4e Campaign - ThunderLab - Pacing of 4e
Posted 5th January 2009 at 07:50 AM by ashockney
Session 11
Tonight's session was a test of the pacing of 4e. I made it clear to the players coming into the evening that I had prepared at least six encounters for us to get through. No skill challenges, limited RP, which fit with the theme of the adventure. I did a 10 min recap at the beginning and we were off on a dark dwarf hunt! I wanted to see how many encounters we could play through, if really focused and engaged, in three hours. My hopes going into this experiment was that we would complete from four to six encounters, and optimally five or six (completing an encounter in an average of around 30 minutes).
In three hours, we were able to complete...three encounters. Almost exactly. For a fifth level party, these were an EL 6, EL 6, and EL5. The battles were pitched, and provided an "appropriate" level of threat, without being overwhelming. They required consistent use of encounter powers, action points, and a couple of daily powers. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. One of my players pointed out, however, that the pacing of the action in 4e is different. It rarely if ever feels like you're waiting "a long time" for your next turn, and that the action is consistent and well paced. Each encounter typically lasted for 6 or more rounds, so that's averaging a round about every ten minutes, with six players and five to eleven villains all taking turns. In conclusion, the pacing is very different than previous editions of the game, and there are few, if any, quick combats or quick encounters. With the limited actions, reduced damage/attack, and the elimination of "insta-kill", most encounters will need to be played out fully for five or more rounds to determine the outcome.
The first encounter tonight led the party to the trading post in the Seven Pillared Hall of Clan Grimmerzhul. Having completed an extended rest following the Chamber of Eyes, the party was ready to find the missing slaves, and punish responsible. The encounters with the duergar were fun. Their abilities were interesting (compared to kobolds, goblins, and hobgoblins). The Theurge's abilities were powerful, and caused the party to stop and take notice. Notably, these encounters held no minions, so there was a pitched battle at every turn for the party. Some unlucky player dice, and some EXTREMELY hot dice for the DM made the trading post encounter closer than it should have been. Everyone survived, but second winds, healing words, and a whole bunch of healing surges were blown. My favorite moment was running a duergar out one of the windows of the trading post, which surprised several party members that were staying out of the fray and casting from just outside the door.
The party quickly proceeded to the Horned Hold. I broke the hold down into three encounter areas. North Tower, South Tower, and West Tower. The north tower held orc berserkers, duergar scouts, and the master smith. I LOVED the re-charge invisibility on the scouts. The healing on the bloodied orc berserkers put an interesting twist on these brutes. The master smith's "heat metal" encounter power was a very cool, and was an elegant interpretation of this power. What an interesting and unique way to flavor this npc. The smith's power also pleasantly didn't have a "standalone" sub-system of things to track, along with who was affected, who was holding what type of weapon, etc! My players began to see the emerging theme of the dwarves, and their historical "in-game" abilities: invis, poison, warhammers, psionic blast. On one hand, they were jealous, "why can't I get that spell/power???" On the other hand, they noticed and appreciated how each type of villain they fought added a unique, flavorful and memorable punch to the encounter. One player even wondered aloud, what will their enlarge be like?
The south tower held Rundarr, the Duergar Champion, two more Duergar Scouts, and two Duergar guards. I LOVED the build on Rundarr, and it was an awesome moment when as an immediate reaction he polymorphed into a size large creature. Just awesome! I had the primary fighter at the time down below bloodied, and the tables were suddenly turned! Both the fighter and a nearby warlock found themselves "based" to this beast, and bloodied! Of course, we got to see that the cleric ALSO got a new daily power, which came in very handy here to help heal, while the other party fighter jumped in to take the lead with Rundarr.
