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4e increased my DM prep time...
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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 5111246" data-attributes="member: 32164"><p>Well, I don't know if this will help, but I tend to design 4e encounters more closely to the way I designed 1e and 2e encounters.</p><p></p><p>Rather than putting out 1 monster for PCs to beat up (did anyone actually do that in 3e?), I come up with groups. The DMG encounter templates help, as do the suggested encounters in the MM, and the theme templates in DMG 2 will probably come in handy. However, I mostly just go through something like:</p><p></p><p>"Okay, the party encounters a goblin raiding party attacking a farmhouse. That means I need a couple different types of goblins and maybe some wolves. I want 1 guy with a ranged weapon, maybe a spellcaster, some close up types, some easy-to-kill ones, and some wolves."</p><p></p><p>Then, and only then, do I pull out the <em>Monster Manual</em>. I tend to use pre-made monsters, rather than doing a lot of customizing. But the Monster Builder makes it pretty easy to adjust things, so I do that sometimes. For terrain, I just think of movies I've seen and try to sprinkle the area with some cool stuff that PCs and NPCs can interact with.</p><p></p><p>I admit it's harder to improvise those things truly "on the fly," but I've always found I tend to do "no prep" only when I'm running wilderness adventures (I can't just "wing" a dungeon). For wilderness encounters, I try to keep some "stock encounters" handy, like an ambush that occurs in advantageous terrain. Or a set of ruins the PCs find themselves in. If I know I have a session coming up where the PCs are going into the wilderness, I find it can be helpful to spend a few minutes with my <em>Dungeon Tiles</em> coming up with cool set pieces that I can fall back on (an ambush site, a ruined fort or temple, etc.).</p><p></p><p>My two cents.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 5111246, member: 32164"] Well, I don't know if this will help, but I tend to design 4e encounters more closely to the way I designed 1e and 2e encounters. Rather than putting out 1 monster for PCs to beat up (did anyone actually do that in 3e?), I come up with groups. The DMG encounter templates help, as do the suggested encounters in the MM, and the theme templates in DMG 2 will probably come in handy. However, I mostly just go through something like: "Okay, the party encounters a goblin raiding party attacking a farmhouse. That means I need a couple different types of goblins and maybe some wolves. I want 1 guy with a ranged weapon, maybe a spellcaster, some close up types, some easy-to-kill ones, and some wolves." Then, and only then, do I pull out the [i]Monster Manual[/i]. I tend to use pre-made monsters, rather than doing a lot of customizing. But the Monster Builder makes it pretty easy to adjust things, so I do that sometimes. For terrain, I just think of movies I've seen and try to sprinkle the area with some cool stuff that PCs and NPCs can interact with. I admit it's harder to improvise those things truly "on the fly," but I've always found I tend to do "no prep" only when I'm running wilderness adventures (I can't just "wing" a dungeon). For wilderness encounters, I try to keep some "stock encounters" handy, like an ambush that occurs in advantageous terrain. Or a set of ruins the PCs find themselves in. If I know I have a session coming up where the PCs are going into the wilderness, I find it can be helpful to spend a few minutes with my [i]Dungeon Tiles[/i] coming up with cool set pieces that I can fall back on (an ambush site, a ruined fort or temple, etc.). My two cents. [/QUOTE]
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