This weekend I got together for the first time with my new DnD group in Canada. Not all the members could make it, but four of did. We didn't do an "official" game, as I'm new to the group, the aforementioned couple of people who couldn't attend, and this was my first foray into using the new 4th Edition (4ed) rules published this year by Wizards of the Coast. Until now, I'll I had done was read through the books, create a few characters, and do some mock battles on my own.
While talking about it afterward, I brought up and then Dave clarified it by saying that our knowledge of the 3.5 ruleset actually is a hinderance to learning 4ed. For example, during a combat one of the player characters (PCs) knock one of the antagonists down. It took us a few minutes of discussion and looking up the various rules about Prone and Standing up from Prone to determine what, if anything should happen when the villain tried to stand up. In 3.5, you see, standing up from prone was a move action that provoked an "attack of opportunity." I assumed, as the erstwhile game master (GM; alternately dungeon master or "DM") of the session, that would be true still. However, we could find no rule indicating such in 4ed. Someone coming in fresh would have just taking it on faith (i.e., "I didn't see anything that said anything bad happens doing this, so he stands up") while we were/I was stuck having to question it because our/my previous knowledge interfered (i.e., "This used to cause an attack to trigger, does it still in this edition?").
One nice aspect of the rule book is that, very early on, it tells you that the player's handbook (PHB) and dungeon master's guide (DMG) provide the general rules for the game environment. It then explains that any specific rule trumps the generic. So, for example, the rule book might say that you can only attack one time in a round. But your character may have a specific ability that says it can be allow you to attack twice in a round. The specific exploit you have overrules the general rule and yours wins. The rules are also primarily based on allowing rather than restricting. It actually has a section where it extols the value of a GM saying yes to the players, allowing them to try things even if they seem kooky or dangerous, assigning bonuses and penalties as seems appropriate, and letting the dice and the player's actions determining the outcome. As this is how I like to GM, seeing it in print is a welcome sight. The books also provide a decent amount of examples and sample numbers (straight numbers and suggested bonuses and penalties) to aid a GM in determining what those target numbers can be.
Creating characters is slightly easier in some regards, as you don't have to pick as many individual feats, skills, etc. for your character and many things have been "rolled up" for easier game use. However, although the magical "talents" (called exploits) that each class receives and uses regularly comprise a smaller list per level, the ramification of taking one over another is far-reaching. So you want to spend time looking for coordinated abilities and synergies with attributes, skills, and other powers.
For example, I chose to create a Warlord (one of the new classes introduced in 4ed). This class is a "Leader," meaning that his skills are primarily based around helping the party in various ways (healing, buffs, tactics, etc.). There are two paths that you can choose to follow; Inspirational (charisma based) or Tactical (intelligence based). Or, of course, you can choose not to pick one and instead just follow your gut. However, if you choose one of those paths, certain of the exploits that you receive have special bonuses as a synergy with the path. So it is in your best interest to take those exploits that provide a synergy as, even on a miss or failure, you might still get an advantage (for example, one skill provides that a Warlord can give his entire party a 1+INT modifer bonus to attack rolls against his target if he hits. If he has the appropriate synergy with Tactics, even on a miss, the party all receives a straight +1 to attack rolls vs the target. So the chance for a large bonus on a hit, or a small bonus on a miss. Without that synergy, on a miss you get nothing.)
One nice feature of 4ed is that they built "respecification" (or respec) right into leveling. In an overly simplistic explanation, at every level you can trade one exploit out for another if you find it isn't working as you hoped/wanted. There are limits and rules on this, but it is very helpful so that, if you take on exploit that you thought would be "killer" and you find you have hardly used it, you can trade out for another and hopefully find the right fit for you play style and the party you are in.
