How do we actually play the game?

[ggroy]

To make combat move faster, all damage has a +level modifier added to it. (Star War Saga Edition had something like this, but with a +level/2 modifier for damage from melee and ranged attacks).

Even with this simple modification, the players tend to go through healing surges a lot faster.

 

[timbannock]

I could be mistaken, but the things I *think* I see the most (as in: are in my game, and the games of others I know/play in/read about):

- Mile stones/action points are handled differently. Various ways, really, but not per core.
- The staff implement/weapon debate is stupid...staffs can be whatever is most beneficial to the caster at the time
- Skill Challenges are often handled in some ways differently (usually just minor -- the DCs are different -- but sometimes major -- like Stalker0's system)
- Limits to magic item dailies are removed or altered

I think the milestones/action points thing has to be the most often house-ruled. The designers wrote it KNOWING that it wouldn't be used as-is, but it made senese to present it the way it is so that there is some "standard" for RPGA or just for reference. But I can't think of anyone who uses them as is.

 

[Zerakon]

Ban Consecrated Ground.

Forced movement doesn't always automatically break a grab. It might give a bonus saving throw, might do nothing, etc. at the DM's discretion depending on the nature of the grab and the forced movement.

Simplify daily magic item use, because the rules are annoying.

 

[JeffB]

Not currently running a 4E game, but I also upped the damage output and dropped monster HP, using The Rayvn's "Brutal 4E" rules he posted over at the Necromancer Games forum way back when. In essence- all weapons/attacks are high crit, dice "explode" and sometimes I reduced monster HPs by 1/4 or so (originally Rayvn was doing 1/2 HP) . Makes combats run quicker and much more "Conan-esque" Burns up the PC healing surges pretty quick too. Here's the thread in question (You will also be able to read the O.A.F. Creation Myth )

I like the "idea" of Skill Challenges though its nothing really new- I remember similar story mechanics in other games (Issaries Herowars/HeroQuest for example). I tend to improvise, be more ad-hoc with them- I reward the payers for good/creative play, and if they act foolish/poorly chances are the "challenge" will not go well for them. Of course sometimes it's simply a matter of "let the dice fall how they may".

 

[Obryn]

- Mile stones/action points are handled differently. Various ways, really, but not per core.

We actually use milestones and action points pretty much as-written, and it works pretty well, IMO.

-O

 

[Storminator]

I think the only change we make is to minions: any time a minion takes damage, it gets a save. Fail and it dies, succeed and and it lives. Crits deny the save.

We haven't run many skill challenges tho, because the ones we ran seemed pretty unsatisfying.

PS

 

[Cadfan]

I play the game as is, with very few exceptions.

I tend not to run skill challenges as written, unless I really feel that they're appropriate for the scene. Instead I just adjudicate like I used to, with players needing to accomplish whatever "makes sense" at the moment. Of course, I have adjusted how I do this as a result of learning about skill challenges- I tend to more heavily favor multiple check skill based encounters and I tend to put more thought into making sure that more characters can be involved at a time. I do use skill challenges for matters that have obvious degrees of success, or which can easily be conceived of in terms of each individual effort contributing to the overall "amount" of success. Use drops of water in a bucket as an example- it doesn't matter how the drops got in there, it just matters how many.

I don't give out XP based on the XP schedule. Instead I just handle level ups like I did in 3e- whenever it feels right. I do use XP for determining combat difficulty, and feel this works reasonably well.

I think minions work incredibly well when there are just a handful of them accompanying other more important monsters. I do not use encounters of nothing but minions. I often use minions in waves as part of reinforcements, as this protects them from single round obliteration. Sometimes I use what we might call respawning minions- skeletons that raise from the dead, for example. As I do not give out XP for monsters killed, this causes no particular problems.

I think that in modules WotC foolishing holds themselves to a strict "add up the monsters" style of determining challenge level and XP. WotC regularly issues realistic but intentionally poor tactics for their monsters, or combines monster synergies in highly effective ways, particularly in combination with terrain that is not officially a hazard and therefore not worth XP. The first results in a challenge of lower difficulty than assigned, and the latter in a challenge of higher difficulty. To give an example of what I mean, imagine a fight with a monster that can push targets it hits two spaces. If you fight this monster in a featureless plane, its worth 1000 xp. If you fight it in a room with a trap that sprays acid, then maybe the encounter is worth 1,200 xp, and you'll see some neat effects when the monster throws a PC into the trap. If you fight this monster in a room with a giant 40 foot deep hole in the floor that isn't a trap, just a feature of the room, the encounter is worth 1000 xp again, even though it may very well be far, far more deadly than the room with the acid. I try to keep careful watch on these things when I run published modules.

There's probably more, but that's what I can think up on the spot.

 

[Noumenon]

I think, for me, skill challenges are the biggest failure to come out of 4e. Every time I see posts about them on the internet, people refer the poster to Mike Mearls articles on DDI as the "correct" way to run skill challenges... and yet I don't think WotC should be charging for this type of column. Since the release of skill challenges many have been unsatisfied with them, and it boggles my mind that instead of WotC offering a free advice article as an update or even just advice on how to get these mechanics right in use (which, if I remember correctly even some of the designers admitted that the wrong incarnation of them were published in the rulebooks). Personally I don't use them too much because I haven't come up with a way that I like to implement them as thay now stand.

Remember how Robin Laws wrote that book you had to pay for, Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, but then they got Robin Laws to write for the 3.5 DMG and most of that stuff got in there? I figure maybe DMG III or IV will have up-to-date skill challenge technology once the community has figured out what it actually is good for.

 

[Noumenon]

Edit: It told me it didn't post the first time because it was too close together!

 

[Dykstrav]

I enjoy the game, but I think they made PCs too hard to kill. I've been playing for 8 months, and DMing for about 2, and I don't think I've ever seen a PC in real danger. It's starting to bother me, and I could see this eventually turning me off the game completely. Success is boring when there's no chance of failure.

Yeah, in my first 4E campaign I had only one character actually die over the course of thirteen levels. That came as a bit of a surprise after previous editions, where I commonly saw a character death every three to four sessions.

After playing in the new heroic tier game I just started, I think that I figured out why characters can be tough to threaten some times: healing surges. What makes combats really dangerous in 4E is when characters start running low on healing surges. It used to be where characters wanted to rest when they started running out of spells for the day. Because powers refresh so quickly, it's healing surges that really become the issue. Attrition is more dangerous than the raw power of the monsters the characters fight.

In that first campaign, the characters were based in a city where they could basically rest any time they wanted. They could easily take on two or three encounters before resting because they always had a safe place to bolt up for the night. In my new game, they're in a wilderness area where I make them check for encounters when they take an extended rest. We had a character death in the second session, and once healing surges hit about half, the characters want to hunker down for the night.