Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Pretty sure Hackmaster wouldn't want it to be and is plotting even now to prevent it.
D&D 4e Dungeon Master's Guide said:Something amazing happened one time I was playing D&D with my 9-year-old son. When we finished an encounter, my son took over. He decided that he was going to search around one of the statues in the room, that he was going to get hit by a trap (an arrow would shoot out at the statue), and that he’d find a treasure there.
Hey, wait a minute. I thought I was the DM!
That was my first reaction. But I bit my tongue. I rolled damage for the trap, and I let him have his treasure. (I determined what it was -- I wasn’t about to relinquish that much control.)
He never enjoyed the game more.
I learned the most important lesson about D&D that day. I remembered that this is a game about imagination, about coming together to tell a story as a group. I learned that the players have a right to participate in telling that story -- after all, they’re playing the protagonists!
-- James Wyatt
HackMaster 4e Game Master's Guide said:The GameMaster's Shield is a wall. It symbolizes the line of demarcation between player and GameMaster and it shall not be breached nor diminished. The GameMaster shall hold the line and not waver in his calls and decisions unless new facts are unearthed that, in the GameMaster's sole opinion, shed uncertainty on a call. The players are at constant odds with the GameMaster. It is their unspoken mission to chisel away at the wall, to bring it down brick by brick. It is the GameMaster's duty to thwart them in that effort.
It could be interesting. That would require a good look at just how tightly tied and where 4e's "cooperative storytelling indie game" vibe is to its mechanical concepts. That certainly informed the design of Skill Challenges, but we know they're gone. In-depth, dynamic, condition-based tactical combat on the other hand certainly does not seem at odds with a Hack-style game.I can see it....of course, maybe I'm mad.
All it requires is rewriting the "contract" telling the DM what's "fair". So double encounter budgets, raise all the DCs, and load the dungeon with wily traps.
Mixing the "Hack" module with the "4e" modules could make for an interesting game.
It could be interesting. That would require a good look at just how tightly tied and where 4e's "cooperative storytelling indie game" vibe is to its mechanical concepts. That certainly informed the design of Skill Challenges, but we know they're gone. In-depth, dynamic, condition-based tactical combat on the other hand certainly does not seem at odds with a Hack-style game.
By accepting there's no One True Way to run a rpg?HackMaster says it's the DMs job to intimidate and punish the players, 4e says it's the DM's job to make the players the protagonists of a fantasy epic.
How could you possibly write DM advice text to cover both of those styles?
I don't think D&DNext is aimed at newbie DMs, I think it's an attempt to get the longtime D&D fans back.How could you give newbie DM's both of these narratives about what their role is without confusing them horribly?
How could you give newbie DM's both of these narratives about what their role is without confusing them horribly?
I don't think D&DNext is aimed at newbie DMs, I think it's an attempt to get the longtime D&D fans back.
I don't think D&DNext is aimed at newbie DMs, I think it's an attempt to get the longtime D&D fans back.