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 LIVE! 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
D&D Older Editions
In Defense of 4E - a New Campaign Perspective
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="thanson02" data-source="post: 7614252" data-attributes="member: 6801619"><p>This is one thing that I noticed from my disagreements with folks who hate 4E (also, this has become a long thread, so if someone else brought this up and I missed it, cool <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" /> ) is the narrative focus of 4E. It is very cinematic in style. The flavor text of the exploits and spells clearly states how these things look when they are done and it, at least for me, allowed me to really explain what is going on in a cinematic way. Also, as a player I love to look at the flavor text and visualize how my character performs his exploits (like the fighters) so I can describe to the party what he does, instead of rattling off a list of abilities playing out. Also, as a DM, when I look at monster abilities, I am not thinking about a set of game states playing out, I am looking at plot points to tell the story of the event in relation to the players. A good example of this was that I was running a adventure where the party was on a island of ice in the Elemental Chaos looking for a relic. They had been hunted by a white dragon on and off and when I was thinking about having the dragon come around again, I wanted to come up with something unique. I noticed that in the Dragonomicon, that one of the additional features of a white dragon was that they could burrow through snow and ice like a gofer. So, when the dragon came up, I had him dive into the snow and the situation suddenly became like an artic version of the movie Tremors. The party loved the situation because they immediately tried to hide and sneak instead of fighting the dragon (something they completely came up with on their own). They lost the rolls and still have to confront the dragon, but they talked about that situation more than all the giant fights I had them do.</p><p></p><p>So the reason I brought this up was because I mentioned this to a guy who was trying to argue with me that you cannot role-play in 4E and as we kept going back and forth, it became obvious that he saw the class features as rules that allowed you to do stuff and I was looking at it as plot points that help tell the story of your character. Many of the things he insisted you could not do were covered on p.42 of the DMG or covered through well designed skill challenges. Yes, there are things they could have streamlines and did better, but the game did get better as it went on and many of the expanded rules in Unearthed Arcana filled many of the gaps people had complained about. But if you are not thinking of your character options as plot devices and more like rules that dictate what you can do or what you should do, I think you’re going to get frustrated.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="thanson02, post: 7614252, member: 6801619"] This is one thing that I noticed from my disagreements with folks who hate 4E (also, this has become a long thread, so if someone else brought this up and I missed it, cool :cool: ) is the narrative focus of 4E. It is very cinematic in style. The flavor text of the exploits and spells clearly states how these things look when they are done and it, at least for me, allowed me to really explain what is going on in a cinematic way. Also, as a player I love to look at the flavor text and visualize how my character performs his exploits (like the fighters) so I can describe to the party what he does, instead of rattling off a list of abilities playing out. Also, as a DM, when I look at monster abilities, I am not thinking about a set of game states playing out, I am looking at plot points to tell the story of the event in relation to the players. A good example of this was that I was running a adventure where the party was on a island of ice in the Elemental Chaos looking for a relic. They had been hunted by a white dragon on and off and when I was thinking about having the dragon come around again, I wanted to come up with something unique. I noticed that in the Dragonomicon, that one of the additional features of a white dragon was that they could burrow through snow and ice like a gofer. So, when the dragon came up, I had him dive into the snow and the situation suddenly became like an artic version of the movie Tremors. The party loved the situation because they immediately tried to hide and sneak instead of fighting the dragon (something they completely came up with on their own). They lost the rolls and still have to confront the dragon, but they talked about that situation more than all the giant fights I had them do. So the reason I brought this up was because I mentioned this to a guy who was trying to argue with me that you cannot role-play in 4E and as we kept going back and forth, it became obvious that he saw the class features as rules that allowed you to do stuff and I was looking at it as plot points that help tell the story of your character. Many of the things he insisted you could not do were covered on p.42 of the DMG or covered through well designed skill challenges. Yes, there are things they could have streamlines and did better, but the game did get better as it went on and many of the expanded rules in Unearthed Arcana filled many of the gaps people had complained about. But if you are not thinking of your character options as plot devices and more like rules that dictate what you can do or what you should do, I think you’re going to get frustrated. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
In Defense of 4E - a New Campaign Perspective
Top