At this point, we had exhausted our three hours. We played through three good encounters, but they took every bit of three hours to run back-to-back. We decided to press on and complete this part of the adventure for the evening, and so I skipped the two encounters I'd prepared for the western tower (Ogre/Wights/Orcs and Duergar Thuerge/Guards). Instead we jumped to the finale, an EL 9 scenario with two elite bosses. I had combined the final two encounters (H7/H8) with two elites, two devils, two Duergar shock troops and two Duergar guards. This was a very, very tough fight. The party used their stealth to reach Murkelmor's inner sanctum. Positioned in the foyer (room 27) they heard the activity in both rooms 26 and 28. The warlock/thief came up with the action on the spot to use his thievery to bar/lock the door to room 26. Their hope was to prevent one group of opponents from engaging them, while they dealt with the others. The fighters charged into room 28 and confronted Murkelmor and his shock troops. The elite boss used his action point at the top of the combat with devastating effectiveness. When one of the shock troops went through the secret door adjoining the rooms, the party was SHOCKED. This was a great "in game" moment, and was a very nice complement to the designers of the adventure! The mage cast his stinking cloud into the room to discover the Duergar resistance to poison made it far less effective than it was in the Chamber of Eyes. The stinking cloud was then moved into the adjoining room through the secret door, in an effort to prevent those opponents from entering the melee. The elite caster came through from room 27, however, and used an action point to drop two very well placed AoE effects (fire and poison) on the entire party. Several lucky rolls later, and the party was seriously injured, and outgunned. Further compounding their problems, another lucky roll on the part of the villains led to them bursting down the blocked door, and the party was suddenly surrounded. Things looked dire, and I noticed the players noticeably slowing down and offering each other advice on optimal moves to position, obtain combat advantage, or use their daily and encounter abilities to maximum effect. One player commented that two elites, might have been too much. There was tension around the table at the prospect of a TPK. Dailies were flying, action points were all used. Several lucky critical attacks (one from a fighter daily power) turned the tide. As a strategy, one defender fighter tanked both of the elites, pinning the caster to either provoke OA's or not cast, while Murkelmor failed to strike his phenomenal AC. The other fighter quickly positioned himself to protect the casters in the back. Combined with the warlock's aura, and the wizard's stinking cloud, they made quick work of the guards and devils swooping in from behind. The ranger, cleric, and fighter in the front were able to hold their ground on the elites and shock troops, although almost all the players were in bloodied condition. One shock trooper finally fell, and then the other. Ganging up on the elites, the fighters were re-united, and now outnumbered, even two elites were outmatched by the consistent thrum of the player's damage machine. This was an excellent encounter. It was extremely challenging and demanded effective gameplay to survive. The players really had an opportunity to show off their "high end" powers, and also required teamwork to get every advantage they could use to position themselves to succeed.
By the time we were done, it was very late (an hour and a half to run the finale). Tallying up the XP, I commented that I find it interesting that although we're not hitting all the encounters in the book, it certainly seems like we're pacing ourselves to hit the appropriate XP thresholds required to level. I would hope to level about every other time that we game. Adding up the xp from the three encounters last week (Blood Reavers + Chamber of Eyes) and the four encounters this week (Trading Post + Horned Hold), we had enough "out of the book" XP for every member of the party to achieve sixth level! That pacing certainly matches my expectations. So, like many other things that are different from previous editions of the game, the pacing is not necessarily "worse" simply because it's different. If the player experience is such that it is more "action oriented" and "fast paced" and we are accomplishing the DM's goals for character development and pacing, then the system seems to be working as it was intended.
Tonight's session was a test of the pacing of 4e. I made it clear to the players coming into the evening that I had prepared at least six encounters for us to get through. No skill challenges, limited RP, which fit with the theme of the adventure. I did a 10 min recap at the beginning and we were off on a dark dwarf hunt! I wanted to see how many encounters we could play through, if really focused and engaged, in three hours. My hopes going into this experiment was that we would complete from four to six encounters, and optimally five or six (completing an encounter in an average of around 30 minutes).
In three hours, we were able to complete...three encounters. Almost exactly. For a fifth level party, these were an EL 6, EL 6, and EL5. The battles were pitched, and provided an "appropriate" level of threat, without being overwhelming. They required consistent use of encounter powers, action points, and a couple of daily powers. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. One of my players pointed out, however, that the pacing of the action in 4e is different. It rarely if ever feels like you're waiting "a long time" for your next turn, and that the action is consistent and well paced. Each encounter typically lasted for 6 or more rounds, so that's averaging a round about every ten minutes, with six players and five to eleven villains all taking turns. In conclusion, the pacing is very different than previous editions of the game, and there are few, if any, quick combats or quick encounters. With the limited actions, reduced damage/attack, and the elimination of "insta-kill", most encounters will need to be played out fully for five or more rounds to determine the outcome.
The first encounter tonight led the party to the trading post in the Seven Pillared Hall of Clan Grimmerzhul. Having completed an extended rest following the Chamber of Eyes, the party was ready to find the missing slaves, and punish responsible. The encounters with the duergar were fun. Their abilities were interesting (compared to kobolds, goblins, and hobgoblins). The Theurge's abilities were powerful, and caused the party to stop and take notice. Notably, these encounters held no minions, so there was a pitched battle at every turn for the party. Some unlucky player dice, and some EXTREMELY hot dice for the DM made the trading post encounter closer than it should have been. Everyone survived, but second winds, healing words, and a whole bunch of healing surges were blown. My favorite moment was running a duergar out one of the windows of the trading post, which surprised several party members that were staying out of the fray and casting from just outside the door.
