D&D 4E East Frisian 4E Light Playtest Report

Mustrum_Ridcully

Mustrum_Ridcully

Legend
Last Saturday, I ran another 4E playtest group with my role-playing group[/group]. (Plug Any East-Frisians around that are interested in a group in Emden? ;) You actually don't have to be a native East-Frisian, you just need to find a way to get to Emden on Saturdays ;) )

1) Bias
Our group was already interested in 4E before the playtest. I probably know the most about it (thanks to EnWorld!), but two other players also borrowed my Races & Classes and World & Monsters, and another player is sometimes on the WotC board.
Before 3E (and before my time), the favourite gaming system of the group was Torg. The group didn't play D&D exclusively before 3E, but 3E or at least the d20 system was still the system we used most.
We also played Shadowrun and Warhammer (new edition), and recently also started a DSA (Das Schwarze Auge, the German equivalent of D&D) campaign.
I tried to explain the Forge's "GSN" system on our boards and asked what we would prioritize, and according to that (not to my surprise), we are definitely in the "Gamist" fraction. We like good and entertaining rules, and if we don't get to use rules ability to resolve a task/conflict, we are usually a little bit disappointed. (Personally, this makes me dislike some of the aspects of our past DSA games, but I also noticed that, if done well, it can still be a lot of fun. ;)

2) Preperation
I have prepared my share of 3E, Starwars (d20, not Saga), Dragonstar, Arcana Evolved and Iron Heroes adventures. (My share in our group means that I approximately DM 10% to 20 % of the games we had in the past 7-8 years. We usually run weekly.) I don't see myself as a good DM, but I think/hope I have gotten a little bit better in the past (not only thanks to experiece, but also due to the cool[/c] awesome guys & gals on these boards.
So, I think I spent 2 or 3 short evenings (total 4-6 hours) on preparing the adventure using the "D&D" light material. Primarily the monster book with its rule appendix and the DDXP pregenerated character sheets. Mostly this was creating the story-line, familiarizing myself with the stuff, creating a map and assembling the encounters.
The story was stolen from various bits and pieces:
- (Greenbriar Chasm from DDI idea): The PCs are to watch the "Kobold Caves" for one day and one night. This is a rite of passage in the local village - without this, you can't marry, open your own business, or vote in the village council meetings. It's a harmless affair, since the Kobolds have been peaceful since a Dwarf Paladin slayed their Red Dragon Master over 50 years ago.
- (Classic Trope): A local girl (virgin?) and well-liked member of the village (or rather its surrounding) is captured by the Kobolds.
- (Twist): The Kobolds have captured her to appease to a Black Dragon that recently arrived. His Goblin Mercenaries and some Kobold Wyrmpriests are forcing the Kobolds to work for him. The Kobolds are not really happy with the development, but they fear the dragon too much to oppose him. And, there is also a chance that with its help, they can return to their former glory. But they could go either way, depending on the turn of events.

Observation: Having pre-statted Kobolds for various roles and abilities was a real boon for preperation. Running only 3E core, I would probably have been tempted to create 3-4 different Kobolds anyway.
I only improvised the stats for Goblin Minions, on the off-chance I might need them later. That took me about 5-10 minutes, and I just combined some Goblin and Kobold Minion stats. Off course, the Minions will probably be in the MM4 anyway, but it's interesting to note that it doesn't take long to create them (though maybe it helped that I wasn't aiming for perfection. :) )

3) The Game
So, I handed out the character sheets. We decided that the sheets where to be given out at random, and so we ended up with the Dwarven Fighter, the Tiefling Wizard, the Eladrin Ranger, and the Human Cleric. (4 players, 1 DM)
The players studied their character sheets and asked a few questions, but we then started as soon as possible. One of their first things noticed by the group was the high hit points for every character. A small confusion appeared on the differences between the action type of a rule and the frequency (at will/encounter/daily)
I made them aware of the new diagonal movement rule, and nobody seemed upset (I deliberately pointed out: To run fast, use diagonals), but that only produced some laughter - two players specifically were immediately a fan because they remembered all the back-tracking of movement in the past games. ("Ist das schon die zweite Diagonale?")


The first encounter was during their night watch. A group of Kobolds (4 Minions, 2 Skirmisher, 2 Slinger) appeared. The Ranger used his Daily "Split the Tree" early in this combat, and I think it seriously hurt the 2 Slingers. The Wizard used his Sleep spell to take out 3 or 4 of the Minions. The Fighters "Anti-Shift" power proved very useful against the Kobolds, something that remained true for the whole evening (a few of the Skirmishers and Minions fell to this power.)


