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<blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 3452438" data-attributes="member: 1757">I may be bucking the trend here, but I find that IH actually does play smoother than D&amp;D... if you have players who know what they're doing. Not having magic means not having to plan for divination spells, flying, etc., and villain classes make statting NPCs a pretty speedy thing related to D&amp;D.One of the key elements to playing an easier IH game, IMHO, is to just take some of the mechanics off the table. Give the players the responsibility for calculating their numerical stunt and challenge bonuses and penalties (as well as stuff like Combat Expertise and Power Attack), and then just have them tell you what they want to do in narrative terms. If you think the stunt, or skill use, or whatever, is cool enough to be usable, then let the player roll the dice!Zones are slightly trickier, but the dirty secret of them is that you really just should adjudicate them on the fly using the guidelines in Mastering IH. A PC who rolls a 10 or so can achieve a medium result with a zone; one who's aiming for a more extreme result can shoot for a 15 and get a better result. The DM just needs to add one or two fun terrain features to every encounter, but there's no need to stat them out as in the published adventures.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ruleslawyer, post: 3452438, member: 1757"] I may be bucking the trend here, but I find that IH actually does play smoother than D&D... if you have players who know what they're doing. Not having magic means not having to plan for divination spells, flying, etc., and villain classes make statting NPCs a pretty speedy thing related to D&D. One of the key elements to playing an easier IH game, IMHO, is to just take some of the mechanics off the table. Give the players the responsibility for calculating their numerical stunt and challenge bonuses and penalties (as well as stuff like Combat Expertise and Power Attack), and then just have them tell you what they want to do in narrative terms. If you think the stunt, or skill use, or whatever, is cool enough to be usable, then let the player roll the dice! Zones are slightly trickier, but the dirty secret of them is that you really just should adjudicate them on the fly using the guidelines in Mastering IH. A PC who rolls a 10 or so can achieve a medium result with a zone; one who's aiming for a more extreme result can shoot for a 15 and get a better result. The DM just needs to add one or two fun terrain features to every encounter, but there's no need to stat them out as in the published adventures. [/QUOTE]

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