boring. Like:
“Wizard, get up here and do your 2d6 damage ability.”
“Okay, done.”
“Good, now Rogue, get up here and do your 2d6 damage ability.”
etc.
No flavor. E-Sabbath nailed it. It’s WoWcentric.
WoWcentric?
More like an attempt to make as direct a copy as possible.
I’ve only played one MMO (SW:Galaxies), and I just don’t have the time to try another one, though most of my friends to plan various ones. I’ve heard plenty of descriptions.
The DM material for playtesting even had stuff like adjective modifiers for “mobs”. Stuff like “Kobolds”, “Angry Kobolds”, “Furious Kobolds” and the like. Not exact wording, cuz I can’t remember that well.
I seem to remember the various beasties in SW:G being about the same. X, Adjective1 X, Adjective2 X, Adjective3 X, with each one just being a bump in percentage damage and hit points.
Blech.
-Joe
Does this make Unearthed Arcana Windows 3.x? 
Yes, yes it does. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t, some of it was really effed up.
(I’m looking at you, Cavalier)
Solution: Take what you like, dump the rest.
Surprisingly hard to do, Croc. It’s very integrated.
I think the biggest problem is simply that there’s nothing really great here. As a combat system, and nothing else, it’s alright albeit dull. The comment about everyone having near-identical abilities was right on the money. As the system stands, the only particular distinction Wizards get over say, warrior-types, is less defenses and HP and bigger areas on their area attacks. Any given combat will play out almost exactly like any other given combat. The players have the same abilities in the fight and will essentially prioritize the most dangerous monster targets in the same way every time. There are also fewer options than previous editions because of a very odd rule change.
Environmental attacks (Push someone onto a spike or kick them into a fire) basically do damage based on your character’s level. Theres a roll involved, and I wont go into specifics, but you’re essentially going to do the same average damage as if you were attacking with some of the odd special abilities. And this applies to any hazard which may be found. Fire, spikes, pits, whatever.
But I’ve also caught some of the DMG rules from a friend, and there are some issues there as well. The monsters are supposed to ignore downed players - specifically so those players can get back up. The monnsters could hit them again and kill them, but that wouldn’t be fun, so the monsters leave downed PC’s alone. Blink Likewise, no one is allowed to build a pit larger than your party can handle, so you won’t face a too-dangerous fall.
I don’t have any big complaints about the Monster Manual except that it seems geared for the MMO-ish crowd, and not well at that. The monsters have no big real information to them except a handful of combat notes and stats. New players probably have no idea why this monsters lives there and that monsters lives here. There’s a check to find out about specific ones, but it’s very focused and there’s no provision for anything else. Even as a gaming comvention, this seems like an… odd way to handle things.
I have been thinking of writing up a Disgaea RPG to play, although I’m not sure it would sell so I just might play it with my pals. With rules for getting up to level 999,999,999,999 plus weapons like jackhammers, rocket launchers, tentacles, and the mighty Horse Wiener. DnD 4th would be an oddly appropriate choice here.
Oh, and a final note: oddly enough Gods can no longer affect their clerics or paladins. once they have the powers, said clerics or paladins can tell the god to shove off and go do anything he or she likes. Me == 
Is it true that vampires are no longer vulnerable to sunlight?
You know, I didn’t notice that so much about the Monster Manual. Good point. And another good one about the clerics and paladins.
… and I totally missed that about environmental damage. Good eyes!
What’s sad for me is that Living Forgotten Realms will be using 4E. I enjoyed Living Greyhawk when I played last year, but I would have vastly preferred to use the FR setting. Now we get FR, but the system doesn’t look like it’ll be terrible fun to play.
I can’t really claim credit there. I was talking it over with a much more perceptive pal who noticed those. 
Are they still committed to the “Doomsday” plan in Forgotten Realms? (Where they take everything that people liked about FR and flush it down the toilet to make it into a emo/barbarian setting?)
Yes, more or less. The doomsday device is the Spellplague. This isn’t exactly a spoiler, since it’s setting history and accessible on WotC’s website (but you need to have a D&D Insider account to read about it), but I’ll err on the side of caution:94 years before the 4E setting, Mystra died, and without someone holding the reins, Faerun’s magic went wild, changing the landscape and wreaking havoc randomly. Most of the large nations and city-states actually still exist, such as Cormyr, Waterdeep (which was all but untouched) and Baldur’s Gate, which is now the largest city in Faerun. The main difference is that the wilderness outside the cities is a lot more hostile, with spellcursed beasties and normal monsters roaming the landscape. It’s a lot more difficult to travel from Cormyr to the Sword Coast than it used to be.
Sounds like I’ll be buying more GURPS books instead of D&D 4E.