They searched the Kobolds and found silverware with one of them - looks as if they had stolen it somewhere. The Wizard and Ranger player got into a short boasting match over their Nature skill checks to follow the Kobolds trail (the Wizard won, and it wouldn't be the last time. :) )

The followed the trails and at the foot of the kobold caverns, they found a trail leading near towards a nearby settlement, and another trail reaching into the caverns. They also noted the traces of a human that was dragged along. They immediately decided to follow the trail into the caverns, enterprising (or bloodthirsty?) heroes they were. Inside the Wizard showed his new toy - his light cantrip.

They followed the cavern and came to a "warecave" where the Kobolds stored wood. The next encounter ensued. The warehouse cavern was large and contained several kobolds. The PCs approached the cavern through a 2 square/10 ft wide tunnel. There was also a secret door in the stone-work that the PCs failed to spot.
Several Kobold Minions, Skirmisher and Slingers were in this encounter. The group avoided leaving the tunnel, making it difficult for the Kobolds to surround them. The Fighter got in the front (as expected) and held of the Minions and Skirmishers approaching him, while the Wizard and Archer concentrated their fire on the Slingers that took position behind cover. The Cleric aided the Fighter and completed the front-line.
Not far into the battle, a Kobold Skirmisher, a Slinger and a Minion opened the secret door and attacked the Wizard from behind. This made the combat a lot more dangerous for the party, since they were suddenly flanked, and their Controller was in danger. It didn't help them that one of the Kobolds used his Gluepot to immobilize the Fighter and the Wizard.
One or two rounds later, the Wizard dropped (burning for 2 pts of damage per round!). He was recovered by the Cleric before he could have failed his Death Saves enough, but still, it was the first close call. Both the Fighter and the Wizard also used their Second Winds. I think the Fighter also used his daily power, but unsuccesfully so.
After this combat, the party considered to rest - but then, they looked at their abilities and noticed that there was no reason to - they couldn't burn all Healing Surges anyway, and their other resources where still good.
The whole encounter showed that the 4E cover rules really ensure that stuff like archers (or slingers) covering the group work a lot easier now, and I liked that.

They explored further, and entered another tunnel. Shortly before a junction, a few kobolds "intercepted them". They attacked, and then after some initial losses, retreated around the junction. The Fighter followed, and some waiting Kobolds Snipers opened their fire, immobilizing her. It didn't take too long for the PCs to beat the NPCs anyway, but Healing Surges and Healing Powers were used. :) I think I could have played the Kobolds smarter in this encounter.
The party took a short look at their resources and determined that they could go on. So they did. They followed the trails again, and reached the next "encounter area". They reached a T-junction, with a dead end in their direction, and the left tunnel sloping downwards. So they went left, immediately noticing some Kobolds at the other end. The Kobolds where in a larger room with a 5 ft high plateau in the back, where a Kobold archer and a slinger waited for them. We rolled initiative. The parties next step (or rather: The Fighters) triggered a trap. A large boulder at the end of the junction dropped and rolled down that tunnel. Directly into the direction of the PCs. Unfortunately, he missed all of them, and continued to roll and over-take the Dwarf.
Again, a furious battle ensued, the Ranger concentrating on the slingers and the wizard waiting for his opportunity to take down groups (very effective with my liberal use of Kobold Minions). I don't remember many details of this encounter, but I remember that at some point, the Ranger experimented with his At-Will power to combine an attack with a shift - it proved useful (after he figured out - with my advice ;) ) that he could use it to beat the Kobold Shieldwardens (was that their name?) shift-on-enemy-shift. The Dwarf also fell a few foes thanks to his immediate attack on shifts (not so great for any of the Kobolds.)
The fight was still very close, and it finally costed the PCs enough resources for them to decide to retreat.
Fast Forward on the rest. The Kobolds used the time to repair their trap and re-group. Since I didn't want to rebuild the old maps, I decided that they would concentrate their forces at this point.
This time, the trap was triggered and actually hit some of the PCs, so the Wizard took some serious damage. I used the Kobold Wyrmpriest the first time in this encounter, and I ruled that the temporary hit points would also apply to the Minions. Which actually allowed them to survive more then one hit occassionally (but most of the time, it still didn't matter.)
The battle was again very hard, but the party prevailed again. The Wizard used his Acid Arrow on the Wyrmpriest, which was very useful. The ongoing damage did hurt a lot.
There was quite some maneuvering hence and forth in a 1 square wide side-tunnel in the encounter area, where the Kobolds used their shifting power relatively effectively, despite the Fighters best attempts to stop that. :)


