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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 5260122" data-attributes="member: 87792">Lots of good general advice above.  So I'm going to go for three 4e specific pieces of advice. 1: Encounter/Short Rest/Daily.  Bad names for what they are.  When plotting and running, think of an encounter as a scene, a short rest as a scene change, and daily as an episode. 2: Fight Scenes.  Fight scenes are a centrepiece of 4e.  Make sure they aren't static line-fights with the two sides lining up to play patty-cake until one drops.  To help, always put in at least one interactive piece of scenery (even if only a window to throw people out of or a camp fire to throw them in).  Also make the spaces fairly large.  And don't run more types of monster than you can cope with. 3: Skill Challenges are your friend - but don't let them near the players.  What they are good for is dealing with improvised plans.  In almost any other game system I know, until you get the hang of it you need to work out what each skill check as part of a plan should be.  In 4e you just find a level for the plan, guess at the complexity (possibly modifying as the plan goes further off the rails), and mark off a tally chart of each success and failure.  DCs are done for you - easy, medium, and hard depending what they are trying.  Just don't let the PCs play mechanically to the skill challenge - they are simply a tool for you to very easily handle the mechanics and keep score so you can focus on the interaction or narrative.</blockquote>

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