DM vs. Heroes: Designing a System for Competitive Play

[Bigassgeek]

I've been playing Descent lately, and while I dig it, I'm very interested in seeing if a similar "DM vs. Players" system could be developed for 4E.

Ideally, I'd like to come up with a balanced system for dungeon design, where the DM would be given a budget of sorts to build and stock a dungeon (stock with not only monsters, but also traps and treasures).

Something I'd like to avoid is DM adjudication of rules. He shouldn't function as referee. The rules should be clear enough so that DM rulings aren't necessary.

There are some interesting ideas in the thread this is split from. I'd like to employ the massive brainpower of the En World community to help make my lil' dream a reality.

Oh, and by the way, I do play 4E as a standard rpg, and love it. I just think 4E's robust tactical combat system could lend itself well to a structured, competitive game.

 

[Wik]

Dungeon Delve was kind of made for just this purpose. The game can very easily be played as a DM vs. PCs sort of thing, provided the Delve was made by a neutral party.

 

[Nifft]

IMHO for competitive play, you want to split the role of DM into:
- Referee
- Monster-guy

It could be a very fun dynamic. Referee sets up the encounters, monster-guy runs the antagonists, referee springs traps and random events (which monster-guy may know about or not).

It would certainly free up the referee to adjudicate more fairly, since none of the dudes on the board would be "his".

Cheers, -- N

 

[awesomeocalypse]

You really just need a 3rd party to design the dungeon. Its way too easy to comb the MM for monsters that if used improperly could easily result in unwinnable encounters, even when sticking to an XP budget. If you have that though, to ensure fair encounter, then the DM can totally play to win and have a really fun game.

 

[Bigassgeek]

I think adventures made by third parties with competitive gameplay in mind could work well. I'm not familiar with Dungeon Delves. How do they handle things like, say, two encounters in adjacent rooms? Do they state explicitly Listen DCs for the monsters in the adjacent room to hear the fight? Or do they stipulate that the second encounter begins when the second encounter area is entered, or do they not go into that much detail and leave such things up to the DM?