Recent content by Retreater

Right. That would make more sense. But this isn't an ability on the first round of combat. Presumably, the gargoyle strategy is to alternate turns to "power up" attacks. I do understand that 4e is highly gamist, but moments like the gargoyle really drive home that you're controlling a piece in...

I'm prepping to run a 4e session tomorrow with a gargoyle in an encounter. This is an example of something I dislike about the system. The gargoyle can spend a standard action to turn to stone. On its next turn, it can leave stone form as a minor action and if it hits with an attack, it deals...

I understand. That's why I try new games at conventions or find them being played on online communities. That way I've learned the system and can be ambassador to my group.

I picked up Strike! in a PDF/print combo. The layout is fine if you consider it from an indie/zine lens. Not so much compared to WotC, Paizo, Chaosium, Cubicle 7, etc. It's a short little book. Looks like a lot of fun but I haven't tried it yet.

Have you looked at the indie RPG "Strike!"? It does something similar, with a tactical module inspired by 4e.

I was using milestone exclusively until I had a revolt about giving rewards "willy-nilly." But honestly, levelling up 6 characters in 4e is such a headache for me (having to pick out magic items, print out character sheets for everyone, etc.) that I wouldn't want to do it much more frequently...

Here's my real-world example of the game I'm currently running. Of course - yes, we can roleplay. But consider this... I have been running the same group of characters for 3-4 hour weekly sessions for 6 months. Just to speed up the game, I am awarding over double the recommended XP. They just...

Oh, I was so ready to be done with 3.x at that time (I still can't go back to 3.x/PF1 - it's the one edition I won't play). I tried so many variations hoping to salvage it - WotC's Arcana Unearthed, Malhavoc's Book of Eldritch Might, even my own homebrew systems. In an attempt to find a...

This whole "but D&D was always a wargame" misses the point that by the time 4e released, the game was 30+ years removed from those roots. Your average player didn't know a thing about Chainmail and couldn't tell you who Gary Gygax was. After the "Hickman Revolution" the game was focused more on...

Healing Surges are probably the most frequent cost to a group's failure of a Skill Challenge. For the player who contributed a Diplomacy check (or something else not physical), he or she will lose a Healing Surge just the same as someone who failed an Endurance or Athletics check. But the...

But without knowing the framework - and the costs associated with failure - that can instantly pull them out of the game as well. "I failed a Diplomacy check - why did I lose a Healing Surge?" "Why can't we just have the barbarian with the highest Endurance check make 4 successes?" "My highest...

Every published adventure tells you to run it that way. And the examples in the core books to create your own are woefully inadequate and terribly explained. The issue of terribly explaining them to DMs is exacerbated because DMs are also not given the tools to explain them to the players...

And perhaps it's my lack of imagination, but I've been running the game weekly for around 6 months now. Let's say we're having 2 combat encounters per session on average. That's around 48 fights I've created and run. That's battles with brutes protecting back ranks of artillery. That's waves of...

Yeah. 4e didn't work for me in the "modern era" until I gave up trying to play it online and played it in-person. Real dice and pencils. Miniatures on a grid. Granted, I'm having my own headaches with it (largely because it's not gelling with the players) - but the system works fine.

I'm not going to answer for @humble minion - but I can tell you what I find disappointing about monsters in 4e. First, I do greatly appreciate having unified stat blocks, powers instead of spells, & roles to know how to use monsters in a combat. Here's my issue. I was running a fight a few...