There were some neat ideas in 4th at least.
I look at editions as toolboxes to draw from in my own game, and 4th had a few good tools to it. The forest might have been unwanted, but there were some pretty trees.
Man, I still think 4e’s at-will / encounter / daily powers were an interesting idea that made non-magical classes more fun to play, balance issues aside. People complained that it made the classes too samey, (which is a valid criticism). But damn, I want cool, once per day fighter abilities on par with a spell.
I also thought that the progression of class -> paragon path -> epic destiny was badass and really enhanced the storytelling aspect of a character.
People complained it was too much like a video game, because it used actually good game design principles.
Edit: apologies for waking a necrothread.
I tried running it once, with some video-gamers, and they friggin’ loved it. Only problem was the ability cards were way out of print by that date, and I didn’t understand that you really need those after level 2 or so. Tracking all the different ability types is just a nightmare, grinding the overall pace of the game to a snail’s pace without them.
Looking back on it critically, I don’t like having to dump more money into WotC’s pockets to make the core books playable. I do appreciate that they attempted to streamline things, and for the right table, it’s a good design. I did print some proxies up and tested some combat and man was it punchy and fast. If money was no object, I’d absolutely run what is otherwise a DnD-flavored “deck building game” with level progression.
