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4E with 1E Feel: Does that appeal to you?
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<blockquote data-quote="crash_beedo" data-source="post: 4504574" data-attributes="member: 18781"><p>Hmmm... how to give 4E that 1E feel... 1st level wizards, I mean Magic-Users, that get killed by the house cat? Maybe we can add back in Weapon Speed Factors and weapon bonuses versus armor types? Psionics? Overbearing and grappling and percentage based unarmed combat? (Okay, got to get these giggles under control so I can keep typing...) Okay okay, I've got another one - those - Percentage-based morale rules. Spell component book-keeping and tracking! Training rules - that's it, monetary based training rules for leveling - Must! Come! Back! Bwahahahaha. System shock for Polymorph, Resurrection Failure! Demi-human level limits! Okay, I'll stop... you folks that enjoy those rules, you can have your sacred cows back.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I'd rather not roll back 30 years of progressive game system design. But - <strong><em>I do have constructive ideas </em></strong>- I love old school play, if not always the rules-set.</p><p></p><p><strong>1. Mega-dungeon style play! </strong> Sprawling levels, wandering monsters, rival NPC parties, whimsical magical traps and 'Dungeonland' style side-excursions. T1-4, G1-3, D1-3 etc are still all-time favorite adventures. (YMMV, but Goodman proved with Castle Whiterock that even 3E could support this style play - I loved DMing Whiterock despite my dislike of 3E).</p><p></p><p><strong>2. Challenging the players</strong> ...and not just the characters and their stats (said before by others, but well worth repeating).</p><p></p><p><strong>3. "Gygaxian Ecology" </strong>- 1E MM was brilliant with all of its 60% chance of 2-12 carnivorous apes lairing with hobgoblins and stuff like that. My favorite MM by far.</p><p></p><p><strong>4. Dangerous Wilderness: </strong> Implementing a wilderness encounter system where encounters are based on terrain and frequencies and not encounter level - in 1E D&D it was entirely possible for a low-level party on a wilderness trek to run into a dragon, based on the encounter charts. Too much of the 4E design philosophy is to be "fair" to the players. Um, no. They should know how to run once in a while.</p><p></p><p><strong>5. Cursed Items:</strong> Cursed Items are notoriously absent, without (IMHO) sufficient justification by the designers.</p><p></p><p><strong>6. Death-traps: </strong> I know 4E has limited save-or-die situations, but there still needs to be some obvious TPK situations (flee, flee everyone), slide-traps to lower levels of the dungeon, some 'nigh' unfair traps, and similar threats to keep the PC's honest.</p><p></p><p>4E is a simple system to DM and to create encounters and dungeons, in this way it "feels" much closer to 1E already from a DM's perspective (at least compared to 3E), but some of the ideas above would create more of that 1E feel in actual game-play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="crash_beedo, post: 4504574, member: 18781"] Hmmm... how to give 4E that 1E feel... 1st level wizards, I mean Magic-Users, that get killed by the house cat? Maybe we can add back in Weapon Speed Factors and weapon bonuses versus armor types? Psionics? Overbearing and grappling and percentage based unarmed combat? (Okay, got to get these giggles under control so I can keep typing...) Okay okay, I've got another one - those - Percentage-based morale rules. Spell component book-keeping and tracking! Training rules - that's it, monetary based training rules for leveling - Must! Come! Back! Bwahahahaha. System shock for Polymorph, Resurrection Failure! Demi-human level limits! Okay, I'll stop... you folks that enjoy those rules, you can have your sacred cows back. Personally, I'd rather not roll back 30 years of progressive game system design. But - [B][I]I do have constructive ideas [/I][/B]- I love old school play, if not always the rules-set. [B]1. Mega-dungeon style play! [/B] Sprawling levels, wandering monsters, rival NPC parties, whimsical magical traps and 'Dungeonland' style side-excursions. T1-4, G1-3, D1-3 etc are still all-time favorite adventures. (YMMV, but Goodman proved with Castle Whiterock that even 3E could support this style play - I loved DMing Whiterock despite my dislike of 3E). [B]2. Challenging the players[/B] ...and not just the characters and their stats (said before by others, but well worth repeating). [B]3. "Gygaxian Ecology" [/B]- 1E MM was brilliant with all of its 60% chance of 2-12 carnivorous apes lairing with hobgoblins and stuff like that. My favorite MM by far. [B]4. Dangerous Wilderness: [/B] Implementing a wilderness encounter system where encounters are based on terrain and frequencies and not encounter level - in 1E D&D it was entirely possible for a low-level party on a wilderness trek to run into a dragon, based on the encounter charts. Too much of the 4E design philosophy is to be "fair" to the players. Um, no. They should know how to run once in a while. [B]5. Cursed Items:[/B] Cursed Items are notoriously absent, without (IMHO) sufficient justification by the designers. [B]6. Death-traps: [/B] I know 4E has limited save-or-die situations, but there still needs to be some obvious TPK situations (flee, flee everyone), slide-traps to lower levels of the dungeon, some 'nigh' unfair traps, and similar threats to keep the PC's honest. 4E is a simple system to DM and to create encounters and dungeons, in this way it "feels" much closer to 1E already from a DM's perspective (at least compared to 3E), but some of the ideas above would create more of that 1E feel in actual game-play. [/QUOTE]
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