My root canal was more fun than my 4e game this week

I tried it again. Dumb me. I thought after a couple months off I would give LFR a go again. Big mistake. I drove two hours to hit a two game RPGA session at a hobby store. It was -8 degrees outside, and it was just about that cold at the game table during the first session. Important note to self, do not play a third level PC at a table of power gamers, if you don’t remember the rules too well. As you all know combats in 4e can go on, and on, and on… So I was asking guys around me, quick little questions about this and that, like, can I shift and mark at the same time. “No you can do one or the other!” Replied one player. What if my ability says… “No you can only mark at the end of movement. Come on! Read the rules!” I was just making conversation. I mean, it took and hour and a half to go through 18 seconds of combat in game time. I was trying prep ahead for my turn so I would get through my actions quicker. I did pretty well considering my mental haze from not playing recently.

By the second game, I was back up to speed, and started having fun again. The table changed out and I really had a good group of players around me. I was having so much fun being more unaligned than being the lawful good goliath that I was. If I continue, I will change my alignment.

Here are cool the things I observed:
The reintroduction of the javelin as a primary weapon
Who would have thought? Apparently RPGA games are being written with foes up and out of melee range. The power gamers retorted with the magic javelin. It just has be +1 magic and you can throw it, and it returns 40 minutes later, I mean, 6 seconds in game time, to your hand, to be chucked again. It has a decent range increment and decent damage and is perfect for the fighter types out there. It also fits into my generalization that the 4e PCs are all Jedi. It seemed like everyone around me had one, kinda like the way a light saber is the “trademark” of the Jedi, the javelin is the “trademark” of the 4e adventurer.

I still had my lame +1 flaming Maul. I had a ranged weapon too, but it was a mundane crossbow, I had to use amo, consumables, OK crossbow bolts… And people laughed at me… Come on, I had a root canal this week! How was I supposed to know I needed to have a javelin too.

The RPGA writers are getting better with skill challenges. Really they are. The players still expect to know what to roll to get through the challenge, they get conditioned that way, but even the DMs said they liked the last few modules skill challenge encounters. So good job LFR writers!

Was there anything else cool? Well, no, 4e still sucked. What really mattered was not the 4e game, but just being there at the table with some friends, and some strangers, joking and having fun at least during my second game. We laughed, and actually roll-played a bit. My PC jumped through a window with the party thief to get away from the local law. I am the law, normally, that PC is, and I never do that. I got caught up in the shenanigans of the thief and had a blast. That said, 4e is fun when you have a fun group to play it with. I just feel out of sync most of the time, where in the Pathfinder RPG, I can roll play just the same and an arrow is far better a weapon than a javelin, like it should be.

Possibly Related Posts:

• 4e one more time
• 30 years of books
• 4e Holiday Crack That Saves You Money
• Tracking Combat Conditions -20oz soda loops
• Keep on the Shadowfell – Crypt of the Everflame: Smackdown!