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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Reconciling 4e's rough edges with Story Now play
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8994115" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I'm not entirely certain what your criteria are for what adds or detracts from the 'moral line'. I found that 4e (basically inherited from previous generations of D&D) has a HUGE backlog of different thematic and lore possibilities and such. Even within the somewhat more focused scope of 4e vs earlier Great Wheel editions this can be a bit of a problem, yes. A lot of things CAN be used and can present some very nice support for 'moral confliction' and such, but you DO have to pick and choose. In my first campaign I pretty much left it open and kind of just grabbed stuff from across the spectrum as it struck me, often keying off something in character build/background. </p><p></p><p>It worked OK, actually. The campaign had a threat which I'd created (my version of a 'front' basically) that was a demon lord's machinations. Then one player decided to be a Starlock, so there was that whole sort of "plethora of icky other planar horrors with the trivial different backstories" thing, but we kind of kept the stars as more of a weird but unseen existential menace as opposed to something manifest. Later the character picked up a Hag Pact and then things got interesting, as a whole 'Hags vs Horrors' thing arose! Honestly, I think overall things kind of 'just worked', though you might consider that campaign more thematically diffuse than you prefer. Some epic vampires and a mysterious godlike being got hooked in, but I think it worked because each character had a very tight personal thing going. The thief had family issues, the wizard had a tragically flawed relationship with a paladin, the dwarf was trying to find his brother, the warlock had accidentally read his Dad's Necronomicon, and the cleric was a reincarnation of an ancient hero (whom everyone expected to be male, so sue her!). </p><p></p><p>Each of these conceptions arose, grew, and turned into new forms through play. The wizard (Eladrin) ran away from home, had various problematic family interactions, and then eventually met the Paladin. This was all great fun! And it got handily tied into more weighty themes like "when do you become responsible for someone else's actions because you didn't stop them" and such. </p><p></p><p>As I say, maybe our character arcs didn't go as much towards the grand themes, although the fate of the world did eventually figure heavily in the story!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8994115, member: 82106"] I'm not entirely certain what your criteria are for what adds or detracts from the 'moral line'. I found that 4e (basically inherited from previous generations of D&D) has a HUGE backlog of different thematic and lore possibilities and such. Even within the somewhat more focused scope of 4e vs earlier Great Wheel editions this can be a bit of a problem, yes. A lot of things CAN be used and can present some very nice support for 'moral confliction' and such, but you DO have to pick and choose. In my first campaign I pretty much left it open and kind of just grabbed stuff from across the spectrum as it struck me, often keying off something in character build/background. It worked OK, actually. The campaign had a threat which I'd created (my version of a 'front' basically) that was a demon lord's machinations. Then one player decided to be a Starlock, so there was that whole sort of "plethora of icky other planar horrors with the trivial different backstories" thing, but we kind of kept the stars as more of a weird but unseen existential menace as opposed to something manifest. Later the character picked up a Hag Pact and then things got interesting, as a whole 'Hags vs Horrors' thing arose! Honestly, I think overall things kind of 'just worked', though you might consider that campaign more thematically diffuse than you prefer. Some epic vampires and a mysterious godlike being got hooked in, but I think it worked because each character had a very tight personal thing going. The thief had family issues, the wizard had a tragically flawed relationship with a paladin, the dwarf was trying to find his brother, the warlock had accidentally read his Dad's Necronomicon, and the cleric was a reincarnation of an ancient hero (whom everyone expected to be male, so sue her!). Each of these conceptions arose, grew, and turned into new forms through play. The wizard (Eladrin) ran away from home, had various problematic family interactions, and then eventually met the Paladin. This was all great fun! And it got handily tied into more weighty themes like "when do you become responsible for someone else's actions because you didn't stop them" and such. As I say, maybe our character arcs didn't go as much towards the grand themes, although the fate of the world did eventually figure heavily in the story! [/QUOTE]
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