TheRPGSite

Like it says really.  No particular agenda, I'm just curious and I got a bit bogged down in the piracy thread.

I have no plans to buy or play it, yet. Currently we're pretty happy with our 3.5e books and I see no reason to purchase 4e until we either stop having fun, or I pick them up on the cheap.

I have it on order, I'm going to run some minis battles in my basement. If the combat system is fun I'll give it a closer look, otherwise I'll send the books to ebay in short order.

One of my friends, Lakira, is thinking about running it.  If her game gets off the ground, I'll be in it.

Not me, but then that was only to be expected: nothing I've read about the new edition has really given the impression that it would be more to my taste than 3.x was.

I'm planning to buy it and enjoy the hell out of it just so I can piss off Settembrini.

Not going to buy it.  I have no plans not to play it, but I don't see it coming up anytime soon considering the vast list of more interesting games I have still yet to play.  But if it popped up in a slot at a con where I had nothing else to do, I'd be curious to check it out.  I am mildly interested in how well the tactical rules actually work.  In a limited situation with set expectations, the lack of freedom and roleplaying that appears to be a fundamental part of the system will be acceptable to me.

I have no plans to buy it or play it.  It might be a fun game, but it's not what I think of when I want to play D&D / RPG.  If I see Doctor Rotwang! and Jeff Rients singing it's praises, I might reconsider. ;)

Quote from: GrimGentNot me, but then that was only to be expected: nothing I've read about the new edition has really given the impression that it would be more to my taste than 3.x was.

Ditto.

I have no plans to play it, and I won't ever run it, but then I haven't run any D&D since 3.0 came out. If someone wanted to run it in our group, I wouldn't mind playing it, but I won't go out of my way to encourage it. If I want to run trad fantasy, I prefer FtA! or Iron Gauntlets, both of which align much better with my extempore style of running.

-clash

Will more than likely buy and play.  There are too many locals planning on doing the same, and any chance to game is fine with me.  

I hate the minis-aspect, but assume that my normal group will figure out a way to get by without having to "collect 'em all" and submit to the battlemat, so to speak.

Quote from: droogI'm planning to buy it and enjoy the hell out of it just so I can piss off Settembrini.

Can I change my vote to this? :woop: :roofle:

I will not be buying 4th Ed.

All the threads describing its contents on rpgnet and enworld have totally put me off buying it, as a skirmish wargame it seems fine but that's not what I want out of a rpg. Will stick to Savage Worlds for now (and yes I am aware of the irony in many peoples eyes).


Vadrus

I'm going to be playing it, but probably not for a month or two as I'm still running Ptolus and I'll be keeping that one 3.5 at this stage of the campaign. My group's next D&D game will be 4E, though, as everyone likes what they've seen so far.

I didn't say myself.

I won't run it, just too complex for my tastes these days, it's highly unlikely I will in practice play it as I doubt anyone in my group will run it, I don't particularly want to play it (I mean, it's not an absolute no but it in no way appeals to me) and I wouldn't really go for it at a con unless it was a really good pitch and a really lousy con otherwise.

So I'm a double no, stronger no on the GM than the play side.

I've read a good chunk of the PHB in my veteran's way, so I can't comment one iota on its play advice - the table sets the tone of the game IMO. But I've consumed the rules up into Feats without really committing them to memory, and.....eh.
It feels a lot like Warhammer Quest without the cool random tables.
Unless my group agrees en masse to give it a try, I have a feeling it'll be a no for our group. We broke up with D&D a while back for L5R (one of the three best games I've been in) and there's not enough changed here to bring us back, I don't think.

I have no money to buy it at present, but i'd play it in a heartbeat if someone offered.

I imagine I'll play it at some stage. Not in the near future, but sometime.

Ned

I have no plans to either buy or play 4e.  I'm still a relative new-comer to 3.x and have been very pleased by what I'm seeing of Paizo's Pathfinder game.  And on top of all the other games I already have and want to play, the potential allure of either the new-shiny-thing or state-of-the-art just doesn't have any traction with me.  I just have too many other things to do to be interested.

!i!

Quote from: BalbinusI didn't say myself.

I won't run it, just too complex for my tastes these days, it's highly unlikely I will in practice play it as I doubt anyone in my group will run it, I don't particularly want to play it (I mean, it's not an absolute no but it in no way appeals to me) and I wouldn't really go for it at a con unless it was a really good pitch and a really lousy con otherwise.

