"Well, on the subject of 4e adventures, based on playing in two campaigns and running one still ongoing, I have to say 4e continues the trend I first noticed in 3.x and before that with Hero System Fourth Edition -- RPGs with detailed, tactical combat rules tend to be really two games -- generally free-form roleplaying with occasional skill rolls ("Make a bluff check." "I think that's a presence attack, roll it.") and tactical miniatures combat with occasional character moments. How much of each you have in your sessions is up to you. When I ran my Champions game, the length of combats generally necessitated I have one or two game sessions of "plot", followed by "The fight scene". An average 4e fight takes an hour, and I run three hour sessions, so I can have all plot, mostly plot, some plot, or the "fight 1, fight 2, boss fight" episode.
In terms of "How much RPing do you get?" I've found Actual Play TM with 4e is about on par with 3e. Skill Challenges can be good for some things like "We want to track down the bandits" or "We sneak into the castle", but I find they tend to be jarring and intrusive when the PCs are actively roleplaying an interrogation or bargaining session and they ask "Is this the skill challenge? Should I roll now?"."
Three Dimensions
9 hours ago
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