I miss gaming too. And miss y'all in general, gaming or otherwise.

I miss gaming with *you*, MM.

Aww, GIMME A HUG YA BIG PALOOK, YA!

Seriously, I miss gaming with you all, too. Best gaming group I've ever had.

The most recent incarnations of D&D feel like they're trying to recreate a video game, get from one fighting sequence to the next as quickly as possible. I *LIKE* spending three hours trying to sneak past the palace guard just to see if you can let all the king's horses loose in the garden.

Not to start a huge fight, but 4.0 sucks, and is seriously broken as a p'n'p game.

FIGHT!

I'm playing in two campaigns, one using each system. Honestly, I like 3.5 and 4.0. Unfortunately, I liked the previews of 4.0 more than the actual game. The combat improved but I really hate sorting through my powers for each round to decide what to do. Somehow they reduced combat to accounting with a hint of resource management.

I kind of want a 5.0, but I won't see that for awhile. Well, unless 4.0 sales really begin to tank. I suspect the game is not going to encourage as many returning sales as they hoped, even with their paired down release schedule, offset as it is by a subscription based online element (which has had over six months of teething troubles and seen a lot of people quit).

Mostly I think people like 4.0 better.

Not really true. There's still a lot of debate on the subject and a lot of people who liked 4.0 when it started but found it didn't have legs and returned to 3.5.

connie speaks for me. 4.0 is pnp Diablo; I prefer some modicum of role-playing.

Man I wish you guys lived closer, or we all didn't work as much. My local gaming group is down to one guy, who may be getting married in the spring (currently she's expressing interest in RPGs and happily plays things like BSG and Betrayal at House on Hill, but you know how marriage changes people...)

OK, over to the Xbox. Some of my buddies say they are sending me chat invites, but I'm not getting them; do they not come thru if you are in a game?

Also, what's the deal with Fable 2? I've lost yet another friend to it. What makes it so good?

I've never been into RPGs but I realize now that I was very lucky in my tiny town on the Eastern Shore, having a regular big group for more social games and also having a few couples who were always ready for German-style games.

All you peeps starving for pnp games need to move to Seattle. This place has the highest density of gamers I've ever found.

I got some 4E games over the weekend. Most fun I've had in ages. I was gaming with some guys I used to game with, but they gave up on Living Greyhawk. They've come back with 4E.

I like 4E so far, I've found it very congenial for roleplaying. I'm finding the combat more streamlined, but there are some significant caveats there. my character's only 2nd level, my 3.5 character's were significantly higher and the two highest level were casters, so it's not apples to apples. I also have a set of coloured magnetic discs, and that's proven very helpful for keeping things straight. (My party had two fighters, a paladin and two warlocks, so there were several marks and curses to keep track of.) Without them I could see it getting more confusing.

I intend to convert the home game I'm running to 4E. I like 3.5 too, and got my money's worth many times over from it, but with a baby on the way I just don't have the time to prep everything in 3.5. As a player I could do it, as GM it's too much.

Not really true. There's still a lot of debate on the subject and a lot of people who liked 4.0 when it started but found it didn't have legs and returned to 3.5.

Yeah, I have no idea what the market situation is. There are vocal proponents of both systems. Sales at my local gaming store have been pretty good, but some of that is likely the novelty factor. It did seem to be pretty well supported at the Con last weekend, numbers were maybe a bit down on last year but there was still a choice of table. Currently I'd say in Melbourne it's doing pretty well but not spectacularly.

I kind of want a 5.0, but I won't see that for awhile. Well, unless 4.0 sales really begin to tank. I suspect the game is not going to encourage as many returning sales as they hoped, even with their paired down release schedule, offset as it is by a subscription based online element (which has had over six months of teething troubles and seen a lot of people quit).

They've just made available the full 30-level character builder Pretty far behind schedule, I think, but I'm very pleased to see it. I'm not sure about this, but I think WotC have scaled back their plans for DDI tools.

connie speaks for me. 4.0 is pnp Diablo; I prefer some modicum of role-playing.

No, no, 3E was pnp Diablo, 4E is pnp WoW.

I like Dungeon Siege. Point the character at the baddies, watch 'em fight. Figure out what you want to buy. Dungeon Siege II is pushing my taste for "This power goes with that, and you can tweak it with this." When I play a video game, brainless is what I'm going for. Which is why I can play mah jongg for hours.