Basic Four

[Garthanos]

Personally I have considered mashing Birthright setting into 4e.

 

[cavalier973]

Personally I have considered mashing Birthright setting into 4e.

[video=youtube_share;BaIKTUkjZd8]https://youtu.be/BaIKTUkjZd8[/video]

 

[Garthanos]

4e does have Bloodline feats and Dragonmarks which are also basically bloodlines...

 

[Raith5]

Interesting ideas - I think 4e and basic have some complementary sensibilities. But I think one thing to make this task easier is to start with levels 1-3 first to see if the basic (hah) idea works well. I think things like 4e skills and feats can be left as optional modules with stat checks as the default.

 

[Tony Vargas]

XP for Treasure is definitely on the table, but how much XP should be awarded for killing monsters?

Depends on what you're going for...
If you like the idea of lucking into a massive haul resulting in a sudden leap in competence, sure, give exp for treasure, and place treasure & monsters however.

If you like the idea of encouraging players to avoid fights, but overcome challenges, give exp for treasure, but place the treasure behind monsters &skill challenges normally worth that exp. Go through either and you've earned the exp, pick pointless fights, OTOH, no exp...

Race-as-class? Of course. How would one build the Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling classes?

Race-as-class is little more than combining race & class. Halfling?
Halfling Thief. Dwarf? Dwarven Fighter. Elf? Eladrin Bladesinger.

At name level (9, or 10?), what rules would facilitate the "political" side of the game

Name level maps neatly to Paragon, you could have a Paragon Path for each class that did that...

Rolling for stats...maybe 2d6+6, in order, instead of 3d6?

No, just no. ;p
Maybe randomize stat placement? ...use an array, but roll which score goes where...

I don't think it possible to implement non-variable (d6) weapon damage, but I would like to try.

Just give all damage by powers instead of weapon, and give them in 'dice' - d6s - of damage. Weapons could have a modifier per die, it'd be about equivalent to a larger die

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

For the elf class I'd start with the Bladesinger. The dwarf would default to fighter, but maybe runepriest for something a bit different? Halflings might be best done as DEX rangers so as to distinguish them from thieves.

You'll want to find a way to integrate Diplomacy skill into the reaction table, and Intimidate skill into morale rolls.

Just make reaction a Diplomacy check and Morale (IE the enemy breaking) a function of Intimidate, so you can ROLL to break your opponents, taking up a standard action to do so, and the DC is based on typical morale factors, making it VERY hard to do at the start of a battle and then increasingly easy. Undead of course just ignore the whole thing!

I like the 'halflings as rangers' idea. I'd make elves Fighter/Wizard hybrid (yeah, its awkward, well you wanted to be an elf, deal!). Dwarves could be barbarians, or they could be a Slayer, wielding a big axe of course!

Paragon paths would take care of the 'political game', you'd just have to write up several of them that provide for variations of becoming a local ruler.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

that seems rather a cosmetic difference(it pretends it is more important than it is)

Now if you really want to implement casting/performance speed having an impact on effect power you can justify a 2 round action or 1 round action where the caster is mostly disabled in the second or one with a round of prep and a round of cool down being the basis of making more potent effects. kind of like 1 round = at-will, 2 round = encounter, 3 round = daily.

The easy way to handle this is a 'sliding' initiative system, or what was once called a 'clock' system. At the start everyone is placed at a point on the 'clock' based on dex or a check result or whatever. whenever your turn comes up you take an action which eats up some defined amount of 'hours' on the clock, and place your next turn at the point where the action ends (you can also have actions take effect at that point, so you are pre-declaring them much like old D&D). Cast a 9 segment spell, you will not be doing much for a while. Wield a dagger, you can stab pretty fast!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

You can think of XP for gold as basically what 4e has now. Win an encounter, you get a set amount of gold, and a set amount of XP. Its effectively the same thing, modulo the GM might group treasure parcels and give them out at the end of an adventure or piece of one, etc. Anyway, XP for treasure really wouldn't be a huge change, though you could obviously make it so depending on how you implemented the treasure rules.

 

[cavalier973]

You can think of XP for gold as basically what 4e has now. Win an encounter, you get a set amount of gold, and a set amount of XP. Its effectively the same thing, modulo the GM might group treasure parcels and give them out at the end of an adventure or piece of one, etc. Anyway, XP for treasure really wouldn't be a huge change, though you could obviously make it so depending on how you implemented the treasure rules.

Do players have different motivations from their characters, do you think?

It seems to me that the XP for Treasure scheme was an attempt to align the player's goals with that of their characters--the characters originally being considered to be Howardian sword-and-sorcery treasure hunters rather than Tolkienian epic heroes.

 

[Garthanos]

If you like the idea of encouraging players to avoid fights, but overcome challenges, give exp for treasure, but place the treasure behind monsters &skill challenges normally worth that exp. Go through either and you've earned the exp, pick pointless fights, OTOH, no exp...

Question becomes how much experience for saving the pauper girl when you do not get explicit wealth reward.... fine if you just saved a prince and you get money. But was saving the one pointless and the other a prize?

Ofcourse if you are using my Karma Point extension this works just fine