D&D 4E Tips for a new 4E DM

[AbdulAlhazred]

Right, what I would add to this is that you definitely want to understand that there is a difference in the role of encounters and thus differences in the way they should function in the game.

4e is a very 'cinematic' game. In AD&D for instance combat was deadly, long range planning was the players primary tool, and most individual fights were light weight. Throwing a few orcs at the party was reasonable and you didn't need to bother much in these fights with anything beyond having a basic location. These low impact fights would be over pretty quick, and they were basically there to suck the cleric's CLW supply (and healing potions) down.

The 4e encounter is bigger and intended to be more interesting. You can see this just looking at Kobold Hall in the DMG, where each of the encounters has a 'shtick'. Sticking some monsters in a room goes badly. The AD&D "5 orcs in a room" worked because it took 20 minutes to run, and the players could end it with a spell if they got bored around minute 5. You simply can't do that in 4e encounters. Each one is meant to be a little mini-story of its own. They don't need to be TOO complex, but you have to make the encounter area interesting, give the monsters some kind of 'shtick', provide the players with ways to mess with the battlefield, etc. Setting up plots so that encounters have alternate goals besides just "kill 'em dead" has high value too.

Luckily (well, by design) the way 4e mechanics are designed makes adding interesting stuff to encounters pretty easy. If you put a pit in a room the PCs (and the monsters) have defined ways to push people into it. Every character can run, jump, climb, make improvised attacks, etc, and character's are tough enough that if they take a bit of risk the consequences aren't usually instantly fatal either.

The point being you have to watch out not to design adventures in the same way in 4e you would in AD&D. There ARE ways to emulate the feel of older AD&D style play, but simply putting monsters in rooms won't work, even though 4e will let you make those encounters balanced, they'll feel 'dead'.

 

[Randomthoughts]

My D&D career, specifically as a DM, started years ago with Basic D&D, then AD&D, including 2nd edition, but then I strayed away largely during 3.0/3.5 although I played a bit.

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Does anyone have any tips or advice for DMing a 4e adventure for the first time? For instance, is it easier to DM with 4e?

That's my background as well. After amassing a collection of 2e material (and later selling the whole set), I drifted away from D&D only to come back more than a year ago to run a 4e Dark Sun campaign.

Anyway, a lot of good advice here. Let me underscore a few things:

• Condition Tracking: Quickleaf is spot on about this. Whether you use rings, tokens, magnetic bases, a computer or whatnot, you definitely need a system. The complexity is not only based on the number of conditions but also when they expire (e.g., end of PC's turn, end of monster's turn, save ends, etc.). Fortunately, there are a few that you should become familiar with - like bloodied. And read the adventure before hand to get a sense of what conditions monsters and PCs will use. I tell the players to track the conditions they impose (like debuffs) to make it easier for me. If you make your own adventures, feel free to modify creature powers to make it easier to handle (like I tend to avoid save end conditions except for powerful monsters).
• Skill Challenges: Take a look at Rules Compendium pages 157-163 on a pretty good (and updated) description on SC. If you get the DMG2, I'd read pages 78-101 as well. In many ways, SC mirrors what veteran DMs have done for some time...but with structure. But it can also be run in a mind-numbing way - treating it as a series of dice rolls that players will just wan to get it over with. Don't fall into that trap.
• Monster Powers: Encounter design is pretty easy (as stated) but running a GREAT encounter takes a lot more. I read the monster stat blocks (duh) and try to understand what each power does. For prepared adventures, I like reading any "monster tactics" section. There tends not to be many powers, but even one power can give that monster its "schtick". Most monsters have something unique, whether based on its role (brute, lurker, etc.) or type (orcs, kobolds, etc.).
• Combat Length and Pacing: This has been mentioned before, but I'd double the amount of time you think your first few combats will last. Players (unless they really prepare) will take time thinking about what their powers could do and how their roles interact. Even then, I'd prompt them to make (relatively) quick decisions - which works if you don't demand perfect tactics in order to win.

Hope you enjoy 4e. I certainly have!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

When it comes to skill challenges, you will want to look up the new skill DC recommendations. They're in errata documents and probably all over the web by now. The system described in the DMG1 had DCs too high, which results in PCs failing (and therefore players avoiding) skill challenges.

In an effort to improve my game, I've spent a lot of time at a site called Sly Flourish. I believe it's there where I read the best way to make an encounter cool is to use hazards and hazardous terrain, not just monsters. I don't actually know if that's true, but will find out when I run a session next week.

I've downloaded a massive set of maps (I wish I could recall where, as I would have linked them to you) just so I have an idea of how to "scatter terrain features".

