This afternoon Dave and I got to play in the 4th Edition Dungeon Delve, which is a group of about 10 tables set up with various dungeons pre-set that the RPGA staff (and some occasional Wizards employees) were kind enough to run. It was meant to be just hack & slash, get through the monsters in under 30 minutes. We ended up getting through almost two encounters which were both quite fun, with some surprises thrown in!
Here’s a look at the pre-made character sheets we got to keep after we played.
Dave ended up picking the Male Tiefling Wizard:
(front) 
(back)
While I played the Sexy-Female Dwarven Fighter:
(front) 
(back)
I was very tickled to see that her first Racial ability is “Cast Iron Stomach – grants a +5 to Saves vs. Poison”
Dave also managed to (roll a really good sleight of hand check – still using 3.5e rules) grab the left over char. sheet for the Male Halfling Paladin:
Very neat.
Any general impressions from the first game?
I liked it, so did Bartoneus. We wanted to try the other characters.
Bottom line for me was either you’ll like the idea of powers, or you won’t, and that’ll pretty much describe 4e for you.
Very cool.
How does the new tactical combat compare to 3.5? In terms of fun, complexity and time?
Tactical combat is definitely big in this edition. I’m sure of that.
At 1st level, with characters we didn’t make, in an edition we didn’t know, it was a little complicated, and took about as much time as a round in 3.x. But we picked it up quick.
I had more fun as a first level wizard, even though my rolls suck.
I should be able to speak more to this on Saturday after seeing a full, real session.
From your first impressions, would you say the game is playable without minis?
Yeah, I would. To be honest, as a DM (and a player), I have trouble remembering where things are in relation to other things. So I use minis. But it certainly doesn’t seem any harder than previous editions.
It’s definitely no less playable with minis than 3rd Ed was.
The rest are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gertiebarden/4eCharacterSheets
Interesting. But a Paladin with a throwing weapon?!?!? WoW just rolled over in the grave(if it were dead)
Just to stir the WoW pot even more(and to make this comment even more useless)…what’s with the Dwarf having Ironforge as her last name?