I have very rarely played as a player in DnD, never liked a many DMs.
Ill get this out of the way, I loved fourth edition (thats past tense Ill get to that in a minute) it was the edition I started with. All the time I heard how pathfinder and every other edition was better, how 4e pigioned holed you and killed improvision. And then every non 4e game I ever played I met the same answers over and over again from every DM and grognard I played with.
No
No
No
Thats not in the rules
No
No.
So what CAN I do?
Swing your sword.
Thats what all of my non magical characters boiled down to. Oh is it my turn? I guess I swing my sword, hit? miss? can I take a nap now?
In time however I started getting annoyed with 4th edition. In a lot of ways people were right about it, but they failed to show me the light of any other edition. maybe RPGs just werent for me?
But I remebered why I got so intrested in them to begin with. I was watching a group of people play 3.5. They were on an air ship fighting a a giant demon that was climbing a stone tower. I rember they used the air ship to fire harppons in to the demon, yanking it around and in turn the airship was physically being pulled by its weight. I asked the DM, how that was happening, did logic and physics apply in a game like that? if i say they do is what he replied with.
I watched the game with even more intrested and in the cocnlsuion the dwarf had ziplined down the rope of one of the harpoons jumped on the demon and attacked. I was awestruck, this was something that could happen in this game? I left that very day and bought my dnd books.
I thought I would hate dnd next, I got the starter set and free PDF today and I actually love it. I hate that it does not assume the use of a grid, but it at least supports them. But outside of that I love it.
So I implore you DMs no matter how long you have been DMing. Put some extra thought in to combat, what can happen, what the players can do. A bug bears axes locks blades with the fighters sword, have the two struggle against one another. Give the green dragon a new tail atatck that sends the heros flying. Let the throw his shield in to the goblins hands and then drop kick it.
This edition does not have the powers that 4e has, and thats why I thought 3.5 was so boring..what can I do without my powers then? the answer I was always given? swing my sword. The correct answer? what ever my character can physiclaly do via his or hers abilitys. My fighter has powers, they just aren't coded in buttons of the rules.
The anecdote you describe in your post has nothing to do with the edition being played and everything to do with the DM / players working together to create something awesome. The same can be said of your opening statements. It's alll about the people you play with, it just sounds like you ended up with people that weren't good at DM'ing or allowing players to be creative within the game or maybe they just weren't creative either. The DM in your anecdote had to create the encounter with the Demon, so kudos to him/her.
Being an adventurer and doing awesome things is edition neutral.
This is something I've tried to push as a major positive for 5E, but too many players complain about "mother may I." It really comes down to how the DM looks at the game. I've known a few "hard coded rules" type of DMs, and I've know quite a few "rules light" type of DMs. The HCR DMs don't like anything not specifically listed in the rules, while the RL DMs let you try anything. I think 5E gears much better to RL DMs, as you can pretty much try anything, and the DM just sets roll and the DC.
Shiroiken wrote:
Shiroiken wrote:
Although I've never actually played 4E, what I grabbed from its design was to make encounters interesting. I'm always more than happy to let players perform special actions; the thing is, I play with people that are a bit "shy" when it comes to taking bold improvisations. By throwing in each encounter one or two peculiar elements or mechanics (altar of War, braziers filled with embers, frozen floors, ecc) I got them to think out of their character sheet. These days, I've really ended up liking simple character sheet. Those who stat ALL the options in detail tend to require too much of a player's focus. Once I got to play as a PC with a rules lawyer, improvisation-fearing DM. He did awful lots of preparation but all his stories were very railroad-y. I offered him to play for a while in my sessions, and he then realized that improvisation and minimal prep can lead to incredibly convoluted and immersive plotlines, way more than having the DM orchestrating everything. Sometimes rules lawyer can change when shown that there are forms of improvisation that do not "break" the game 
GamingGorman wrote:
As DM I try to encourage the players to describe their actions beyond "I swing my sword". I do this by having the creatures react accordingly. For example, say the player describes how they chop at the opponents legs, if they miss I may describe how the target simply stepped away, if they hit but do minimal damage I may describe how they leapt over the attack but stumbled to regain footing, if they do severe damage I may describe how they connected causing the target to drop to one knee.
