I played Basic D&D in the mid/late 80's. I was a teenager in high school, playing the game with 2 brothers. The system itself was good enough, but like most tabletop games it was our own commentary & ideas that made it so memorable.

I didn't play for nearly 20 years, because they went off to college & I couldn't find anyone to play with. About 2 years ago, I got into a D&D 4E game. Its a whole different animal, as far as the game system goes, but once again the commentary & ideas we come up with make it fun.

I don't entirely consider 4E to be D&D, though. Whereas previous editions were more a matter of "I swing my sword," 4E is so specific with its attacks, I'd rather call it "D&D: Tactics" than "D&D 4E." But that's just a dopey opinion on my part, I still enjoy the game regardless...its just more like multiplayer chess now. :p

As said, it's simpler, but more charts. High numbers are good sometimes and sometimes low numbers are good. 2ed got rid of some of the more overpowered classes and ripped out a lot of the demon and devil lore (unless you really hunted for it) due to parent backlash. There were definitely a lot of demon boobies in the AD&D art.

Did anyone every play Rift (maybe Rifts)? I only did once or twice but kind of liked it.

GURPS was my all time favorite with character customization but it was hard to run a campaign and find many interested in playing it.
Having loved AD&D and classes like Monk and Cavalier, I think 4ed is way closer to it than 3.5 was (I do like DDO though, which uses 3.5 modified).

I've played all editions of D&D and find the latest one...lacking. 4th ed is kind of like a table top WOW - not that it isn't fun, but it just loses something that made D&D great....I think it might be the wonky math :)

Also played 7th Sea - which is SOOOO fun - and am starting up on Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40k universe) which is NUTS. I run a homebrew 3.5 Pathfinder game occasionally. I think my group's problem is our schedule; we run a game then someone gets tired of running and wants to start playing so we switch universes (and often systems) and then lather, rinse and repeat.

I've heard of the 7th sea. Isn't a pirate rpg where you can't die?

Also does anyone know of a good nanotech rpg besides shadowrun?

I used to play dnd 3.5. My dm told me about this guy who would just have tresure then at the end would have an extremely difficult monster( or several).

I have huge interest in these pen & paper RPG's, but I've never been able to play one. Never :(

I don't know if there's a dedicated group in my region, though I would most likely lack the courage to go there even if there was.

And none of my friends are into PnP games...

Quoted simply because it's close to what I want to discuss.

Having never played it, can someone explain to me why 4th edition seems to be so divisive? Is it just that it's new and everyone likes to hate on new things, or are there legitimate complaints?

Well....actually why do people dislike DnD4e?

You shouldn't. I played with several different groups throughout the years and never had a problem. Your results could vary, but odds are you'll find joining a tabletop group as a stranger an easier experience than walking into a local pub as a total stranger. There can be a little awkwardness at first, but the game facilitates making connections. Unless you're an overbearing douchebag, most groups will welcome you in, I think.

O.o That. Is. Insane. And not in a good way either.

I agree. But I pay anyway, because I don't have any expensive hobbies. I borrow books & dvds from the library, I don't smoke/drink...its the one allowance I give myself, because it really is fun.

That's only sort of true, you can buy the first Player's Handbook and play with just that if you want, it's completely playable and there's no reason a group cannot play it.

If you like to hop groups or something, yeah, you may want to keep up with things, but it's not totally necessary.

Agreed. You can play with as many or as few books as you want, just like any CCG game. But with everyone being so competitive & wanting the absolute best & unbroken for their characters, there's one more costly choice. :-)

So, basically they release rule updates (I'm assuming for balance reasons?) to people with a subscription but you can play just fine without them. What are other complaints people have?