Much has been said in blogs and chat boards about the four character "Roles;" defender, controller, striker, and leader. Some argue that these make the game "more like a computer game." I find this a little humorous as these roles have always existed, all the way back to 1ed-- they just weren't defined and written into the rules. In 1st, 2nd/Advanced, 3.0/3.5, etc., the warrior classes defended the rest of the party from damage by being "meat shields." The rangers, thieves, monks, and others primarily used their high movement, lower defense, and larger damage quotient to strike at specific enemies while hiding behind the warriors to keep from being killed. Classes with high charisma and a variety of support abilities were leaders by buffing the party, healing, and helping out wherever needed. And those with good crowd-control abilities, group debuffing abilities were primarily used to control the villains against which the characters fought. And problems occurred when you were in a group where the, say, Cleric refused to cast healing spells (or didn't even memorize any!), the Fighter used light armor, no shield, and had really bad hit points, etc. I'm not saying that you, as a player, couldn't choose to go against the grain and still be successful in your chosen field. I am saying that, if you are the Cleric in a party with no other person with the ability to heal or provide buffs, and you choose never to use those spells/abilities, they better know it going in so they have a plan to work around this "hole" in the party's skill set.
Having these roles better defined allows you to more fully embrace what you character is supposed to be doing during (and out of!) combat and helps new people to the game better understand how the pieces fit together. In the party we made up yesterday, we had my Warlord (Leader), a Cleric (Leader), a Wizard (Controller), and a Ranger (Striker). So we went in knowing we did not have a true "defender" class to keep the attention of the enemies, but we had two with the ability to heal, the warlord was a decent, medium-armored fighter as his secondary skill set, and we worked around that absence by playing to the strengths of the party-- controlling the crowd to get easy damage, lots of healing to make sure everyone stays standing, tactical advantages and shifting, and high damage output to take out the enemies quickly.
The exploits are pretty fun. You don't get many to start (two "at-will" (use every round, all the time), one "encounter" (can only use once per encounter maximum), and one "daily" (can only use once per day or after a six-hour rest)), but they are designed to be used often and in concert with your other party member's exploits. And as I explained above, there are rules in place to allow you to switch them out whenever you level so you can fine-tune what you do and how you do it.
Creating enemy groups (mobs) to send against the party is a bit easier. As well, the monsters have suggested tactics and their exploits are designed to be used together as a party against the PCs. So, for example, if you have a party of 4 first level characters, you want to generally have 400 xp worth of enemies (or enemies and traps) to send against them. This may be, say, 8 goblin minions worth 25 xp each, it may be 6 goblin minions and one goblin warrior, it may be 4 goblin strikers, or you may find one creature worth 400 xp by itself that would be a challenge. As each mob has its own exploits and tactics, it is easy to scan them over and then have them fight effectively; minions want to gang up on one character and use their exploits to give each other advantages. A goblin warrior wants to strike out at the "toughest" PC and take him out as quickly as he can. A goblin skirmisher wants to stay back, use his distance weapons primarily and not engage in melee. Zombies have the tactic of wanting to gang up on one character so that one attacks and the other uses a grab exploit to keep the attacked PC from fleeing. Once a PC (or mob) is grabbed, additional rules come into effect which make it easier to strike the character, providing bonuses and penalties in various ways.
One of the biggest difference I felt after reading the books and that I can see from my limited first playing experience, is that 4ed only defines the basics of the world. They provide the foundation on which you play the game, and nothing more. I always felt in previous editions but 3.0/3.5 especially, that WotC defined everything so concretely that you basically knew everything you could do and couldn't do. If it wasn't in the rules, you couldn't do it. Even people who normally wouldn't go down this path had to become "rules lawyers" in order to get something slightly out of the ordinary done. And this included, to a large extent, even how you role-played your character. Classes, alignments, races, and such were pretty set in stone and could cause issues for the entire party or the players if people strayed from the rote path.
In 4ed, I feel a real "can-do" attitude in the rules. How you role play is primarily left up to you and the GM to decide; there are limited rules and a few suggestions, but nothing so concrete that you can't come up with a reasonable explanation for variation. It is all about allowing the players to try what they want and giving the GM all the power to allow it, learn from it, and keep the game fun and fresh.
The group plans to get together again soon and create some slightly higher level characters and do another impromptu session of just "in location X, fighting monster Y" to continue to see how the rules work and get our comfort level set with 4ed. And then we'll make an official game, role up real characters, and start an ongoing campaign or two. Can't wait!
As you can see, we bought hardware that matches the remaining bathroom fixtures. I had to drill for those, and followed the rough guideline of all the other cabinets in the bathroom and house in locating them on the doors. Seems to have worked pretty well.