So I'm a double no, stronger no on the GM than the play side.

This is my position as well.

-clash

I'll probably buy it. I doubt I'd run it. The emphasis (more so than 3.5)on minis is a real deal breaker. Besides, there are few d20 games that would suit my D&D needs.

Regards,
David R

I'll pick it up, and see what I think I can do with it.  My group has been itching to do something more long-form in D&D, and the new edition will let us do that while simultaneously satisfying our curiosity.

Quote from: droogI'm planning to buy it and enjoy the hell out of it just so I can piss off Settembrini.

I found a reason to play it! Thanks:D

GMing: Absolutely not. The huge HP values and the resulting book-keeping sound off-putting enough, and some stuff like Bloodied-status looks even like adding work.

Playing: Maybe, as the opportunity arises so that I can at least make educated statements about 4E. I won't go out of my way to test it though, and will just look if there are conveniently useable chances on the FLGS' bill-board or at the next convention.

Not interested. Nope. Not one bit. Nothing about it has made me sit up and go wow.

No plans to buy, definitely wouldn't run and can't see it being adopted as a favorite by anyone but 1 person in our group and we never give him a vote.

I will do as Cali does, except I don't have a basement.

It's true that Orcus' 1500 HP make my GM heart sink.

No plans to buy or play. Everything I've seen since 1e AD&D looks like fussy rules-bloat. Not my style. I'll stick with the new BRP, Mongoose Traveller, and maybe HEX.

Quote from: BalbinusLike it says really.  No particular agenda, I'm just curious and I got a bit bogged down in the piracy thread.

Balb... I'd play any game given that the people at the table are pleasant. I'd try any boardgame, wargame, roleplaying game or even video game.

I definitely plan to play if I am eventually invited but so far, none of my friends are planning to pick up 4th edition. Many roleplayers I know are old schoolers and some aren't even aware that 4th edition is coming.

The most stable and active D&D groups I know use and plan to stay with AD&D or 3rd edition so far.

I have so far a mixed opinion of 4th edition and as of now, do not plan to run it. I'm keeping my mind open but the good (and there's a lot of it) does not make up for the bad, IMO.

I've ordered it. Play it? Probably, but we'll see.

Seanchai

No interest whatsoever.  In fact, our DM's attempt to spring Keep on the Shadowfell on the group two weeks ago wound up being the final straw that collapsed the existing 3e game.  

I don't waste my time on things I don't think will be fun, when there's plenty of other things I know will be fun to do.

I don't like games that are not properly tied into a setting and genre, so I usually pass on generic or semi generic games. D&D is one of those.

I might be convinced to play if someone else gamemasters it, but that is a really low chance. Like. Snowball. Hell. etc.

Looks like I will be at least be running Keep on the Shadowfell. it also seems like I will be also be preordering the core books this week as my father's day gift from the family.

I did not like 3rd edition very much. It was ok as a player but GMing it was a nightmare. I recently tried SWSE and found it fairly easy to run and play. I have read a bunch on 4th and it seems that I will like it much better than 3rd.
When I heard about 4th edition coming out I figured I would just go with C&C and truly leave D&D behind. 4th though has sparked enough interest that I am going to give it a try and from what I have read so far from KotS I think I will enjoy it as will my family and friends.

As for Minis, I tend to use them in my games but from what I have read I think I could play it without them just as easily.

I'll likely end up playing it at some point. I won't be running it in the near future. I'd be far more likely to run Castles and Crusades or another fantasy game instead, or even start a new 3.5 game rather than switch to 4E. Up until now, I've always switched to the new edition eventually, so I'd be foolish to say I'll never run 4E.

Looking at the practically brand spanking new condition of my 3.5 books from limited use, I'm hesitant to even give more than a passing look at 4th edition.  I think I'd rather focus my energies on the games I own that I want to play than be distracted with the excitement of a new system.

I plan to play in at least 1 campaign, but I think I'll be moving on after that.

I'm gonna play the fuck out of it. We're switching over after our current campaign is done, probably six months or so from now. I may run another campaign sooner if my Traveller sidegame disintegrates.

No. Now that the actual rules have become available I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I'll certainly never run 4e.

I suppose that there's some vague chance that I might at some point play 4e, though the odds of that are pretty slim.

RPGPundit

I´m actually holding off an experiment.

I wait till somebody enthusiastically invites me to a 4e session.
The moment somebody with star-crissed eyes asks me to try it, I will.

