1E vs Forked Thread: Is 4E doing it for you?

[MerricB]

Yep. We always houseruled max HP at 1st level and even then death was common from wounds at low levels. The only real upside was that character creation only took a few minutes.

There's a real assumption in early D&D that you're playing quite often, so that low-level characters get plenty of opportunities to play. Eventually you get one that survives, and that one becomes famous and beloved.

I think combat is as frequent in oD&D and AD&D as in later editions; it's just that you pay a lot more attention to how difficult things are. Running away if it goes badly is more accepted as a tactic, and there are some encounters you avoid altogether. However, that doesn't take long and you're into the next combat quickly.

Once most of the party is a few levels higher (definitely by 5th), new 1st level characters gain XP a lot quicker, and so don't have to put up with low hp for as long. Sure, they're up against tougher monsters, but not that much tougher.

Cheers!

 

[Irda Ranger]

The Secondary Skills table is great.

You were a smith? OK, so you can shoe the horses and construct a forge. You were a tanner? Well, you know a lot about p***. And so on.

Although not sold as a "Secondary Skill" system, I saw a mechanic under the Corsair of the Sword Coast Paragon Path in the recent Forgotten Realms Player's Guide that sure could be used as a secondary skill system for 4E. It looked like this:

Skilled Sailor

• Under normal condition you can perform normal sailing-related actions without rolling any checks (e.g., piloting a ship in fair weather). You know normal things for a person of your profession.
• Under difficult conditions you can make a Stat check to perform sailing-related actions (e.g., make a Dex check to pilot a ship through a storm, or a particularly narrow channel). Skill Challenge mechanics are good fit here so you don't sink the ship on a single bad roll.
• Untrained Skills are considered Trained when used aboard for sailing-related actions (e.g., an Acrobatics check to balance on a yard-arm).
• Trained Skills receive an additional +2 when used aboard for sailing-related actions.

And in terms of background... I have no problem with it as long as the gamers don't try to game the background. "Well, because I'm the half-son of Elric, I get a demon sword right?"

I certainly never give stuff for any kind for a background. The most common form of "gaming the background" I used to see was people who used to try to get "free" weapons and armor at first level by making it themselves. Particularly armor and compound longbows. I said "Ok, fine, but the weapons are at -1 Att, the armors are at -1 AC and the best armor you can make is scale mail." When they complained about that I said "Look, you either spent your youth half-assing smithery while learning how to fight, or half-assing learning how to fight while applying yourself to smithery. Which is it gonna be, -1 Att with these weapons, or -1 Att with all weapons?"

Backgrounds are nice to fill out a character, but everyone's "real" profession is Adventurer. To be really any good at that other thing you'd have to be doing that other thing on a daily basis.

 

[RFisher]

Contrast with Korgoth's example: My "Don Juan" isn't all that smooth because I myself is not all that smooth.

I’m not going to even begin to argue that this’ll work for any other group... But in my groups the GM often treats the Don Juan PC as being smooth even if the player isn’t. No die roll or mechanic needed.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Hehe.

 

[MerricB]

I’m not going to even begin to argue that this’ll work for any other group... But in my groups the GM often treats the Don Juan PC as being smooth even if the player isn’t. No die roll or mechanic needed.

I think that's how we hope our DMs will play.

Cheers!