D&D 4E House Rules for Old School 4e

[Chainsaw]

I think it's kinda funny that my group adopted what they saw as an "old school D&D" mentality when we first started playing 4E, and they went through 3 parties in 4 nights of gaming.

As I'm sure you will agree, old school means different things to different people depending on what edition they started playing with and how their game was run at that point. Attempting a definition is obviously beyond the scope of this thread, but I think it's safe to say that it's NOT supposed to mean that everyone dies constantly for no good reason. If this is happening in your game, I'm not sure it's old school.

 

[Nytmare]

As I'm sure you will agree, old school means different things to different people depending on what edition they started playing with and how their game was run at that point. Attempting a definition is obviously beyond the scope of this thread, but I think it's safe to say that it's NOT supposed to mean that everyone dies constantly for no good reason. If this is happening in your game, I'm not sure it's old school.

I agree that it was arbitrary IF you weren't on your toes. That's one of things I liked about it. There wasn't much room for error. That's what I'd like to bring back into my 4E games. In my current games, people are just busting down doors left and right, walking in, killing this and that, knowing they've always got several rounds in their back pockets.

I'm sorry, I should have explained that better. That's what I get for posting at 3:00 in the morning.

We went into that campaign with the mindset that we were going to play "old school" and focus on nothing but "kick in the door, murder the residents, collect the loot, repeat the process 20' further down the hallway at the next door."

What we ended up inadvertently stumbling back into with 4E, and a part of the good old, old school days that we hadn't been intending to relive, was the fragile, often tissue thin existence that so many D&D characters had.

 

[Chainsaw]

@Nytmare: Not sure if you quoted both my posts to try to show that I contradicted myself or what, but they seem fairly consistent to me - that if you are not playing carefully and staying on your toes, then you may die very quickly or arbitrarily or both. In my opinion, quick/abritrary death SHOULD be the result of bashing in door after door and charging into room after room with no real attempt to be cautious, quiet or intelligent about the exploration. My 4E group (I am a player) explores recklessly all the time and there is no real penalty. It's partially my DM's fault, for sure. I'm not necessarily blaming 4E.

I'm sorry, I should have explained that better. That's what I get for posting at 3:00 in the morning.

We went into that campaign with the mindset that we were going to play "old school" and focus on nothing but "kick in the door, murder the residents, collect the loot, repeat the process 20' further down the hallway at the next door."

What we ended up inadvertently stumbling back into with 4E, and a part of the good old, old school days that we hadn't been intending to relive, was the fragile, often tissue thin existence that so many D&D characters had.

Ok, so you're saying your guys got creamed repeatedly for reckless adventuring? That's pretty old school, in my experience. I wish my 4E group would have a TPK or two so that we treated more rooms like puzzles than 'smash and grabs.'

 

[buddhafrog]

I think limiting the availability/effectiveness of extended rests and adding more small combats is the key. Plus, I think these two suggestions can be implemented together by simply adding a) more random encounters with minions led by a tougher guy (easy to do in a dungeon where there should be patrols/hunting parties/etc) and b) having more "extending rest" busting interruptions. This may already be happening in alot of groups, but my current DM isn't really doing it.

This is essentially what we're doing most of the time, plus we're not consistenly having the recommended 5 encounters/day. What I like, however, is that the farther the NPC's get into dangerous territory, the more encounters they will face per day, as well as the difficult these encounters will be. These smaller encounters are less immediately deadly, but they do steal HS's if nothing else. I give between 1~5 HS's after a full rest depending on how well they rest. This adds up to the type of game/tension I'm looking for in our group.