I have yet to met a SINGLE person in real life who´s in any way enthusiastic about 4e. If the games ANY good, it´ll enthuse at least SOMEONE. If it´s not enough someone´s for one of them to approach me, I won´t play.

Quote from: PseudoephedrineI'm gonna play the fuck out of it. We're switching over after our current campaign is done, probably six months or so from now. I may run another campaign sooner if my Traveller sidegame disintegrates.

For what it's worth, your campaign is the only thing so far related to 4e that made me think "I'd play that".

Which is why I'm not a total no, but unless you're moving to London sometime soon...

And maybe not even then, not sure.

Settembrini, surely the local RPGA guys are enthusiastic about 4E?

Uh... there IS an RPGA in Germany, right?

There´s supposed to be one.

Their local divison has NEVER EVER crossed paths with me. And I´m a guy who visits the un-FLGSs on a regular basis.

The only RPGA info I have on Germany comes from meta-discussions regarding F&S policy regarding the D&D translation.

I´d say sofar the RPGA is keeping a VERY low profile. So, unless  they apporach me or I see an ad that I can´t oversee, I´ll pretend I don´t know they exist.

I went from cautiously optimistic to neutral over the time period since the announcement.  I was really neither here nor there.

I picked up Keep on the Shadowfell, just to see what was what.  I was impressed.  After reading it, I pre-ordered the boxed set.  

I was planning to actually run KotS on Sunday... and then along came the recent "preview" documents and my opinion went from "we'll see how it plays and then maybe I'll start something in August" to "WHEN THE FUCK ARE MY BOOKS GETTING HERE!?"

I can't wait to start a campaign.

Quote from: SettembriniThere´s supposed to be one.

Their local divison has NEVER EVER crossed paths with me. And I´m a guy who visits the un-FLGSs on a regular basis.

The only RPGA info I have on Germany comes from meta-discussions regarding F&S policy regarding the D&D translation.

I´d say sofar the RPGA is keeping a VERY low profile. So, unless  they apporach me or I see an ad that I can´t oversee, I´ll pretend I don´t know they exist.

I was going to mock you, but... I can't find ANYTHING on the German RPGA. Wizards subsite: no events in Germany. F&S: link to German Living Grewhawk site invalid. Raw google search: some dude's post on LG from 2001. That's it.

Pathetic. What gives?

I'd try Keep on the Shadowfell if someone else I game with bought it and ran it (and invited me to play, of course).  I don't plan on buying without playing it and I'm in no great hurry to play it.

I'm going to run a few sessions for my local FLGS.... truck on over and give it a try... :)

Quote from: SettembriniI´d say sofar the RPGA is keeping a VERY low profile.

I saw an actual RPGA event _once_, at Dreieich Con near Frankfurt/Main. And I don't even know if it still happens every year as I haven't been there for years, and it's the only time I've seen them on _any_ convention between my hometown and Frankfurt. What covers a lot of German ground, and some more renowned conventions, so go figure.

And if can't get even a small presence on Berlin cons, despite its apparently vivid gaming scene, it says a lot about its state in the home country of the pointed helmet...

We had an active Living Greyhawk group here in town.  With the end of Living Greyhawk that's all finished now.  They sent around a "Thanks everyone for all the years of fun!" email.  I don't know if there are plans for someone else to pick up the ball and run with Living Realms... but so far I've heard nothing.

I'll probably get the core books and read them over a few idle days this summer.

Once I've done that, I'll think about whether I'd like to run/play it.

I've no plans to buy it yet, but then I haven't gotten a good chance to read up on it yet either.  I'm not keen on some of what I have read, but if I think it could be salvaged I may still give it a go.  If the people I know who play D&D decide to move over to it, that would influence me towards getting it.  Either way, I'm pretty busy next month with work and school stuff, so it most likely wouldn't be until July anyway.

Dunno/dunno.
I haven't played D&D since 1e, but pc's that breath fire or lightning? dudes with horns? No gnomes? Power ups per encounter?
WTF?
I'm supposed to be all angry and shit, I think. Truthfully, though, I'm rather intrigued. It sounds like there might be some metal in there after all.

I plan to start running Keep on the Shadowfell next wednesday.

And I've got the set on preorder.  So I don't feel guilty one bit about "previewing" the material.

I really like what I have read so far.  GMing looks like a breeze compared to my Red Hand of Doom/Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth 3.5 game.

