D&D 4E 4E DM's - what have you learned?
- Thread starter wedgeski
- Start date
D'karr
Adventurer
It's taught me to halve monsters hit points!
I haven't had to resort to this in most circumstances because I had a striker heavy party. However, I absolutely endorse this method to keep the game moving quicker.
Pacing, IMO, is so important that encounter design should take into consideration the "feel" the DM wants to portray. Encounters at EL-1, and EL-2 are wonderful for creating obstacles that the party can easily defeat but still keep a sense of tension. The EL+2 and higher need to be carefully weighed to what the DM is trying to achieve. Rather than use a solo creature several levels higher (EL+2+) use a solo with support creatures or support terrain at EL or even EL-1.
Use Soldier Creatures sparingly and don't use higher than EL Soldier Creatures if at all possible.
All solos need to be adjusted to the new math. There is nothing more anticlimactic than a solo that does crappy damage.
Pour
First Post
4e taught me that I don't have to have a rules degree to run a good game. I don't have to completely wing it, either. There are clear guides, transparent math, and balanced leeway that support me however I approach a session.
DMing does not have to involve an overwhelming amount of prep if you don't want it to. It's entirely up to you how much or little you want to invest in the game- and it remains successful and fun in both cases.
It also taught me that I can bend the rules with little to no adverse effect. The DM is free to do as he pleases, and the rules facilitate those changes, whether planned or on the spot.
Improvise and build on the actions of the PCs. Skill challenges are a baseline, but the DM can support the PCs into taking it so much farther- within the parameters of suggested rules and well without them (letting the players use powers, for instance, which equate to varied successes depending on their resource value; or better still simply challenging them with no regard to success or failures besides what you make of it). That said, ideas can hold as much, if not more, value than the skill rolls themselves, if that's how you want the game to play.
The game is always what you make it. I've never house ruled, tinkered, and improvised as much as I have in 4e. I love the way it enables me to play, and I've become really confident in my DMing and design skills- and more so my ability to make any session of 4e work.
The shared experience is more important than the rules, and creativity is crucial. It helped me realize I don't like rules assumptions and fluff ingrained in crunch shackling me. Oh, and REFLAVOR!
Blogs are my friends, old school and new school. 4e has a great collection of grassroots designers.
Online tools are my friends, especially Power2ool.
Sacred cows taste good post-slaughter.
DMing does not have to involve an overwhelming amount of prep if you don't want it to. It's entirely up to you how much or little you want to invest in the game- and it remains successful and fun in both cases.
It also taught me that I can bend the rules with little to no adverse effect. The DM is free to do as he pleases, and the rules facilitate those changes, whether planned or on the spot.
Improvise and build on the actions of the PCs. Skill challenges are a baseline, but the DM can support the PCs into taking it so much farther- within the parameters of suggested rules and well without them (letting the players use powers, for instance, which equate to varied successes depending on their resource value; or better still simply challenging them with no regard to success or failures besides what you make of it). That said, ideas can hold as much, if not more, value than the skill rolls themselves, if that's how you want the game to play.
The game is always what you make it. I've never house ruled, tinkered, and improvised as much as I have in 4e. I love the way it enables me to play, and I've become really confident in my DMing and design skills- and more so my ability to make any session of 4e work.
The shared experience is more important than the rules, and creativity is crucial. It helped me realize I don't like rules assumptions and fluff ingrained in crunch shackling me. Oh, and REFLAVOR!
Blogs are my friends, old school and new school. 4e has a great collection of grassroots designers.
Online tools are my friends, especially Power2ool.
Sacred cows taste good post-slaughter.
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A lot of the features of 4e reinforced my existing approach to GMing, and indeed that was what attracted me to 4e: player-focused encounter and scenario design, rich PC builds that engage with the fiction of the gameworld (via feats, races, class featuers, powers, paragon paths etc), a cosmology that is designed for playing as much as for reading; play-focused monster design.
What I've learned from 4e is mostly about focus and pacing. The way the action resolution mechanics work has been better than I anticipated (and I had high expectations). Combats are dramatic (and I don't halve hit points, and I use plenty of EL +1, +2 and +3 encounters). Skill challenges really push the players (and their PCs). And when a scene is done, it comes swiftly to an end (due to smooth duration rules, smooth rest rules, etc) rather than lingering on in a pointless mechanical limbo.
I'm not going to say 4e is the only game for me - when my current campaign finishes (probably in 2-and-half years, I would say) I would like to start a Burning Wheel campaign if my players are in agreement. But my ability to GM BW will have been greatly enhanced by my experience with 4e. And 4e would definitely remain my gonzo fantasy/high fantasy system of choice.
