Great ideas you did (or wished you had done) for your first game?

[Admiral Caine]

I've been a slow convert to 4E, but I'm there now. I'm ready and excited to run my first game of it.

My players have been slower converts, being d20 fans, and feeling burned by the marketing... But they've come around now too. They've looked at the books and started talking, looking past all the naysaying and are pretty encouraged and excited to try the game now. They've heard all about what is wrong with 4E, but now they see things that they like about it. A few have purchased PHBs when they swore they never would.

In about 3 weeks, we're jumping and playing this game.. at least for an open minded and optimistic trial run.

As GM.. I'd like it to go well. As well as it can anyway.

My question -

What techniques or suggestions would you offer for the first session?

What would you have done?

In my case, these guys aren't rookies.. they're regular role-players are are pretty savy, but they've never played 4E in their life, and they've had 3 weeks to look at the rules. They're pretty familiar with Star Wars Saga.

[evilbob]

I don't have any specific "great ideas," but I will say that I have run the short adventure in the back of the DMG like 5 times now, and every time the players really enjoyed the session. It's super-light on RP, but it is easy (until the end) which lets them get to know their powers and trounce some guys, and then it's hard at the end and gives them a real challenge. Just be generous with allowing people to take rests and extended rests so they can try things out several times. But I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know.

Otherwise, general GM advice works well: use cards or a whiteboard or something for initiative to keep battles moving quickly, make sure no one "calculates each time" but instead has all their stuff written down and pre-calculated, encourage folks to roll attack and damage at the same time, etc. One negative thing you tend to hit more often with 4.0 is that battles can be slow sometimes (especially against solos), so anything to speed them up is good.

I just read in another thread the idea of using poker chips (or maybe something slightly smaller) as props, and I think it's awesome. Use red chips placed under minis to indicated bloodied, use a different color for marks, use another color for conditions, etc. Great idea, keeps things fast and easy to see.

And of course, don't be afraid to adjust things on the fly in the name of fun. But again, I'm sure you know stuff like that.

[Mathew_Freeman]

Get everyone to get power cards sorted out with all the math on - much easier than trying to just work stuff out as they go along.

That's the big one, for me. If the players have their powers worked out ahead of time the game flows much more easily - although it's also worth reminding them (possibly by giving them another card) that "Do something cool and awesome using your skills" is a valid option if you look on pg 42 of the DMG.

[Admiral Caine]

Yeah.. we have a dry-erase initiative tracking system.. mini's.. and battlemats.

I saw a pretty good resource where someone made a mat that could be laid over character sheets with the most basic values pre-calculated.

I might try to sell them on trying Power Cards, at least for the first session. I got one guy who swears he doesn't need them, but he's slow to figure out what he's doing when we play 3.5 (I love him, but it drives me nuts).

[Admiral Caine]

I'm also a DDI subscriber, so I've been encouraging them to try the Character Builder as a tool to build their 1st level characters.. and to experiment with builds for a few weeks.

[cjais]

For conditions, status effects, marks etc., I use both colored pipe cleaners twisted into little rings that you can hang on minis, as well as colored Warhammer bases to put under the minis. Between these two aids, it's really easy to just hang a "bloodied" or "quarry" pipe cleaner on a mini, or slide a "slowed" base under it. My pipe cleaners come in 7 different colors, and as I paint the edge of the Warhammer bases myself, I can have as many different colors on those as I want.

We started out just using the bases, but it quickly got ridiculous when a mini was both bloodied, marked, dazed and grabbed, and was balancing on a pile of 4 bases. By combining both options, combat is a breeze now.

[YuriPup]

Minions were a good surprise for my group.

It was one leader orc (obvious) and 15+ minions (no clue from me they weren't reguar orcs)--after they had run an encounter or 2 to get a feel for how powerful NPCs are.

I had all their attention for the first couple of rounds of combat, before they realized that they were fighting one hit wonders. (Well 2 hit wonders--the leader had the orc aura that let them get in a death blow.)

[Dracorat]

First session?

I'd not focus on much complex. Throw some small creatures in and get used to how to play.

Use some of the pregens in the DMG for now.

Eventually, run loose with your own creations!

[Milambus]

What do your players enjoy?

