I Humbly Ask Your Advice...

[Knightlord]

I plan on running a 4E adventure (Return of the Burning Plague) on Saturday or Sunday with my combined gaming groups using the Pre-Gen characters. To set the mood, I thought I would use Midnight Syndicate's D&D soundtrack for background music and perhaps order a couple of pizzas so that all around are playing on content stomachs. In addition, I've typed up backgrounds for each of the Pre-Gen characters, in an effort to have the player's establish a connection with the Pre-Gen's and actually role-play them a little.

So, on to my question. I was wondering if perhaps any of you here have any advice on how to further enhance my player's experience? And those of you who have played one of the sample 4E adventure, your advice would especially be most welcome. In general, do you do anything in particular to make the game more enjoyable and immersive?

Note: Let me just add that I do like the concept of 4E, and I am hoping to see 4E succeed. With that in mind, I just want to make clear that this request for advice is not me trying to misrepresent D&D 4E to my players or attempting to unfairly "enhance" the experience. Ie: I'm not adding pizza and music to delude my players into thinking 4E is "SUPER COOL (and tasty )". I am merely asking for what you think would make the game in general more enjoyable to play.

 

[Stormtalon]

Dancing girls. When in doubt, the answer is always "dancing girls."

Whaaat?

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

What I did for my 4E playtest is that I changed the names, some of the races and background of the pregens to actually make them the foes they'd previously defeated in our campaign world; a sidetrek from the current story. It worked out particularly well! I am also running my second pre-gen this weekend on the same premise, with exception that they're taking the mantle of a few of their own followers.

This sort of approach helps invest them into the pregens, and puts them firmly into the current storyline of the ongoing campaign world. They genuinely "care" in a metagame sense because the characters are their followers and in a roleplaying sense, since they have a firm place and understanding of who these people are within the current storyline.

 

[Dragonblade]

Remove the name and gender from the pre-gens and let the players come up with their own names and genders for the characters. This worked well for me in one of my playtests and let the players take a little ownership and pride in the characters even though they didn't make them.

 

[Gundark]

Agree with Dragonblade.

Also lighting...which might be difficult...but if you can adjust the light in the room to enhance the mood you're trying to get it would be cool

 

[TheLordWinter]

Try and include a few extra skill challenges based around the description at the end of the PHB Lite. It details how to handle them and while they take a bit of jumping on your part and the players', it'll help them own the characters and the situation and encourage their role-playing.

 

[Tewligan]

No pineapple on the pizza. That's just effin' gross.

 

[Knightlord]

Thanks so far everyone. I appreciate your thoughts. And yes, pineapples on pizza is just "effin' gross".

 

[Zaruthustran]

Ditto the naming idea. It's a subtle but powerful way to have the players take ownership of the characters.

I'd also let them pick from among the backgrounds you've written.

Other ideas:

1. Introduce some named NPCs in the town. Some healthy, some sick. The sick ones should be pretty pathetic, to instill that "people are counting on us" vibe.

2. Have the kobolds yell at the players in draconic. "Get out of our home!" "Die, devils!", that sort of thing. The *players* are evil, from their point of view.

3. Low light and candles always add atmosphere to a dungeon crawl. Don't go overboard or induce eye strain, but say if you're playing at a dining room table, use just the overhead chandelier and turn off all the other lights, and place the candles at the darkened periphery of the room--not on the table. That way, you'll get that cool "dancing candlelight" effect but still be able to perfectly see the table.

 

[Verys Arkon]

[shameless plug] If you and your players have got the time and inclination, you could try and generate your own 1st level PCs from scratch. I know PrRC is far from perfect, but there is enough known to get a pretty close approximation. The connection with their own characters might be worth a +1 or +2 error in a few of their stats. Granted, power selection is pretty meagre, but even having the option to generate their own ability scores and pick a race could be worth the effort.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you think your players are predisposed to disliking 4e, for whatever reason, you may better served waiting for the books to come out. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if your players aren't already on the 'band-waggon' you might find yourself fighting an uphill battle later on.

Good luck!
Verys