What I've learned from 4e is mostly about focus and pacing. The way the action resolution mechanics work has been better than I anticipated (and I had high expectations). Combats are dramatic (and I don't halve hit points, and I use plenty of EL +1, +2 and +3 encounters). Skill challenges really push the players (and their PCs). And when a scene is done, it comes swiftly to an end (due to smooth duration rules, smooth rest rules, etc) rather than lingering on in a pointless mechanical limbo.
I'm not going to say 4e is the only game for me - when my current campaign finishes (probably in 2-and-half years, I would say) I would like to start a Burning Wheel campaign if my players are in agreement. But my ability to GM BW will have been greatly enhanced by my experience with 4e. And 4e would definitely remain my gonzo fantasy/high fantasy system of choice.
I generally want a feel of desperate, blood-soaked carnage, especially in my Swords & Sorcery 4e campaign, so encounters EL +2 to +5 over party level with half monster hp work well. For my Forgotten Realms game some lower ELs are ok, but I still want to keep things moving on fast. I have 3 hours on a Monday night to run a session (if players arrive on time!) and I normally want to get through 2 significant battles and maybe some other stuff too.
The slowness of 4e combat can be annoying; OTOH it is
(a) normally exciting, at least with the post-MM3 monster damage and
(b) can act as a reliable set piece for entertainment, IME this reduces pressure on the GM and the risk of burnout.
Running 3e I would need to take frequent breaks to recharge; this is much less common with 4e.
I agree with this. 3e often felt to me like it was made of glass - mess around with it, deviate from the baselines, and it would shatter disastrously. 4e feels more like it's made of rubber - it's not going to break, whatever you do to it it tends to spring back into pretty much the same shape.
4e taught me to keep tinkering to the DM's side of the screen. The DM tools are very tinkerable; most of the tinkering I do is to speed up combat - halve monster hp, reduce or eliminate status effects & anything that needs tracking, make sure damage expressions are high (although some MV critters like owlbears look *too* high!). I'll sometimes make magic items too, especially artifacts, or tinker with existing items.
Some things that 4e doesn't do or does poorly have helped me understand their importance to D&D. Eg I have a better understanding now of the importance of random encounter tables, random treasure tables, and other content-creation mechanisms as tools for the GM in creating a world that allows indefinite play.
I'm coming more and more to the view that there's no such thing as too high!
In their dramatic fight with Calastryx, two PCs had no healing surges left, and the fighter was down to two. They had only a handful of daily powers and action points - it was their fifth combat encounter for the day, and all had been above party EL. Plus some powers had been spent on other, non-combat activities.
And they still finished the encounter with only two or three PCs bloodied, and only the mage was knocked unconscious (but revived by healing word so that his familiar could perform the combat-winning attack - dragonling breath weapon)!
Bring on the high damage expressions, I say!
SensoryThought
First Post
Good online tools make character creation and encounter building a breeze.
I learnt that with maptools and ventilo you can still have fun gaming with your friends despite having kids and being separated by hundreds of miles.
I learnt that with maptools and ventilo you can still have fun gaming with your friends despite having kids and being separated by hundreds of miles.
Quickleaf
Legend
4e is like a really sweet iPhone waiting to be jailbroken 
It has all this potential that is needlessly locked down, poorly presented, and rarely showcased. Once I saw and started playing with the guts of the system - on the DM's side - it was amazing how much my games improved. It was also amazing how I didn't need to make much effort - just a little - to really get the system singing.
I am convinced that 4e should have been presented as the "improv edition" because it is so easy to design stuff, even on the fly.
It has all this potential that is needlessly locked down, poorly presented, and rarely showcased. Once I saw and started playing with the guts of the system - on the DM's side - it was amazing how much my games improved. It was also amazing how I didn't need to make much effort - just a little - to really get the system singing.
I am convinced that 4e should have been presented as the "improv edition" because it is so easy to design stuff, even on the fly.
A MV Owlbear, 8th level elite brute, will usually take an 8th level Defender PC to below 0 hp in its first round of attacks - double attack claw & claw for avg 40 dmg, AP to auto-hit with bite for +40, = 80 damage. To me that is too high; as an Elite it's supposedly a fair EL+0 encounter to sic 2 adult owlbears and a young owlbear (level 8 brute) on a party. They would take down 2 PCs in round 1 and quite likely cause a TPK.
I effectively only use MV owlbears as solos, as a solo the damage (4 times a standard Brute) is about right! Maybe add a minor action or reaction to do a regular Brute's worth of damage.