I also ask the players to describe their own HP loss. In my last session the Fighter described how blows deflected off her armor when they took 3 damage while the Rogue took 5 damage she described how she tried to roll under the opponents legs but the bandit pinned her cloak to the floor with his short sword.
None of these have mechanical effects beyong HP loss, but they add to the story!
It's really too bad that you had so many run-ins with DMs who didn't know the first golden rule of a good DM...which is to always find a way to say "Yes" to a player instead of "No." Even if a player fails terribly at something, they should always have the chance to try.
My players originally came from the tables of DMs who were nothing more than table tyrants. When they first started playing with me, they called me the world's "god," a term that I dislike. I quickly let them know that I am just a storyteller who reacts to the story they tell. The things they do or don't do have a direct effect on what happens next. I don't railroad them to any particular direction. Instead, I just present them with choices...and one of those choices is always to ignore the choices I've offered and come up with something else entirely.
I've rarely run for a group that didn't think I was one of the best DMs they ever had. But, that's only because I allow them the freedom to play their characters and try not to say "No" when they do things. Find a DM who doesn't say "No" and you will be a happy player. Or, become a DM who doesn't say "No," and you will be fulfilled by players who love to play in your games (that's what happened to me after playing with so many terrible DMs).
Thought to combat is probably the most important legacy from 4e. Using terrain and tactics is definitely possible in 5e.
I actually like how in one of Rodney Thompson's live stream games, he used index cards to remind players of usable features in an encounter.
Most of the games I run are on rpgto, and I use the maps and my description to highlight important features that can be used in interesting ways. Often, I'll repeat the description of important elements like tables that can be used for standing on or blocking an area, or cliffs and pits that pcs or monsters can try to push foes into, or any other feature that makes the encounter more dynamic.
ProphetSword wrote:
GamingGorman wrote:
I love when my players try new things. I had a player want to make a makeshift burning arrow by using cloth and some grog and fireing through a blazing fire into a caske of hard grain liquor for an explosion to scare some goblins out of hiding. I let her do it and she rolled it out. I love saying yes 90% of the time fun stuff happens. However I have to start getting rules like when they try to do things that mimic other players feats/powers or they try and do something stupid. (I stealth nat 20 out of the darkness through the lit room and behind a bookshelf.. uh no you dont they see you as soon as you walk into the light...but but nat 20.... but but light of obvious sight XD)
I think a large part of the problem is that the ratio for people that want to play and the people willing to DM are vastly out of proportion. I’ve found in many cases that if you don’t like the way your DM plays you are left with a choice of either putting up with it or not playing at all. Sure, some may live in an area with a vibrant gaming community where there is always another game to be had. But some of us live in areas were the gaming community is scarce. Some might barely know enough people willing to play to even put a game together.
You could make the argument that you could always look online for other DMs but even there you see many more players looking for a group to play in than DM’s looking of a group. In fact in my experience online play groups fill up pretty quickly once a DM post a notice that he is looking for a group.
Of course there is always the 3rd option of choosing to DM yourself. But unfortunately not everyone is willing to be a DM. Heck it’s not that uncommon to see post from a group of 5-6 players seeking a DM. IF just one of them was at all willing to DM their problem would be salved
Actually this is why I’m the DM 90% of the time. I’m currently living in a rural bible belt town and the only people I know that are willing to play are my wife, my brother, and my two kids (9 & 12).*** But the problem is that I would really like to play sometimes too, but no one else is willing to DM. So I guess I actually have the opposite problem. My only choice is to be the DM or not play at all. XD
*** Well, that not completely true…My cousin’s husband likes to play, and even likes to DM, but has pretty much no spare time for gaming at this time (but that may be changing in a few months). Also there is one other guy…but he likes to play his characters alignment as chaotic stupid…which might still be bearable except he comes with the additional baggage of a wife that can’t allow him to leave the house alone, and has no interest in joining in or socializing with us in anyway. She just sits off to the side for 4 - 5 hours occasionally giving the whole group dirty looks. And of course since both parents are there of course they have to bring their kids who are little hellions that neither parent is willing to discipline. So when that game ended we just never invited him to any other games.