I'll give it a fair shake.  I plan to buy it as soon as I see it at a store.  Probably run a few sessions after reading it, then decide whether it sucks or not.

If it sucks, I've got every other flavor of D&D to soothe the wounds.  No big deal.

Quote from: BalbinusLike it says really.  No particular agenda, I'm just curious and I got a bit bogged down in the piracy thread.

I'll be playing tomorrow. Since we've got the books, we'll be making characters instead of using the ones in KotS. I'm looking forward to running the cleric through his paces, since it looks like they went out of their way to make sure he could be a healer/buffer but still maintain a continuous offense.

My group will be day-1 purchasers and we'll be starting up a campaign in about a month.  The campaign would be sooner but the DM needs time to, like, read the rules and all that :)

I spent a bit of time perusing some pdf copies of dubious provenance which confirmed my suspicion that this isn't the game for me. I might perhaps be willing to play a one-off or convention session as a glorified skirmish-minis game, provided I wasn't expected to be familiar with the rulebooks beforehand, but even in that setting I don't think I'd like all the emphasis on the mechanics of special powers and maneuvers, square-counting, etc. -- it looks like it's better as a minis game than an rpg, but even as a minis game it's not one I particularly want to play.

I definitely won't be buying the books and there's no way I'd play or run it as "D&D" (which is to say as a full-fledged campaign). Which is hardly surprising (I jumped off the "official D&D" bandwagon shortly after the release of 2E AD&D and haven't been back on since) but is still a bit disappointing -- the D&D brand still carries some residual nostalgic cachet with me from the 80s and I'd have liked to have had a new game that appealed to me, to be part of the in-crowd for a change, and every once in a while something in the previews struck me as a good idea, so I was holding onto a glimmer of hope that seeing the actual rulebooks might pleasantly surprise me, but alas it wasn't to be. Luckily I've still got my white-box, my Holmes, Moldvay/Cook/Marsh, and Mentzer sets, and my 1E AD&D hardbacks (not to mention a couple dozen other non-D&D games) to keep me occupied.

Quote from: SettembriniThere´s supposed to be one.

Their local divison has NEVER EVER crossed paths with me. And I´m a guy who visits the un-FLGSs on a regular basis.

"Shit!  Sett's coming!  Hide!"

I'd like to run it RIGHT NOW just to see how it plays.

I'm playing in a game next week.

I'd like to play in a demo, but don't have any plans to buy it or run it right now.  

As others have said better than me, it doesn't sound like what I want out of D&D.  I have too many games I'll never have a chance to run extensively already without worrying about one I feel I'd have to houserule quite a bit to get it where I want it.

I did read through Keep on the Shadowfell, but won't be running it.

I'd play if offered, but probably wouldn't DM. I'm a world-builder who dislikes too many hard-coded setting assumptions, and while I can't say for sure without reading it, 4E doesn't seem as well suited to this approach as some other games.

Still like to have it on the shelf though.

No time soon, that's for sure - I've got a thousand other things to do that, currently, seem more important. However,

Quote from: PeteMy group will be day-1 purchasers and we'll be starting up a campaign in about a month.  The campaign would be sooner but the DM needs time to, like, read the rules and all that :)

Now Pete - him I'd play with....

Quote from: BalbinusFor what it's worth, your campaign is the only thing so far related to 4e that made me think "I'd play that".

Which is why I'm not a total no, but unless you're moving to London sometime soon...

And maybe not even then, not sure.

Thanks :)

I'm thinking of writing that setting up as a short pdf and selling it because of all the positive response. Probably along with a few short adventures set in the same setting. Like I said to Sett, it's up to us to reappropriate 4e for ourselves.

On the side that's all into 3x powergaming... we circled it from about ten or twenty feet away poking it with sticks for a while before figuring out the rules were impenetrable. Now we're closing in, curious and apprehensive, to figure out what it all means.

There'll be a first level game soon. One of the guys who doesn't usually DM has volunteered. Later, Dai (the guy who runs epic) will see if he can gut and rewrite the thing like he did for 3x. So we'll see.

On the side I run with the low-level games... one or two in my group are curious, and have suggested getting a copy of the core rules for the whole group. I wouldn't use it for the style of campaign I'm running now, nor the style of campaign I hope to run. But for wonky as hell mass melee dungeons I may try it out. Frankly, it's impossible to screw up a dungeon crawl (at least for me) regardless of the system.

