Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
4e increased my DM prep time...
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Novem5er" data-source="post: 5117255" data-attributes="member: 57859"><p>I wanted to jump back into this thread and add a few more points.</p><p></p><p>YES, 4e has dramatically increased my prep time (see my earlier step-by-step post... which nobody really commented on, even though it was uber helpful <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> lol )</p><p></p><p>HOWEVER... my 4e games have also been among the BEST that I've ever run! Yes, I've found 4e combat to be time consuming and often anti-climatic, but the overall sessions have been very memorable! I ran a 4e Forgotten Realms campaign for about 7 months and then a 4e Eberron campaign for about 4 months. In those two campaigns, our players created some <em>wonderful </em>characters, filled with personality. While our players put a lot of work into bringing these characters to life, I cannot deny that the 4e character system had an equal amount of influence via the "fluff" and the mechanics.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>"Flames of Phlegathos!!!"</em> is still routinely yelled across my game table <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>I put a lot of time into my Eberron game and it was pretty dang awesome! The reason it took me so long to create each encounter is that EVERY encounter served as a story element. I gave up on random encounters loooong ago. So, every encounter had to have A) enemies that made sense to the story, B) terrain that also acted as a backdrop to the world, C) mechanical elements that kept my "needy" players (hah!) interested.</p><p></p><p>For instance, when my players stayed the night at The Chapterhouse in Stormreach, they were assaulted by a group of Yaun-ti in the middle of the night. Yaun-ti were chosen because A) they are cool, and B) because of their fluff connection to the jungles of Xen-drik. This wasn't a "random" encounter, however. The party was in hot pursuit of a cabal of evil druids (the Children of Winter) that had stolen a powerful artifact. The druids caught wind of my players snooping around and so then hired the Yaun-ti to act as assassins to take 'em out.</p><p></p><p>Of course, Yaun-ti weren't at the appropriate level as my party, so I had to adjust their level in the Monster Builder. Then, I had to make the encounter area more interesting than just a "room at the inn", so I put the characters up in multiple rooms separated by a long hall, but connected by exterior balconies. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, I only had a couple Yaun-ti miniatures so I had to go online, find and edit photos, and print out tokens. Then I had to assign treasure, etc, including the incriminating note that linked the assassins to the evil druids.</p><p></p><p>It was an awesome fight! The characters were separated into different rooms (hey, 11th level heroes don't all huddle up in a single bed!), and the assassins came at them from all different sides; windows, doors, etc. Some were in snake form, others in human form, and my players really had fun individually taking out bad guys until they could regroup and fight en mass.</p><p></p><p>And, of course, it got them further pissed at the druids!</p><p></p><p>So, yes 4e has increased my prep time, but I realized that it's made me a better DM. I actually had a transplant player from another group join us as we followed the druids into the ruins of an overgrown, Giant city. The city of course, <em>activated</em> once we were inside and then <em>stood up</em> and proceeded to march towards the city of Sharn! (ala Shadow of the Colossus). After a few sessions, our transplant players was like "don't tell anyone... but I like your games better <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" />"</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the quality games just took a lot of my time and energy and I got burned out. I've been running Mouse Guard for about a month now and my group is probably going to try out the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I just want something quicker and easier so I'm not spending so much on the mechanical set ups of my encounters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Novem5er, post: 5117255, member: 57859"] I wanted to jump back into this thread and add a few more points. YES, 4e has dramatically increased my prep time (see my earlier step-by-step post... which nobody really commented on, even though it was uber helpful :P lol ) HOWEVER... my 4e games have also been among the BEST that I've ever run! Yes, I've found 4e combat to be time consuming and often anti-climatic, but the overall sessions have been very memorable! I ran a 4e Forgotten Realms campaign for about 7 months and then a 4e Eberron campaign for about 4 months. In those two campaigns, our players created some [I]wonderful [/I]characters, filled with personality. While our players put a lot of work into bringing these characters to life, I cannot deny that the 4e character system had an equal amount of influence via the "fluff" and the mechanics. [I] "Flames of Phlegathos!!!"[/I] is still routinely yelled across my game table :) I put a lot of time into my Eberron game and it was pretty dang awesome! The reason it took me so long to create each encounter is that EVERY encounter served as a story element. I gave up on random encounters loooong ago. So, every encounter had to have A) enemies that made sense to the story, B) terrain that also acted as a backdrop to the world, C) mechanical elements that kept my "needy" players (hah!) interested. For instance, when my players stayed the night at The Chapterhouse in Stormreach, they were assaulted by a group of Yaun-ti in the middle of the night. Yaun-ti were chosen because A) they are cool, and B) because of their fluff connection to the jungles of Xen-drik. This wasn't a "random" encounter, however. The party was in hot pursuit of a cabal of evil druids (the Children of Winter) that had stolen a powerful artifact. The druids caught wind of my players snooping around and so then hired the Yaun-ti to act as assassins to take 'em out. Of course, Yaun-ti weren't at the appropriate level as my party, so I had to adjust their level in the Monster Builder. Then, I had to make the encounter area more interesting than just a "room at the inn", so I put the characters up in multiple rooms separated by a long hall, but connected by exterior balconies. Unfortunately, I only had a couple Yaun-ti miniatures so I had to go online, find and edit photos, and print out tokens. Then I had to assign treasure, etc, including the incriminating note that linked the assassins to the evil druids. It was an awesome fight! The characters were separated into different rooms (hey, 11th level heroes don't all huddle up in a single bed!), and the assassins came at them from all different sides; windows, doors, etc. Some were in snake form, others in human form, and my players really had fun individually taking out bad guys until they could regroup and fight en mass. And, of course, it got them further pissed at the druids! So, yes 4e has increased my prep time, but I realized that it's made me a better DM. I actually had a transplant player from another group join us as we followed the druids into the ruins of an overgrown, Giant city. The city of course, [I]activated[/I] once we were inside and then [I]stood up[/I] and proceeded to march towards the city of Sharn! (ala Shadow of the Colossus). After a few sessions, our transplant players was like "don't tell anyone... but I like your games better :P" Unfortunately, the quality games just took a lot of my time and energy and I got burned out. I've been running Mouse Guard for about a month now and my group is probably going to try out the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I just want something quicker and easier so I'm not spending so much on the mechanical set ups of my encounters. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
4e increased my DM prep time...
Top