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How to speed up combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 8233648" data-attributes="member: 11999"><p>4E really needed a couple of good adventures that demonstrated how to play to its strengths right from the start. I assume the fact that it didn't was a result of the rushed development timeline.</p><p></p><p>This sums up my experience with 4E almost exactly. Except I only ran 8 sessions before we abandoned it. </p><p></p><p>Part of the problem was me being really out of practice DMing (hadn't truly played regularly since the mid 90s, and only ran maybe a dozen 3.x sessions over its lifespan). So I would fall back on my TSR D&D instincts, which were often at odds with how 4E was designed.</p><p></p><p>The other main issue was that of my four players, only one actually owned or read any of the 4E books. Two of the players were new to the game and only playing because their partners were, and I had never previously had any problems with that -- give the new/casual player a fighter and explain things as we go along. Attack roll, damage roll, AC, HP gets you 90% of the way there for rules you're likely to encounter in the first 30 minutes or so.</p><p></p><p>But core 4E doesn't have anything as mechanically straightforward as that, and a new player needs to understand a lot more mechanics right from the start. Essentials came along just after we started so I converted their characters over to help simplify (and it did). But even the simplest 4E classes have a greater cognitive load than a 1e to 3e Fighter. With only one player out of four having any familiarity with 4E, there was a heavy burden on me to help the new/casual players learn how their characters worked.</p><p></p><p>I'm sure my experience would have been more positive if I hadn't been coming out of a decade long hiatus from DMing with any regularity, and if I'd had a more invested group of players who were motivated to read up on their own. More than any other edition of D&D, I think that 4E really needs a minimum level of player investment to shine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keldryn, post: 8233648, member: 11999"] 4E really needed a couple of good adventures that demonstrated how to play to its strengths right from the start. I assume the fact that it didn't was a result of the rushed development timeline. This sums up my experience with 4E almost exactly. Except I only ran 8 sessions before we abandoned it. Part of the problem was me being really out of practice DMing (hadn't truly played regularly since the mid 90s, and only ran maybe a dozen 3.x sessions over its lifespan). So I would fall back on my TSR D&D instincts, which were often at odds with how 4E was designed. The other main issue was that of my four players, only one actually owned or read any of the 4E books. Two of the players were new to the game and only playing because their partners were, and I had never previously had any problems with that -- give the new/casual player a fighter and explain things as we go along. Attack roll, damage roll, AC, HP gets you 90% of the way there for rules you're likely to encounter in the first 30 minutes or so. But core 4E doesn't have anything as mechanically straightforward as that, and a new player needs to understand a lot more mechanics right from the start. Essentials came along just after we started so I converted their characters over to help simplify (and it did). But even the simplest 4E classes have a greater cognitive load than a 1e to 3e Fighter. With only one player out of four having any familiarity with 4E, there was a heavy burden on me to help the new/casual players learn how their characters worked. I'm sure my experience would have been more positive if I hadn't been coming out of a decade long hiatus from DMing with any regularity, and if I'd had a more invested group of players who were motivated to read up on their own. More than any other edition of D&D, I think that 4E really needs a minimum level of player investment to shine. [/QUOTE]
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