I've done a fair bit of thinking (with the benefit of coffee this time) and I think that I'm going to start off my new campaign using the last system that I'd settled on (Healing Surges only healing half, etc.) because I want to trend toward simplicity rather than simulation (which I think the Disease Track idea does better). However we're going into this with open minds and may opt to change it if we feel like it's not getting the job done.
I very much appreciate all the alternative ideas that have been pitched. They have been valuable food for thought and I may yet adopt some version of them before this is all over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Universe  One thing you might also consider stealing from M&M is the "Haha I totally screwed you over" action point. If you need to fudge the dice on behalf of a foe, trap, or other situation (and against the PCs), reward them with action point for the trouble. This removes some of the guilt when you're trying to keep the main bad guy in a finale alive (for example), and gives the players some motivation to "play along," if necessary. It's one of the single most elegant "narrative control" elements in M&M, and one that I don't think would seriously unbalance 4e in any way. |
That's an interesting idea. I'm not entirely against it but I do think it works better in M&M (or
3e) than it would in a
4e D&D game. I'll try and explain why:
M&M has a lot of "save or die" effects that can short circuit a climactic scene if the BBEG fails badly early. This also lets the GM design things so that the BBEG isn't vastly more powerful than the PC's, thus making his own save or die effects likely to take a hero out of the fight early (which I think is as undesirable if you want everybody to participate in a major, climactic battle).
In
4e D&D, there are almost no save or die effects that the PC's can drop on the BBEG to take them out early. If I make the BBEG a Solo then they will have plenty of HP that the PC's will have to slowly erode. Even if they roll some good crits they aren't going to take a Solo down in just a round or two. Meanwhile the BBEG's minions will be unloading their attacks on the PC's.
I think that if you throw the party Rogue an Action Point for negating his crit Sneak Attack on the BBEG then you run the risk of the PC's hitting a run of bad luck later in the combat and losing the fight. And that of course brings up the potential for bad feelings among the players like "We'd have had that guy if you hadn't blown off the Rogue's crit!" Again, in M&M the consequences of the PC's losing a fight are usually not so dire because, in most versions of the superhero genre, the BBEG isn't just going to slit their throats.
I think I'm more inclined to "let the dice fall where they may" and trust in my ability to put the PC's in over their heads from the start in order to provide them with plenty of challenge.
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