After reading Robert Schwalb's excellent article on Re-examining the Dungeon:
Reexamining the Dungeon
I was struck by the idea that there is still something missing in 4e in regards to scenes. In a typical adventure we can have roleplaying, exploration, skill challenges, and combat. Combat, however, is really built around larger hour-long battles (sometimes more). There really isn't room, however, for short battles that are still meaningful to players.
I'm looking to design a system to add another scene type to 4e, the Skirmish. Here's some of my design thoughts:
Goal: Have a complete combat encounter in 30 minutes or less.
This "skirmish" would be for smaller fights such as a bar brawl, a quick fight in the streets, or some small battles in the middle of a larger dungeon. It would be something else to go between your exploration, skill challenge, role playing, and full-on combat encounters.
There are two easy ways to reduce the time it takes to run a battle.
First, initiative goes around the table rather than in initiative order. All players roll initiative and go around the table beginning at the highest. If the initiative is an even number, it goes clockwise; odd and it goes counterclockwise. This way players don't arrange themselves around the table based on how higher their init is. When the turn comes around to the DM, thats when the monsters go.
Second, the total experience budget for a skirmish should be level - 2. The number of monsters should be lower than the number of PCs, and no solos should be included.
Those can help move the duration of a battle down, but it isn't enough. Too few monsters or monsters that are too low level and the battle is simply too easy. At higher levels, players can simply wipe the floor on any encounter that isn't level+2.
When we think about the time a battle takes, the amount of time spent is usually on the players side. They have a lot of things to choose from.
There have been a lot of studies on decision making and they have some interesting results. In short, people believe they want more options but end up making better decisions with fewer. (source: Sheena S. Iyengar - Research)
So the best way to cut down on time and increase the difficulty of a lower level battle is to remove player options.
So what if, during skirmishes, players could only use at-will powers, second winds, and expendable items?
This would make lower level battles more meaningful since PCs will be more greatly challenged. It also reduces the amount of choices they can make so it speeds up their turns.
The only problem is....players will hate it. Sure, they will get to use all their encounter and daily spells in your larger battles, but the skirmish will still feel like a battle only limited.
So how do we sell this idea to them? One way is to really clarify that this is something else - not a typical battle. Like skill challenges, it's a different wrapper around a set of mechanics. I'm not sure what other ways this could be sold to players but I'm up for suggestions.
So what do you guys think?
Reexamining the Dungeon
I was struck by the idea that there is still something missing in 4e in regards to scenes. In a typical adventure we can have roleplaying, exploration, skill challenges, and combat. Combat, however, is really built around larger hour-long battles (sometimes more). There really isn't room, however, for short battles that are still meaningful to players.
I'm looking to design a system to add another scene type to 4e, the Skirmish. Here's some of my design thoughts:
Goal: Have a complete combat encounter in 30 minutes or less.
This "skirmish" would be for smaller fights such as a bar brawl, a quick fight in the streets, or some small battles in the middle of a larger dungeon. It would be something else to go between your exploration, skill challenge, role playing, and full-on combat encounters.
There are two easy ways to reduce the time it takes to run a battle.
First, initiative goes around the table rather than in initiative order. All players roll initiative and go around the table beginning at the highest. If the initiative is an even number, it goes clockwise; odd and it goes counterclockwise. This way players don't arrange themselves around the table based on how higher their init is. When the turn comes around to the DM, thats when the monsters go.
Second, the total experience budget for a skirmish should be level - 2. The number of monsters should be lower than the number of PCs, and no solos should be included.
Those can help move the duration of a battle down, but it isn't enough. Too few monsters or monsters that are too low level and the battle is simply too easy. At higher levels, players can simply wipe the floor on any encounter that isn't level+2.
When we think about the time a battle takes, the amount of time spent is usually on the players side. They have a lot of things to choose from.
There have been a lot of studies on decision making and they have some interesting results. In short, people believe they want more options but end up making better decisions with fewer. (source: Sheena S. Iyengar - Research)
So the best way to cut down on time and increase the difficulty of a lower level battle is to remove player options.
So what if, during skirmishes, players could only use at-will powers, second winds, and expendable items?
This would make lower level battles more meaningful since PCs will be more greatly challenged. It also reduces the amount of choices they can make so it speeds up their turns.
The only problem is....players will hate it. Sure, they will get to use all their encounter and daily spells in your larger battles, but the skirmish will still feel like a battle only limited.
So how do we sell this idea to them? One way is to really clarify that this is something else - not a typical battle. Like skill challenges, it's a different wrapper around a set of mechanics. I'm not sure what other ways this could be sold to players but I'm up for suggestions.
So what do you guys think?
