As of now our group is staying with 3.5 but one of our members bought the 4e books so I have been looking through them. My first reaction is that there are a lot of modifiers to keep track of and a lot of options for the players to do in combat. I'm not here to debate whether this is good or bad per se what I want to know is if it will work for my group.
See my group is composed of players who are all 30+ in age and we game roughly twice a month. The group plays mainly to hang out and spend time with each so needless to say they are not the most focused group. They have a hard time staying on track enough to make a plan and follow it through (not the best at teamwork). I get the feeling that 4e will have too many modifiers that last a round or too many power choices for my players.
For those that have played does it require the players being more focused to keep track of everything or does it just seem that way on paper?
In my experience there doesnt seem to be many modifiers beyond what you had to recall in 3rd Edition. Mainly its the +2 for flanking and the +1 for charging. Many other things seem built into your powers, which can potentially affect things, but then many spells worked the same way.
If a player rolls out an AoE buff spell, they should be sure to remind the other players whats going on. I would recommend trying to remind eachother, whether its a penalty or bonus. Just be honest about it, and if you forget, oh well. I doubt it will spell disaster for the entire party if someone forgot to add a point or two to their attack.
I don't think anyone can answer that question but you and your players.
That said I have been using colored paper clips to record things like conditions and marks stuck on the minis so it is less 'bonuses on paper' and more 'bonuses on the character' others have used pipecleaners similarly which sounds like a better idea, but I have paperclips on hand already.
I think the general rule is the guy providing the bonus should remind others of what he's giving. Since most of the mods only last a round or two most players will only have to remember the one or two abilities there character is giving to others at the time.
Cheers! :)
SOme people have a hard time keeping track of Marks however i easy token system works just fine for me.
I've also ran a lot of demos for the game, and watching people play it for the 1st time. The 1st 2-3 encounters takes some time, however after that it seems to flow well
C-