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<blockquote data-quote="Ander00" data-source="post: 4505986" data-attributes="member: 19041">It's all been said before, I believe, and not you don't necessarily have to DM to find out, but some things that I've found:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tweaking/reskinning monsters/NPCs is quick, dirty fun. Substract a level here, swap a power there, change a keyword there.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Initiative. Whether you use a board, cards or something else, it should be plainly visible to everyone to facilitate tactical decisions involving more than just one character.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Counters. We use various counters from games such as Warhammer (both Fantasy and 40k), Gorka Morka, etc., as well as differently colored glass beads for all the conditions and effects. Whatever you use, it helps if you have enough variety so you do not have any serious overlap. I'd rather not memorize a new color-code every encounter if I can avoid it.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Waves of monsters. I've always liked stringing encounters together to create one big, but winnable one, and this works well enough in 4E. You just have to take into account that most healing abilities have a per encounter limit and that the players typically won't want to be restricted to at-will powers for prolonged periods of time.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Solo monsters/terrain. Any fight can be made more exciting by terrain that either or both sides can use to their advantage, and especially solo fights often need something to spice them up (I wish I had added something more to the Calcryx fight in my Sunless Citadel redux yesterday, though the warforged cleric did make a bookshelf come crashing down on the dragon, removing its cover from that side and dealing some damage).</li>
</ul>cheers</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ander00, post: 4505986, member: 19041"] It's all been said before, I believe, and not you don't necessarily have to DM to find out, but some things that I've found: [LIST] [*]Tweaking/reskinning monsters/NPCs is quick, dirty fun. Substract a level here, swap a power there, change a keyword there. [*]Initiative. Whether you use a board, cards or something else, it should be plainly visible to everyone to facilitate tactical decisions involving more than just one character. [*]Counters. We use various counters from games such as Warhammer (both Fantasy and 40k), Gorka Morka, etc., as well as differently colored glass beads for all the conditions and effects. Whatever you use, it helps if you have enough variety so you do not have any serious overlap. I'd rather not memorize a new color-code every encounter if I can avoid it. [*]Waves of monsters. I've always liked stringing encounters together to create one big, but winnable one, and this works well enough in 4E. You just have to take into account that most healing abilities have a per encounter limit and that the players typically won't want to be restricted to at-will powers for prolonged periods of time. [*]Solo monsters/terrain. Any fight can be made more exciting by terrain that either or both sides can use to their advantage, and especially solo fights often need something to spice them up (I wish I had added something more to the Calcryx fight in my Sunless Citadel redux yesterday, though the warforged cleric did make a bookshelf come crashing down on the dragon, removing its cover from that side and dealing some damage). [/LIST] cheers [/QUOTE]

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