| 4th ed is dead

(Not really, just looking for an attention-grabbing title.)

I've been reading more thoroughly through the 4th ed books and the more I read, the more I want to play. In particular, I like the stuff in the DM's guide about setting up encounters. Basically, in previous editions, creating encounters was a really time-consuming hassle. In 3rd ed this was because the monster stat blocks are so complicated and the CR/EL (Challenge Rating/Encounter Level) systems were turbo lame. (The last encounter that I put together for our 3rd ed campaign -- which sadly we never even got to -- consisted of four NPCs and took me several hours to put together. This was not a problem when I did not have a girlfriend or job.) In previous editions it was because there was never a coherent explanation of how all the parts fit together. You had to just kind of feel it out.

In 4th edition the process is very modular. If you want to build an average encounter for four 1st-level characters, you consult the chart that tells you approximately how many XP worth of monsters you want for a balanced encounter, then go for it. This kind of system would be easy to screw up but word is that it works very well.

This feeling of modularity goes throughout the entire system and has its ups and downs. As a downside example, the magic items (as Denis mentioned a while back) are presented in the Player's Guide in the equipment chapter and are very strictly broken down by level, price (which are standard per level), etc. But as there are always things like artifacts which the DM designs and implements, I guess this isn't such a big deal.

As a more neutral example the classes are distinctly fit into roles (controller, striker, etc.) and the players are encouraged to make sure they have members of each role. While this is really more of a formalization of the old "oh we still need a cleric and mage" thing that has always happened, it seems a little weird to say "well, I know you want to play a ranger, but Denis is already a warlock so the striker role is filled, why don't you play a paladin instead?"

(Note: Denis is not really a Warlock. He is a Pumpkin.)

Another thing that I really like is the system for Skill Challenges. This is the system by which you resolve any kind of non-combat event that you want to make important enough to award XP for: negotiations, investigations, chases, etc. It's kind of hard to explain, and is very "gamey," but seems really fun in practice.

All in all I like the system. It has its quirks, but ultimately I don't think it really promotes role-playing any less than the previous incarnations. It just has a tighter focus on role-playing within its own specific milieu and that is fine. There are plenty of other awesome games to run when you want to do something off-beat but for straight up dungeon crawling type campaigns this seems like a real winner.