The last encounter was in a larger corridor with several adjoining rooms. A single Kobold was holding watch, and was quickly dispatched. But off-course, the battle noise alerted the combat-ready Kobolds, and several Minions, Shieldwardens and Skirmishers, plus another Wymrpriest, entered the combat. The whole evening, I was rolling really good (to compensate the universal dice balance, the Cleric player didn't), and it might have helped the difficulty of the battle a lot. On the other hand, only now did the Cleric notice that his Healing Power was only a minor action so that he could still make an attack (which he promptly missed with when the situation occured. For cosmic balance, this probably meant another natural 20 for me!)
But was probably the most important in this encounter was the lack of a clear front-line, which allowed the Kobolds to actually swarm the party - still focusing mostly on Cleric and Fighter. And in fact, both of them dropped (first the Fighter, then the Cleric), despite using all available healing (okay, that's only one Cleric power and 2 Second Winds, but still). The final blow against the Cleric was made by the Wyrmpriest and his breath weapon. I think it host all PCs. Well, with Cleric and Fighter testing the Death Save mechanic, the Wizard and Ranger decided that some retreating was in order, so they moved back, while still launching their attacks - when they killed the Wyrmpriest, the Wizard got back into the fray, and together they managed to dispatch the remaining one or two Kobolds without taking serious damage. They then proceeded to rescue the Fighter and the Cleric - they succeeded their Heal check on the Fighter, but unable to roll higer then 9 for several rounds (or was it encounters?), the Cleric didn't survive long enough...

The party finally found the girl in a nearby room (the Wyrmpriest was preparing her for transport to the Dragon), and rescued her. She decried the death of the Cleric, and they retreated back to the village, to give the Cleric a proper burial later...

The session concluded at this point. I still had a bit material over (the next step would be the Kobolds trying to open negotations, threatening to launch a full-scale attack on the village, unless they got the girl back, my planned skill challenge.)

Observations:
The Wizard player noticed something very new about his class - he had a resource to manage no wizard before could manage - his hit points. Because he actually had some. A hit didn't mean sudden death.
The Fighter sounded and played a lot more interesting, according to player observations - and it also required a little more attention (and tactics), too.
The Cleric player would probably have enjoyed his class a little bit more if he had actually rolled well, but he was very fond of the small rider effects that allowed him attack in some way and give a small benefit.
The Ranger proved effective and useful, but I didn't get much concrete comments (more a personality "issue" then anything else), though he seemed to enjoy him quite a bit.

As a DM, I already mentioned my satisfying preparation time, and I'd also like to note that running the monsters was pretty easy and fast. The "Save Ends" mechanics was mostly used by the players, and wasn't very problematic. Marks didn't cause any trouble at all. I don't think the actual penalty ever made a difference, but its mere existence most of the time did exactly what it should - people attack the marker, no one else. A side effect of the "non-stacking" marks definitely is that multiple dependers tend to go for different foes. That makes "focussed fire" difficult for them, but the nice thing is that it works both ways (The marked also don't focus on anyone)

For my "Rat Bastard DM"* cred, I will probably have to rework my maps a little bit. The 10 wide tunnels made it too easy to block the Kobold hordes. I need to ensure that the party can be surrounded, not hiding in corners and tunnels! ;)


*) current balance: -5 points. (Estimate)
 
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Very, very interesting, Mustrum. Thanks for the detailed writeup! I can only regret living too far away to actually sit in on one of your sessions.

I think that you did not get more comments because the closure of your story was almost perfect: no questions to ask.

OK, maybe one: Any comments from the wizard about rolling attacks for every spell?
 

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
I made them aware of the new diagonal movement rule, and nobody seemed upset (I deliberately pointed out: To run fast, use diagonals), but that only produced some laughter - two players specifically were immediately a fan because they remembered all the back-tracking of movement in the past games.
Click to expand...

That's been my experience too!

Thanks for the write-up.
 

My group has done one of the D&DXP adventures, plus a home brewed game. In each, all of the classes stood out and it was great. Sounds like they had fun too in your game. Dont you just love the minion rules!! The image of a party standing around after having defeated hordes of monsters is great.
 

Very interesting! :)
Reading about a character death forces me to accept that it's a new edition and maybe 20hp is actually "low", and I won't need to house rule it back to 5 for the wizard :p
Also, I like what you have in mind for next session (the 'kobolds against village' skill challenge).
:D
 


Keefe the Thief said:
Very, very interesting, Mustrum. Thanks for the detailed writeup! I can only regret living too far away to actually sit in on one of your sessions.

I think that you did not get more comments because the closure of your story was almost perfect: no questions to ask.

OK, maybe one: Any comments from the wizard about rolling attacks for every spell?
Click to expand...
We had some confusion about it: For a while, he thought he only needed to roll once per spell. (Very Torg-like, I just came to thinking), but that only applies to the damage roll. He seemed to be fine with it either way. :)

Explaining the difference between Saving Throws and Defenses was required, but didn't take long. (And it wasn't a problem for the Wizard player. The Fighter's player was the first to inquire on that, IIRC.)
 


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