If they enjoy combat, give them a nice interactive battle. Use some interesting terrain, something that changes can be fun (a sinking ship comes to mind). Toss in some minions so they can get get some one-shot kills in. Make it a fun tactical encounter. DO NOT USE KOBOLDS. Not for your first combat at least. Their shiftiness will frustrate your melee fighters, and their high reflex will frustrate your ranged casters.

If they enjoy a deep role-play encounter more, try an interesting skill challenge. Make sure its not just a "clear rocks with Althetics check for 10 hours". A chase scene through the dark allies of a city with the guard in close pursuit. (Or it could be a band of thieves, a cabal of dark necromancers they stumbled upon, whatever.) Let your players describe what thye are doing in detail, asking for skill checks as appropriate. Try to get through the skill challenge without ever letting them know it is one, until the end when you say "you just defeated your first skill challenge" or "the guards have you surrounded, there is no where to escape to... you just failed your first skill challenge." Success means they get away. Failure could lead to a combat, or them getting captured and taken to the Captain of the Guard.

Or combine both into one session.

Your PCes are making a journey on a ship, but when they reach their destination they find the port under attack by pirates or a enemy state. Another ship engages them on the sea, damaging their ship and sending over a raiding party. The PCes must ward off the attacks as their ship is sinking. (Every turn one square of the ship sinks under the water. And the edge of the water there are 2 squares of difficult terrain, beyond that its too deep to stand and athletics checks are required.)

If the PCes win the combat, they must sail for the port which is under pirate attack because their ship is too damaged to make it anywhere else. (The pirates ship should be damaged and sink during the combat.)

As the ship lands at he dock (enter Pirated of the Caribean scene of Jack Sparrow stepping onto the dock just as the ship finally sinks under the water), other pirates/attacks see them and the chase is on. They may have to fight small bands of pirates along the way of the skill challenge (make a failure mean they get caught by a few minions, or a some minions and a couple stronger pirates). Eventually they either get captured by the pirates, or they escape they city. End the session there =)

[Regicide]

Have everyone hand their character to the player on their left and play them for the first session. Let them know deaths won't be penalized.

Also they should take a look at the character optimization boards so they have an idea on how to have a character that can end up as a 1000 dpr monster as opposed to putting stats in the wrong places at 1st level and ending up demigod that a crippled elderly unarmed peasant could beat up, while blind-folded.

[Dracorat]

As far as I'm concerned, keep your players away from the optimization board.

Let them learn what's good and what's not. Once they get the hang of things, then tell them to go there.

[evilbob]

Originally Posted by Admiral Caine

I'm also a DDI subscriber, so I've been encouraging them to try the Character Builder as a tool to build their 1st level characters.. and to experiment with builds for a few weeks.

That sounds like a pretty great idea to me! How's the Character Builder working for you?

I'd second your thoughts on power cards. I think they pretty much intended the game to be played that way.

Overall, sounds like you don't need that much advice.

[Orcus Porkus]

The Character Builder is the single best thing for you to use.
Your players are not new to D&D, so you can quickly go through the creation of the character with the software for level 1. The great thing is they get all their powers printed out relatively neatly.
When I started 4e, I wasted a lot of time looking at all the options for my newbie players.
Also:
- Make sure they know how to use the Action Point, and encourage them to use it.
- Give them a new action point every two or three encounters
- In every encounter, let the monsters do something stupid that makes at least one player make use of their special powers. For example, monsters attacking someone else when marked by the fighter. He'll be happy to attack.
Or have minions lined up to be roasted with burning hands, or undead for the cleric, etc.
Happy players are good players. First impressions count.

[Whimsical]

The time to inform players about minions is NOT right after they defeat them. Time after time, new 4th ed. players who were pleased that they took out some minions quickly feel robbed of their awesomeness when the DM explains to them about this cool new 4th ed. D&D feature.

It helps to not think of minions only having one hit point, but rather that minions just happen to have had the same number of hit points that was done to him by the damage inflicted by the player character. Minion HP isn't 1, but equal to X damage done by the player's attack, plus the damage done by missed attacks.

Don't ever let the player feel he just wasted a huge attack. If a player just happens to use his Daily power on a minion and then crits, don't snatch away the dead miniature right after he rolls his D20. Let him count out how much damage he did and then remove the opponent only after the player gives you the amount of damage he did.

