NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ebon Shar" data-source="post: 4214937" data-attributes="member: 50400">As the DM of Devyn's game, I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents (I'm really cheap) and respond to some of the points he raised.  Before I do, however, I'd just like to acknowledge Tom Ko at WOTC, who gave us the opportunity to play this demo.  I know some of you have questioned WOTC's motives with 4E and been skeptical of their business plan, etc, but I have to say that their friendliness and willingness to accomodate their fanbase the way Tom has is testament to their dedication and love of the game.  Thanks, Tom!Thanks, Devyn.  As any DM will tell you, a game is only as good as the players.  I know that I feed off of the energy and enthusiasm of my players, and if you had a good experience, then that speaks well of your skill and creativity.  I really enjoyed having you in my game and I look forward to future games (/love-fest).I agree that the skill challenge portion of any 4E game can make or break the game.  With a DM who is unable to "wing it", the game will quickly descend into a simple dice-rolling excercise.  Unlike the skill challenge in "Escape from Sembia", most will be impromptu and require the Dm to assign difficulty levels on the fly.  Likewise, the path/consequence tree will have to be determined on the fly, which could also be challenging.  If possible, I plan to create a simple if/then flowchart for any skill challenges I might want to use.  I hope it works.I agree that this has detracted a bit from the game for me as well.  While Vancian Magic limited mages in 3.5, being able to continuosly spam magic somehow cheapens Magic as a whole in the game.  I found that the "Big, Bad Mage" in the scenario was less effective than some of his minions simply because he could not deal as much damage as they could.  His spell/power selections were simply not as powerful as the martial power selection of his cohorts.  Mages simply will not be as respected nor as feared as they were in previous editions.  That role will, perhaps, go to the Ranger, who Devyn aptly described as a food processor.  I was simply blown away by his damage output potential.  Perhaps as they increase in level and become more versatile, the mage will recapture that mysterious feeling he had.  I can say that I was disappointed to find most all the mage's spells to be combat oriented.  Perhaps the spell selection was made with the specific module in mind, or perhaps, like others have suggested, combat options have checkmated more role-playing/problem solving aspects of a mage's spell list.  I hope not.I wonder if your dislike of the skill system stems from your dislike of the "passive" skills.  Otherwise, the skill system seems, to me, to be exactly like it was in 3.5.  If you dismiss the passive skills and simply call for a skill roll whenever a passive would have been used, what is your specific complaint?I completely agree.  Tracking all the marks, round by round effects, and conditions did put a strain on the game.  I tried to be as organized as I could be, having pre-colored chits to mark various conditions, yet I still found myself forgetting some conditions and/or saving throws.  I'm sure that my overall lack of familiarity with the system accounts for much of this, but I will have to come up with a method of accounting for round by round changes, especially to such things as AC, speed, and required saving throws.  For my next demo, I think I'll use my initiative chart to make round by round notations to each character to assist my memory.I got this feeling as well, especially with the new emphasis on tactics and teamwork.  While I really enjoyed that aspect (I've never seen a group of strangers work together as well or as quickly as I have in this game), I still felt like the game felt like, perhaps, a more detailed version of the D&D miniatures game.  Again, the structure of the preview scenario emphasized this feeling and I'll wait until we can mix in a little ol' fashioned role-playing before I make a final judgement.I had fun as well and I'm very much looking forward to our KoTS game.  As I said, the players really make the game and I think I've lucked into a bunch of truly creative and energetic people!  Well done on the game, Devyn!</blockquote>

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