So probably playing maybe running.

I won't be trying 4E.  I've thought 3.5 needed an overhaul, and I am okay with a new edition every 5 years or so, but I want gentle tweaks, no rampant overhauls.

4E is a rampant overhaul, and significantly changes the nature of the game.  Some of it comes very close to what I wanted.  the game is much more tactical now, and the combat now fully integrates miniatures.  That's good.  But it's not tactical in any real sense, there is no verisimilitude in the tactical play.  It's now a question of understanding real world tactics, but understanding very gamist tactics.  It's tactical in the the same way Magic: TG is tactical.  I have zero interest in that type of play.

Instead, I'll be joining the Pathfinder crowd.  Pathfinder is much closer to what i wanted 4E to be: a tweak, with some moderately ambitious changes, that is still highly compatible with 3.5, in much the same way 3.5 was mostly compatible with 3.0.

Quote from: JackalopeThat's good.  But it's not tactical in any real sense, there is no verisimilitude in the tactical play.  It's now a question of understanding real world tactics, but understanding very gamist tactics.  It's tactical in the the same way Magic: TG is tactical.  I have zero interest in that type of play.

That totally nails my feelings on it as well.  During my brief play of it last week, the group kept making jokes about "tapping" our powers.  The monster stat blocks all look like they were designed to go on cards as well.

As far back as when B9S was released, I was saying that WotC would be stupid, if they didn´t release Power-Cards.

I am not sure. I suppose I would like to try it. I am certainly curious and my quick brush with playing seems to indicate that the rules aren't bad. My only problem is... I have absolutely no clue what I would run with it. It fits no conception of any fantasy world I have in my head and that makes it very difficult for me.

My God! System DOES matter! :)

Won't buy it , won't run it but will play it at Gencon.

I was thinking about trying to do my best to break it at Gencon but decided if i did I would just be being an arse and life is too short.

Quote from: mhensleyThat totally nails my feelings on it as well.  During my brief play of it last week, the group kept making jokes about "tapping" our powers.  The monster stat blocks all look like they were designed to go on cards as well.

Man, I hope so.  That would ease GM preparation to no end.  You could throw together an encounter in seconds, just flip through your deck of cards and lay down an appropriate set on the table, and go.

Oh gracious.  That would make me a happy, happy camper.  Prep-time has long been one of the things keeping me from running D&D as an off-the-cuff "Let's do something" activity.  I would so, so love to see that equation reversed.

I actually feel totally like Tony in regards to the cards idea. And as best thing in PDF, or the individual cards as images, so you can drag, drop and print just what you want.

It would be awesome if there was a system that provides this, although in the case of 4E there's other stuff that puts me off.

The more 4e I read, the more I'm stricken with that same feeling that hits me when I'm reading previous d20 products. I see the classes and levels, and see artificial divisions. I see proficiencies, and think that "ability to use weapons" shouldn't be binary. I see rules based on "encounters" and other things with no independent existence in the game world. I see tiny gridded allotments of spells and abilities perfectly and finely tuned to make each character "balanced" with all others.

I want the characters to just be people, and what they do doesn't need to be compressed into a single archetype. I want graduated ability with skills, including weapons and spellcasting. I want the system to be a method for describing the setting, not the other way around. And I certainly don't care about "balance," because once you hand them to players, characters are innately unbalanced anyway; and besides, in real life, some people are just better at more things than other people.

So I look at 4e and say, "I don't want that." Then I look back at d20, which I play in both d20 Modern and D&D 3.5e, and say, "I don't want that, either."

I'll play 4e, if my group plays it. I think there are a lot of neat things, and a lot of stupid things we'll ignore. But in the end, what I want to play is Shadowrun 3.

Quote from: TonyLBMan, I hope so.  That would ease GM preparation to no end.  You could throw together an encounter in seconds, just flip through your deck of cards and lay down an appropriate set on the table, and go.

Oh gracious.  That would make me a happy, happy camper.  Prep-time has long been one of the things keeping me from running D&D as an off-the-cuff "Let's do something" activity.  I would so, so love to see that equation reversed.

You do know you could have done that with 3rd edition too by using the D&D minis cards, right?  In older editions it was even easier due to the lack of stats involved.  Here's your encounter - 7 kobolds : AC-7  Thac0-19 HD- 1/2 HP -2 and that's all you really need.

