D&D 4E D&D 4E Tips/Tricks/Advice

[Stalker0]

Might seem like an obvious one, but have all players right down their attack bonuses, damage bonuses, AND SKILL BONUSES!!

My group wastes a lot of time with people doing math. Some of it is that not everyone is good at math, and that's fine. Some of it is that people continuous do math on numbers they could just have written down.

 

[Godaikin Engineer]

Excellent advice, everyone! I really appreciate it.

I have at hand two adventures to start with, Kobald Hall from the DMG and Keep on the Shadowfell; having only briefly skimmed each, I was thinking of starting the group with KH then moving onto KotS. Any trouble with doing this?

On a related note, are there any tips/tricks/advice for running either one of those adventures? The reviews I've read have prepared me for KotS not being a Shakespeare's masterpiece, but do either of the modules have any problem areas that might not be noticable at first glance?

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Might seem like an obvious one, but have all players right down their attack bonuses, damage bonuses, AND SKILL BONUSES!!

My group wastes a lot of time with people doing math. Some of it is that not everyone is good at math, and that's fine. Some of it is that people continuous do math on numbers they could just have written down.

I think that's more of just a gamer thing in general, not edition specific. You definitely have a point though; some of my players are bad for that too.

@Godaikin: As for KH and KotS, I think they sort of intended that you could do it that way. I think there may even be a hook dropped in KH that leads to the Keep.

For encounters, I haven't run or played KotS, but I keep hearing horror stories about some "Irontooth" guy ...

 

[blargney the second]

As a DM, i still want a way to track player Healing Surges a little better.

I made check boxes for healing surges on my character sheet (pdf). I did the same for action points and magic item uses per day, but with some extra room to pencil in more boxes as we hit milestones.
-blarg

ps - I like those coloured paper markers! Totally yoinked for my fighter.

 

[DracoSuave]

Mix up your encounter make up. Never just send one monster or one type of monster at the party.

Make -all- traps findable, and most traps exploitable.

Don't be afraid to deal damage.

There's very few powers restricted by monster type (like Turn Undead, etc.). Let players go for broke with this, MAKE it make sense.

 

[jensun]

Have you tried using a handout? Give each player a number of cards, glass stones, or poker chips equal to the number of surges they have, then have them hand them back to you when they heal.

I second this suggestion, we use red poker chips for healing surges. It is very effective especially as the players start fretting over those dwindling little piles of chips.

 

[Mezzer]

You should make sure your players have decent character sheets to use, since the generic ones leave a lot to be desired (in the eyes of many, at least). You can find a lot of good character sheets in this thread, although you need to read the entire thread for all of them.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I gave up on character sheets. I had put all my character's powers on index cards, and I realized another index card for stats & skills, and one for equipment, and that covered it.

Power cards are a must, whether you copy powers onto index cards, print out cards off the net, or wait for WotC to issue the inevitable CCG style power cards. It's not surprising that D&D is now a card game, only that it took WotC so long to make it into one.

 

[Timeboxer]

I've had to remind players that magic weapons do extra damage on critical hits.

 

[malraux]

Be ready for it to take a few sessions before the group starts to feel effectual. This edition is in the easy to learn, long time to master model. Moreover, the mastery is of the group abilities (the fighter learning how to pin monsters down so the rogue can get sneak attack in, wizard pushing a tough monster back and slowing it to take the heat off everyone else, etc) rather than at least the 3e goal of getting each particular number as high as possible.