I know DMs are trying to be efficient with time by removing opponents that are obviously killed by the minimum damage done by the player, but it denies the player that satisfying orgasmic pleasure of obliterating an opponent right before the climax of the attack. In fact, have the miniature fly across the room, smack a wall, and end up upside down while exquisitely detailing the special effect of the attack. And then relate the shocked reactions exhibited by the other combatants in the area.

[cjais]

Originally Posted by Whimsical

The time to inform players about minions is NOT right after they defeat them. Time after time, new 4th ed. players who were pleased that they took out some minions quickly feel robbed of their awesomeness when the DM explains to them about this cool new 4th ed. D&D feature.

If they've at least heard of 4th edition, chances are pretty good that they know what a minion is and does.

I have a hard time understanding DMs who hide which monsters are minions and which ones are not. In my mind, that's totally missing the point of using minions by like, a mile or something.

[Whimsical]

I'm sorry, but you are missing my point. I'm not advising preventing players from discerning if a monster is a minion or not. I'm fine with players knowing what's what. But this is advice for the first combat with minions that the players have. In addition, I also recommend not just pulling a dead opponent off of the board right after a player hits, as I believe it subtracts from the game experience by trivializing the success.

[Gruns]

Some things off the top of my head:

I second (or third?, fourth?) the Power Cards. We all made fun of the first guy in our group to bring a set. Now they're pretty much a requirement.

As DM, be sure to know all of the little rules to eliminate checking the book. Study chapter 9 and memorize as much as you can. Things are a lot more simple then they used to be. Except Cover. Don't try to draw lines from assorted corners of squares. Just say +2 to ac and move on.

Feel free to remind the players of the actions they have left, at least for the first couple of turns. Probably not necessary all night. For example, you can remind your dwarves, clerics and dragonborn that Second Wind, Healing Word and Dragonbreath are Minor Actions, respecively.

If you're making up the encounters yourself, be sure to use a good mix of NPC types. (Brutes, Skirmishers, Controllers etc). Throw in some funky terrain, too. The small Kobold Hall adventure in the back of the DMG is a great little startup adventure. As a DM, I think you'll find that creating encounters is one of the coolest parts of 4E.

Oh, and have fun.

Later!
Gruns

[GrecoG]

I just started using Alea Tools magnets... I love them, and I recommend them, after avoiding them forever. I also ordered some blast/burst templates via Amazon.com but the manufacturer, I forget.

Our best first adventure 4e was "Slivers of Earlann" from the RPGA [for free]. All I did was shift the rooms a little, but not only were the combats fun and varied, there were different terrain/threats, a trap, skill challenges and so on. AND we finished in one night, a "complete" story, with XPs, treasure, rewards... they were very satisfied. I now run a weekly RPGA game which has lightly linked story threads between regions, and it has become a campaign.

[evilbob]

Since this thread has been rezzed I'll jump back in and report on another great idea that I've recently incorporated.

Building on the poker chip/pipe cleaner ideas above, you can go to just about any craft store or some place like Target and get a pack of "foam paper" for about 3 bucks. This stuff isn't really paper (I can't remember exactly what it's called), but it's like 1/16th of an inch thick foam that comes in a variety of colors and cuts easily but retains its shape. A friend of mine picked up a pack that had, I believe, 3 sheets (about 5 1/4 inches by about 10 inches) each of 10 colors - again, for about $3. We then took this stuff and cut it into 1" squares (and 3" x 3" squares and 5" x 5" squares for AoEs).

This is really an awesome tool for showing conditions on the battlemap! Poker chips are too large and other stuff can get in the way, but this stuff is great because it's square and the minis have bases that are circles - so you can always see it and it's never too big! We just stack different conditions on top of each other, and yes it gets funny when you have like 4+ different things going on (bloodied, blinded, cursed, and "in a cloud of daggers") and the minis get much higher than each other, but it really works great. It helps both the PCs and the DM keep track of what is going on with which enemy or character. It's great for healers (or strikers) when you can just glance at the board and immediately know things like who is bloodied and who isn't. It's also a great tool for warlocks, in that they can curse something, and when it dies and they get their little square back, it's a reminder to add the temp HP. And it's been helpful for the wizard with the 5x5 movable/sustainable stinking cloud, to see exactly how you can move it around and keep track of it without constantly erasing.

Anyway, we've had a lot of success with this cheap tool and I recommend it to anyone, especially someone just starting out.