The party quickly proceeded to the Horned Hold. I broke the hold down into three encounter areas. North Tower, South Tower, and West Tower. The north tower held orc berserkers, duergar scouts, and the master smith. I LOVED the re-charge invisibility on the scouts. The healing on the bloodied orc berserkers put an interesting twist on these brutes. The master smith's "heat metal" encounter power was a very cool, and was an elegant interpretation of this power. What an interesting and unique way to flavor this npc. The smith's power also pleasantly didn't have a "standalone" sub-system of things to track, along with who was affected, who was holding what type of weapon, etc! My players began to see the emerging theme of the dwarves, and their historical "in-game" abilities: invis, poison, warhammers, psionic blast. On one hand, they were jealous, "why can't I get that spell/power???" On the other hand, they noticed and appreciated how each type of villain they fought added a unique, flavorful and memorable punch to the encounter. One player even wondered aloud, what will their enlarge be like?
The south tower held Rundarr, the Duergar Champion, two more Duergar Scouts, and two Duergar guards. I LOVED the build on Rundarr, and it was an awesome moment when as an immediate reaction he polymorphed into a size large creature. Just awesome! I had the primary fighter at the time down below bloodied, and the tables were suddenly turned! Both the fighter and a nearby warlock found themselves "based" to this beast, and bloodied! Of course, we got to see that the cleric ALSO got a new daily power, which came in very handy here to help heal, while the other party fighter jumped in to take the lead with Rundarr.
At this point, we had exhausted our three hours. We played through three good encounters, but they took every bit of three hours to run back-to-back. We decided to press on and complete this part of the adventure for the evening, and so I skipped the two encounters I'd prepared for the western tower (Ogre/Wights/Orcs and Duergar Thuerge/Guards). Instead we jumped to the finale, an EL 9 scenario with two elite bosses. I had combined the final two encounters (H7/H8) with two elites, two devils, two Duergar shock troops and two Duergar guards. This was a very, very tough fight. The party used their stealth to reach Murkelmor's inner sanctum. Positioned in the foyer (room 27) they heard the activity in both rooms 26 and 28. The warlock/thief came up with the action on the spot to use his thievery to bar/lock the door to room 26. Their hope was to prevent one group of opponents from engaging them, while they dealt with the others. The fighters charged into room 28 and confronted Murkelmor and his shock troops. The elite boss used his action point at the top of the combat with devastating effectiveness. When one of the shock troops went through the secret door adjoining the rooms, the party was SHOCKED. This was a great "in game" moment, and was a very nice complement to the designers of the adventure! The mage cast his stinking cloud into the room to discover the Duergar resistance to poison made it far less effective than it was in the Chamber of Eyes. The stinking cloud was then moved into the adjoining room through the secret door, in an effort to prevent those opponents from entering the melee. The elite caster came through from room 27, however, and used an action point to drop two very well placed AoE effects (fire and poison) on the entire party. Several lucky rolls later, and the party was seriously injured, and outgunned. Further compounding their problems, another lucky roll on the part of the villains led to them bursting down the blocked door, and the party was suddenly surrounded. Things looked dire, and I noticed the players noticeably slowing down and offering each other advice on optimal moves to position, obtain combat advantage, or use their daily and encounter abilities to maximum effect. One player commented that two elites, might have been too much. There was tension around the table at the prospect of a TPK. Dailies were flying, action points were all used. Several lucky critical attacks (one from a fighter daily power) turned the tide. As a strategy, one defender fighter tanked both of the elites, pinning the caster to either provoke OA's or not cast, while Murkelmor failed to strike his phenomenal AC. The other fighter quickly positioned himself to protect the casters in the back. Combined with the warlock's aura, and the wizard's stinking cloud, they made quick work of the guards and devils swooping in from behind. The ranger, cleric, and fighter in the front were able to hold their ground on the elites and shock troops, although almost all the players were in bloodied condition. One shock trooper finally fell, and then the other. Ganging up on the elites, the fighters were re-united, and now outnumbered, even two elites were outmatched by the consistent thrum of the player's damage machine. This was an excellent encounter. It was extremely challenging and demanded effective gameplay to survive. The players really had an opportunity to show off their "high end" powers, and also required teamwork to get every advantage they could use to position themselves to succeed.
By the time we were done, it was very late (an hour and a half to run the finale). Tallying up the XP, I commented that I find it interesting that although we're not hitting all the encounters in the book, it certainly seems like we're pacing ourselves to hit the appropriate XP thresholds required to level. I would hope to level about every other time that we game. Adding up the xp from the three encounters last week (Blood Reavers + Chamber of Eyes) and the four encounters this week (Trading Post + Horned Hold), we had enough "out of the book" XP for every member of the party to achieve sixth level! That pacing certainly matches my expectations. So, like many other things that are different from previous editions of the game, the pacing is not necessarily "worse" simply because it's different. If the player experience is such that it is more "action oriented" and "fast paced" and we are accomplishing the DM's goals for character development and pacing, then the system seems to be working as it was intended.
Total Comments 0
Comments
Total Trackbacks 0
And yet another word from our sponsors
