I have two different Tuesday night gaming groups I split time with; one doing
WH &
40k, one doing mostly boardgames. The latter group had several guys try Ravenloft at GenCon, and they loved it. Next week it's getting busted out locally.
I play & run 4E in multiple campaigns currently. I like the way they pared down the skill system; 3rd's was a bit too fiddly. Skill challenges are tricky to design well, but are a neat innovation. The combat system is definitely the most satisfying one D&D has had; I think there is a temptation to get lazy and fixate on it because it's as fun as it is. If I have minimal prep time between sessions I can throw together fun combat encounters a lot quicker and easier than writing an intricate plot/mystery/set of
NPC motivations to interact with.
One of my D&D groups has thousands of the minis and we still sub some. In another of the campaigns, the
DM deliberately designs the encounters to use his extensive collection. He's run an accelerated advancement game to get us up to epic quickly, and we fought that collossal red dragon recently. We're hitting the grand finale now and Orcus is on the table.
