Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Invading the castle:Small rooms, small fights, and 4e
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 6269443" data-attributes="member: 2804"><p>If you want to run an old school "clear the dungeon" style game, I wouldn't pick 4e, and I love 4e, but its just the wrong tool for the job. BUT, if you really want to use 4e for this style of play, here are my recommendations and it involves borrowing several things from 13th Age.</p><p></p><p>First, the Escalation Die. You should use this in any 4e game you run, whether its a dungeon crawl or not. No tweaks needed, just drop it in. Second, the core essence of the dungeon crawl is about strategy and logistics. The PCs pit limited magical and health resources against the unknown of the dungeon. The reason 4e isn't ideal for this type of play is that 4e is more focused on in-combat tactics and less on long term resource management. But you can change that.</p><p></p><p>After adding the escalation die, get rid of extended rests. Players can take a short rest whenever, but only recover 1 daily, and 1 surge per hour. Anytime a player goes into negative HP and fails a death save, they take an Injury. What the injury is can vary based on context, but essentially its a cumulative -1 to all d20 rolls the player might make. Injuries can only be removed with a week of bedrest. If you are familiar with 13th Age, its basically a negative Background.</p><p></p><p>Next, use 13th Age mook rules instead of the 4e minion rules. Mook monsters have one quarter to one half the HP of a standard monster, and damage is never wasted. What this means is that a PC crits a mook doing 40 damage. But the mook only has 20 HP left. The remaining 20 HP get applied to the next mook in line. Now all those trash fight monsters become mooks. Players still encounter them, but the fights should be short and ugly in the player's favor. Just like they would be in an OSR dungeon crawl. Oh and mooks are always considered Bloodied for purposes of triggering powers against them.</p><p></p><p>Next is gear and resources. In an old school dungeon crawl, gear matters, and so does using spells to solve problems. I wouldn't use the Inherent bonus rules and make the PCs have to buy or create magical gear. I'd also encourage the use of Rituals, but instead of GP, they cost a surge to cast. Anyone can pay the surge cost. You can charge more surges for higher level rituals if you want, like two surges for paragon, and three for epic. Be sure to track supplies, torches, etc.</p><p></p><p>I'm probably missing a bunch of stuff, but for a message board post, it should get you thinking in the right direction. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dragonblade, post: 6269443, member: 2804"] If you want to run an old school "clear the dungeon" style game, I wouldn't pick 4e, and I love 4e, but its just the wrong tool for the job. BUT, if you really want to use 4e for this style of play, here are my recommendations and it involves borrowing several things from 13th Age. First, the Escalation Die. You should use this in any 4e game you run, whether its a dungeon crawl or not. No tweaks needed, just drop it in. Second, the core essence of the dungeon crawl is about strategy and logistics. The PCs pit limited magical and health resources against the unknown of the dungeon. The reason 4e isn't ideal for this type of play is that 4e is more focused on in-combat tactics and less on long term resource management. But you can change that. After adding the escalation die, get rid of extended rests. Players can take a short rest whenever, but only recover 1 daily, and 1 surge per hour. Anytime a player goes into negative HP and fails a death save, they take an Injury. What the injury is can vary based on context, but essentially its a cumulative -1 to all d20 rolls the player might make. Injuries can only be removed with a week of bedrest. If you are familiar with 13th Age, its basically a negative Background. Next, use 13th Age mook rules instead of the 4e minion rules. Mook monsters have one quarter to one half the HP of a standard monster, and damage is never wasted. What this means is that a PC crits a mook doing 40 damage. But the mook only has 20 HP left. The remaining 20 HP get applied to the next mook in line. Now all those trash fight monsters become mooks. Players still encounter them, but the fights should be short and ugly in the player's favor. Just like they would be in an OSR dungeon crawl. Oh and mooks are always considered Bloodied for purposes of triggering powers against them. Next is gear and resources. In an old school dungeon crawl, gear matters, and so does using spells to solve problems. I wouldn't use the Inherent bonus rules and make the PCs have to buy or create magical gear. I'd also encourage the use of Rituals, but instead of GP, they cost a surge to cast. Anyone can pay the surge cost. You can charge more surges for higher level rituals if you want, like two surges for paragon, and three for epic. Be sure to track supplies, torches, etc. I'm probably missing a bunch of stuff, but for a message board post, it should get you thinking in the right direction. :) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Invading the castle:Small rooms, small fights, and 4e
Top