Search results

As built, if I understand you correctly, I'd say the roles are part descriptive, part prescriptive. They are descriptive in that nothing stops you from staring with "ogre", adding some particular spells and special abilities, and calling that an "ogre magi". Then if you wanted to publish that...

It's not a direct comparison, but I think this is highly analogous to how 4E monsters work. The difference being, of course, that 4E goblins and kobolds are a bit different mechanically, even if you strip out the roleplaying. That does not make stripping out the roleplaying a good idea! :D I...

This is a big part of it for me, too. Namely, I want player agency on some things so that I can focus on other things that are: Important to us for the DM to retain control of stylistically Not really possible for the players to handle well Have some attention left to notice miscommunication...

That's how skill challenges work if you play them with your brain turned off, and where narration or intermediate success/failure has absolutely no effect on what happens in the fiction or on subsequent checks. Granted, one could read them that way, incautiously, especially given the early...

If someone readily grasped one of the stakes/intent guidelines from something like Burning Wheel, used BW "Let it Ride" as written, with perhaps also "Say Yes or Roll the Dice"--and then applied that best they could to a series of 3E skill checks, you'd have 90% to 95% of the function of a 4E...

Yes, this would not meet my requirements, since that is not a mechanical dimension. The narration you describe is crucial to the whole thing working, and I would see it as integrated with the whole piece, but my theory is that you need 3 mechanical dimensions as a minimum--and then whatever...

If you know what you are doing, you can got -3 to +5 easily enough in most of 3E (though this may break down in upper levels, I'm not sure). And out of the box, reading the advice in the 4E DMG, you can easily cover a wider range, though with a few exceptions that came out early after release...

I think this is going to depend a lot on whether or not you read the guidelines on encounter balance as prescriptive or not. That is, if you read them as, "this is a balanced encounter but do what you want," you'll have a wide range of levels of different monsters, and with a few exceptions...

I for one can't answer that question off the top of my head, because when I'm actually running 4E, I'm not thinking in those terms, or describing in those terms. For me, all the roles are bits that I used when I was reading and/or preparing the adventure. Once I've internalized those creatures...

Were you running or playing? Was the DM, whomever it was, running the rules as written or pulling stuff out of his behind? If I'm allowed to run it pulling stuff out of my behind, I can run Hero as pure grit, and run Toon as anything you care to name that I'm remotely familiar with. That...

I think a survey of games where such a major drift of one playstyle to another has been tried will show it's dang hard no matter where you start or end up. Better to start, as much as possible (but no more than that :)) playstyle neutral, and then have modules that move in all sorts of...

I've got a different take. Appeasement never works. That's just feeding someone else to the crocodile hoping that it eats you last. The more extensive the MM entries get, the more ticked off someone will be. How about instead, make the main entries rather short but cover the basics of all the...

Yes. It's a very fine, workable mechanics in real danger of being abused unmercifully. :p I don't have a problem with modest stacking, to no more than 3 dice, with 3 dice rare, in order to extend the workable range of the mechanic, though I grant that this is grasping after a portion of the...

Also agree with this, though note that doesn't mean there isn't room for the shovel. (My dogma is at least three independent dimensions. There can be more than three. :D) The main problem with equipment is that it is like character skills--the interesting decisions were all made before this...

I'm all for an optional ability damage module, if it has the following characteristics: Meaningful, but slow to accumulate, slow to heal (otherwise, it's just another form of hit points). Does not readily affect derived values. A key change in a game to evaluate in this regard is the Power...

I think this is one of those cases where the original 4E tried to have it both ways, in an area where you can't. Namely, they wanted to have a mechanic that leaned towards hard-edge framing and pushing of the scene, but one that could also be used as a loose structure to narrate how the PCs...

Agree with this. I have noticed for some time now, such that the observation now approaches personal dogma*, that if you want interesting game resolution with player decision enabled, you need at least three truly independent dimensions in the mechanics. A damage roll separate from a success...

Duplicate

Must spread XP. Someone chip in, if you don't mind. I realize that the "no mechanics" thing is difficult, but this answer is a great example of exactly what I wanted when I asked for it. This edges right up to mechanics, but stops short. It defines what the mechanics will need to do, without...

List it for both ways, with emphasis, if you can, on the common areas and differences. This is exactly the kind of information we want, and coming from a single person is great, because you don't have to tiptoe around your self. :D