Quote from: mhensleyYou do know you could have done that with 3rd edition too by using the D&D minis cards, right?

I didn't actually know about the minis cards, no.  But then, I'm coming back to D&D after a fairly long hiatus.  What were these minis cards?  Were they readily available in packs large enough (and cheap enough) to be worth investing in?

'cuz I could totally go for receiving my Monster Manual for 4e as a deck of cards, and never having to bother with a book.

Advice: Don´t talk to Tony. He´s a shill and a liar.

He feigns interest, but is too lazy to find out the most basic things for himself.

He´s an infiltrator.

Every time I see "Tony" I keep thinking it says "Toby". :)

<--- :haw: :haw: :haw:

3x minis cards were an unsatisfying fix. The stats themselves usually got dumbed down quite a bit IIRC, but it's been a while, and admittedly my memory's hazy.

Quote from: SettembriniAdvice: Don´t talk to Tony. He´s a shill and a liar.

He's a liar? Does he say things like, "I'm leaving!" and then keep showing up?

Seanchai

I will absolutely run at least 1 game, and I can't wait for my books to arrive.

I will continue to run it if my players like it.  I think it looks like a damned solid game, and I'm excited about dipping my toe in the 4e water.

-O

Quote from: SeanchaiHe's a liar? Does he say things like, "I'm leaving!" and then keep showing up?

Seanchai

ZING!

Quote from: TonyLBI didn't actually know about the minis cards, no.  But then, I'm coming back to D&D after a fairly long hiatus.  What were these minis cards?  Were they readily available in packs large enough (and cheap enough) to be worth investing in?

'cuz I could totally go for receiving my Monster Manual for 4e as a deck of cards, and never having to bother with a book.

Every pack of D&D minis comes with their corresponding cards.  The minis game stats are on one side and the rpg stats are on the other.  I think you can download all the cards from the wotc site.

Quote from: mhensleyEvery pack of D&D minis comes with their corresponding cards.

Ah ... so a well-made set of the cards can't be purchased on its own, it comes with a huge pile of figures that boost the price.  That's great if you don't already have a figurine solution, but I love legos for that purpose ... they're iconic and make everything just plain more fun.  WotC is trying to put my lego mini-figs out of a job!

Darth-Vader mini-fig finds their lack of faith disturbing.

Quote from: mhensleyI think you can download all the cards from the wotc site.

Now that's tempting though.  I do love well-made cards (and will pay for them) but print-outs stuffed into mylar card-sleeves aren't a bad poor-man's substitute.

Anyway, I'm still hoping that I'll get the best of both worlds in a 4e product :D

Quote from: cmagounI am not sure. I suppose I would like to try it. I am certainly curious and my quick brush with playing seems to indicate that the rules aren't bad. My only problem is... I have absolutely no clue what I would run with it. It fits no conception of any fantasy world I have in my head and that makes it very difficult for me.

My God! System DOES matter! :)

I know what you mean. I'm gonna try 4e, but I don't know what to do with it either. With 3e, it didn't feel like too radical a departure from my AD&D campaign, but 4e just looks...odd. I'm not yet sure how to continue my existing campaign with 4e, but hey, we'll see what happens...

If 4e doesn't work for me, I can go back to 3e, or maybe I'll just run AD&D again...

I will give 4e a fair try (or trial) with its first published adventure (Keep on the Shadowfell). If players will like it, I might experiment further. If not... why bother?

My answer has changed to yes/yes. I'll play it given a chance, but I can't wait to run it.

Quote from:  cmagounI am not sure. I suppose I would like to try it. I am certainly curious and my quick brush with playing seems to indicate that the rules aren't bad. My only problem is... I have absolutely no clue what I would run with it. It fits no conception of any fantasy world I have in my head and that makes it very difficult for me.

My God! System DOES matter!

I felt the same way about 3.x. This one speaks to me though- this is what I'm thinking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kIIc4tvtF0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym_y0Mugvsw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pIW5gz8WUU&feature=related

Quote from: TonyLBAh ... so a well-made set of the cards can't be purchased on its own, it comes with a huge pile of figures that boost the price.

That's because you would presumably already own the Monster Manual and thus have the stats at hand.

Well, it's official. Running and playing. I'm abivalent mostly because I loooove 3.5, and am probably only going to get to play one or the other, but this looks like it could be cool too. It isn't what I would have asked for in a 4e, but it looks like a pretty nifty consolation prize.