Recent content by Bodhiwolff

In my opinion, 4E is extremely good as a one-shot game. It is even good as a one-shot introductory game where people don't know the rules. At one weekend home-based gamefest I attended, a half-dozen or more one-shot 4E style adventures went off without a hitch, covering a variety of genres...

I feel that 4E is a wonderful version for introducing to new players! I've introduced a number of complete newbies to 4E, and they've all thoroughly enjoyed it (and we've also converted some old-fogeys like myself as well!). I won't repeat the (very good) advice already stated here, but I...

This might seem odd, but my advice is to make your own power cards. Don't rely on the ones that are automatically generated -- they contain more information than you'll need, and are too dense to act as a streamlining tool. When I make power cards for new players, I make sure to use finalized...

edit -- double post

I'm not adding anything new -- instead, I'm voicing my support for some of the comments already made here, in an attempt to give weight to them. We use Power Cards for each power, with numbers pre-calculated. We have a time limit on people's decisions (30 seconds from the start of your turn...

So, my players will be here in a little over an hour, and I *just* saw something that tweaked my brain. I thought I'd ask Enworld for an answer. Take, as our example, the cleric's power "Healing Word". We've been treating it like a "double" encounter power. You get two copies of it, to show...

I'm not going to say anything new or innovative here. But I am going to add my support to a bunch of points already made. I started my gaming career with AD&D as well -- see below -- and I can definitely attest that 4E is a new animal. And it is one which I vastly prefer, from a gamer...

I redeemed E3446AYPAAHM I'll give it a go and see how she works! In a "real" test, though, when there are multiple characters with the same initiative, it seems to be getting stuck just looping around those characters. In fact, in a 5-character, 3-monster test, I can't get it to go back to...

I love 4E. In fact, I had given up on D&D over a decade ago until 4E came along! However, with all of the additional combat options, riders on powers, tactical decisions, and basic all-around-wonderful *stuff* at our disposal, it came as no surprise that our combats slowed down, and the game...

I'd like to also suggest giving Maptool another gander. I recently discovered the WiiMote Whiteboard mods, and I'm in the process of converting my game to a virtual projected display. The heavy lifting for the graphics is simply done by running two instances of Maptools (one server, one...

For what it is worth, here is my advice. a. Diminish DM downtime by having each room, map, set of miniatures, etc. all set aside and orderly ahead of time. b. We've instituted a "30 second rule" at our table, complete with a timer. You have 30 seconds to make your decision and have dice...

Through EnWorld, I discovered Microsoft OneNote, and indeed discovered that it was already installed on my machine! I have grown to use it for absolutely everything! Now that I've picked up an iPhone, I might just start using Evernote, and synch up between my laptop and my phone, so I can...

Glad to hear that you've discovered the variety of useful things in the compendium. I'm an ancient, decrepid gamer myself, and cut my teeth in the late 70's with RPG's, but even as "old school" as I tend to be, I find myself completely and utterly in love with the electronic side of things...

I once spent a Saturday afternoon designing and creating document specifically for a campaign. It basically looked like some mouldering old parchment with some random, crazy poetic prophesy on it. It was, in actuality, the cornerstone of the entire campaign. Hidden in the documents were...

Festivus -- NO! You told him about Auggie's! Why'd you let the cat out of the bag?! Seriously, though, I asked the same question about eight months ago, and got the same answer. Auggie's became dangerously close to a gaming addiction for awhile -- it was just *so* darned easy to get...