Anyone running and/or playing DnD using Essentials (near) exclusively?
If, by exclusively, you mean to the exclusion of all other game systems, then no.
In fact, at last count, I'm regularly playing in or running games that utilize four different systems - Call of Cthulhu, UniSystem (Buffy/Angel), Pathfinder, and 4E - and that's not even counting the one-shot, pick-it-up-and-try-it-out games our group does from time to time.
If you mean to ask whether I prefer Essentials to the "core" 4E, then that's a definite yes.
I tried 4E on Worldwide D&D Day when it first debuted and had a miserable, boring time. A glance through the rulebooks at a store didn't much endear me to it either.
When Essentials came out, I was intrigued enough to grab Heroes of the Fallen Lands and really liked what I saw there; I've since added the Rules Compendium to my shelf and pre-ordered the Monster Vault. I also play in an Encounters group every Wednesday at my local premier store.
As of this past Saturday (November 6, 2010), yes. A group of friends who has never played Dungeons & Dragons or any other roleplaying game before constitute most of my players. One of them has played in a Pathfinder game. The Castle Ravenloft board game brought them in, particularly the thoughts that they could make their very own characters and engage in adventures with a sense of continuity.
Everyone made characters using the new Red Box set, I just altered the way the solo adventure sounded in order to make it suitable for a group.
We all had an incredibly fun time and the players wanted more. The limited selection of races worked out well. For anyone who didn't know what dwarves or elves might be like I was able to tell them to imagine those races as they appeared in the Lord of the Rings films.
I plan to continue using only the Essentials products until we bring the red box adventure, and the additional adventures found in the Dungeon Master's kit, to their conclusion.
I think with the release of the second Essentials player book you have a significant amount of options for character creation- at least as much as you would with the core Pathfinder rules, so you could very easily run an entire campaign strictly with Essentials, which would probably work very well if you have a group of players who are new to the game. I don't see myself doing that since my players are experienced gamers and already have purchased most of the other 4E books, but I'd certainly consider it with a new group. In fact I am running a lunch hour campaign for a group of grade 4 students at my school and it is strictly essentials.
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Currently my gaming group is on hiatus, so I've been teaching my daughter to play. Just so I don't confuse her we are sticking with Essentials for a while. Once she is more comfortable and knows what she is doing, we will be moving on to Pathfinder and other systems.
I like Essentials a great deal more than I did 4e when it first came out, but I can't wait to get back into Pathfinder.
I'm a sad Capt. without my Pathfinder.
To bump this thread, my group is using all of the D&D 4E material out there. But as for myself, I am not sure I will make any characters outside of the Essentials books. I really like all of the changes. I made an elf fighter (slayer) and a half-elf druid (sentinel), and I like both of them. I like how the mechanics are very simple, but the characters are easily on par with other D&D characters.
The only product I am not 100% sold on in the Essentials line is the monster kit. While there is enough there to play, I am surprised what made the Essentials list vs. not. Futher, it is light on Epic tier monsters (which isn't a huge problem). But overall it is a decent product.
To bump this thread, my group is using all of the D&D 4E material out there. But as for myself, I am not sure I will make any characters outside of the Essentials books. I really like all of the changes. I made an elf fighter (slayer) and a half-elf druid (sentinel), and I like both of them. I like how the mechanics are very simple, but the characters are easily on par with other D&D characters.
The only product I am not 100% sold on in the Essentials line is the monster kit. While there is enough there to play, I am surprised what made the Essentials list vs. not. Futher, it is light on Epic tier monsters (which isn't a huge problem). But overall it is a decent product.
Non-essentials monsters are a bit weaker than they were when published first. That could be a reason for keeping the lists separate.
If you want to see what a "light" 4E would look like, check out Gamma World. I really like how they simplified things.
You aren't getting magical treasure, so skills, attacks, and defenses all add stat + level (not 1/2 level in regular 4E). It only goes to level 10, but I think it would be perfectly suited to be adapted to a simple version of 4E.
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If you want to see what a "light" 4E would look like, check out Gamma World. I really like how they simplified things.
You aren't getting magical treasure, so skills, attacks, and defenses all add stat + level (not 1/2 level in regular 4E). It only goes to level 10, but I think it would be perfectly suited to be adapted to a simple version of 4E.
Ran it last month. Interesting adaptation though I thought character generation was needlessly complex.