I have quite a few books now -- the DMG I and II and Dark Sun Creature Catalog are all good sources for fantastic terrain and hazards (what they call traps now). Naturally I've had to tweak them both for the new skill and damage math and for levelling (the best trap I saw was 21st-level, and I nerfed it to 6th; traps are easier to modify than monsters).

For those who want to know about that trap ... it's sweet ... it's trees with venomous bark growing in a jungle somewhere. And they shoot spines. If anyone gets within 6 squares of a venomous tree, it attacks on its initiative, dishing out poison damage and blindness. Naturally there are skill checks to identify and shut these down, but if the opposition has local knowledge, they will avoid them, try to lure PCs near them, use any forced movement effects they have to move PCs into the attack areas, or use immobilize/restrain effects to keep PCs near the trees.

And of course, you can replace trees with cacti (for deserts), exotic fungi (for underground settings) or what have you.

 

[italianranma]

I've been writing up a guide for my little brother who's a new DM and starting with 4th ed; it's a work in progress, but if you want it PM me and I'll send it to you the file. I've been playing since 2nd ed AD&D, and like 4th edition a lot. That being said as others have pointed out there is quite a wealth of options, and there have been some subtle design changes from when it first appeared: Feat/Power bloat at first seems astronomical, but overall I've found it very manageable with a little help from the Character Builder and the WOTC forums CharOp section.

The biggest change IMO from previous editions to 4th is how the characters and NPCs/monsters all interact with each other. Everything is very codified: Defenders all mark and have a punishment mechanic, Brutes have greater HP but lower Will Defense, movement and positioning are incredibly important, even more so than in 3.5. I think 4th edition is a lot easier to run because of this codifying; it gives me all the structure of a video game without limiting my choices in any way. The expectations for players and DMs are very well laid out in the opening pages of the DMG, and honestly even experienced DMs can get a lot out of reading or rereading it from time to time. The only downside to the system is that there are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but with some good technique it becomes a non-issue.

The Essentials line attempts to take the feel of previous edition classes and fit them into 4th edition, and overall does a good job of it, but I wouldn't say that you should limit yourself or your players to the Essentials line. Having Essentials and (what do we call non-essentials? Original? Classic?) non-Essentials classes in your party isn't a problem: just look at it as additional options for your players.

RandomThoughts I think brings up a lot of good points, so I'd like to expand a little on how I handle them:

Condition Tracking - I do this in a variety of ways: first off I use monster tokens that I print out and then paste to poster board instead of minis. Then I stick a toothpick in the center. I give my PCs those little colored circle stickers and have them write class abilities that come up fairly often on them; for example the Paladin in our group marks with blue stickers with either DC (for Divine Challenge) or DS (for Divine Sanction). Slowed or movement related penalties are yellow, dazed/stunned red etc. The stickers go on the toothpick to so we can easily see what each monster is suffering from.

Behind the screen I use character/monster cards. They're things I designed myself in Excel. I print them off and then put them in little plastic sleeves and use wet erase markers to help track things like HP, delaying, etc.

Encounter Design - You can really see how 4th Edition has changed if you compare the MM1 with the Monster Vault or MM3: Monster damage has gone up (way way up), defenses have decreased, and fewer monsters use debilitating effects on the players. This has all been done to speed up encounters and make them 'heroic.' if you're only going to buy one book about monsters, get the Monster Vault; it's the pinnacle of 4th ed design, and has plenty of stuff to choose from. Some people have mentioned it, and I second it as well your first few sessions are going to take longer as players figure out what their powers do, and everyone has trouble keeping track of conditions etc. You can alleviate that in two ways: first by building your encounters primarily with brutes, skirmishers, and artillery and then introducing the other monster types later. Second, by doing my favorite DM trick; ending encounters early. Similar to the Morale Check of earlier editions my monsters tend to break and run, or surrender, or play dead after they get past the half-way point. What you may find (especially at lower levels) is that the first few rounds of combat are really hectic and intense with action points and encounter powers being thrown around, PC health dipping dangerously low, and monsters using all their own cool abilities. But combat kinda tapers off with everyone falling back to at will abilities and the danger being over once the first few monsters drop. Then the last few just take forever to bring down, but don't really threaten anyone. If the excitement has faded and it's a forgone conclusion, there's nothing wrong with ending the encounter early, I think that the DMG 2 even mentions this technique (suggesting that you make the PCs pay a healing surge cost).

Looking back I realize I've used a lot of terms you may not be familiar with; brutes and healing surges etc. This is 4th edition codifying and defining concepts from previous editions that we all knew about instinctively after playing for a while. Brutes are those monsters who have high HP, low AC, and deal high damage. Healing surges is a mechanic that represents the total healing available to any one character, though in 4th edition healing is very different (in a very good way) from earlier games. This is why it appeals so much to me; it's easy for me to wrap my head around discrete information chunks, even if the volume of them does take a while to digest.