D&D 4E Is 4E doing it for you?

[IanArgent]

It wasn't meant to be condescending, but let's be honest. A lot of DMs do not do well at their game precisely because they didn't prepare adequately or didn't bone up on the game as they should've if they wanted to play.

I hated doing prep for 3E. I didn't have the time or desire to do it, so I ran published modules. The underpinnings of the system weren't shown, so I had little guidance on how to adjust them for my particular group of players. I stopped running 3.5 because I didn't have time to do an adequate amount of prep time. Instead, I ran Shadowrun, a game for which I had to do literally no prep for other than pick a couple of plot points out of the air 5 minutes beforehand, and try and make sure I was consistent with the emerging story during the session. Now, there's significant mechanical differences between SR and D&D (mostly in SR's favor); but the main reason SR was so much easier to run is that I knew what the difficulty of a task should be to challenge the team and/or individuals, and could literally make up opponents on the fly based on those numbers and have it just work.

4E gives me what those numbers are on p42 of the DMG. If I don't mind only having monsters with basic attacks, I could run an entire campaign out of p42, the PHB, and my imagination. Add the NPC templates for spice.

3E D&D was an excellent toolkit. But it offloaded too much of the game design onto the DM. Prep time is a function of the system. It's not laziness to desire a lower workload for DM prep. The less time I spend prepping, the more I spend at the table with my friends, having fun.

 

[Obryn]

I specifically did this the first session, and then he printed out cards for everyone on nice thick paper... I felt obliged to use them. I may try alternating for a while to see which I prefer. Certainly the cards have an advantage over my original sheet in terms of containing the whole text of the power. There's no reason I can't recreate them as laid out in the PHB though.

My players love their cards. Just love 'em.

I, personally, use a character sheet and checkboxes to track my elf cleric's powers when I'm playing in another person's game.

Both ways work pretty well. I find just using a sheet more manageable, though.

-O

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

For myself 4e did not do it for me. It was to much like a board game and to me has lost the feel of d&d for me to enjoy it. I'll stick with something else this is where I get off guys.

To the guys enjoying it cool. Have a blast guys.

 

[BryonD]

The less time I spend prepping, the more I spend at the table with my friends, having fun.

I've never understood this claim. When my friends are over and we were at the table, we played. The idea that time available for actual play is preempted to go do prep doesn't make the slightest sense.

My group is probably over around 15 hours a month. We play 15 hours a month. If I prep for 30 hours, we play for 15. If I prep for 1 hour, we play for 15.

Prepping also falls under the heading of "having fun", but that is a separate discussion.

But for me the prep time was (and remains) a non-issue and the loss of the rewards for that prep is a major detraction.

 

[Allister]

The issue with prep-time BryonD is that I suspect many of us just don't have the time we did 10 years ago.

I was a player in a 1e game before high school and became a DM during high school. Keep in mind that not only did I have less distractions during high school than kids today (even with obesity increasing among kids, there simply is more structured extra-circular activities and of course the rise of the videogame) but also I had more free time.

I mean, I doubt I was the only kid who while in school would spend a couple of hours designing adventures or when I got home, had time each day to spend an hour or two for a week to prep for the weekly game.

Now though? If I have a job and a couple of kids?

 

[Ahglock]

not my favorite system, but it is doing a decent job.

 

[Ahglock]

The prep time thing, I don't ge . I'm not spending less time prepping for 4e than any other system. Most of my prep time involves the story,which is system irrelevant. Balancing the encounters etc. I do the same in 4e as i do in every game. I sketch out outline mobs and detail only maor PCs, where again persoanlity/motives/story elements taking the most time. Heck 4e may end up taking longer with all the terrain schenangens that may come up.

 

[Greylock]

Agreed. I don't ge either. But then, I willfully fill every second of prep time I get, whether it's an hour or two weeks.

 

[Hussar]

The prep time thing, I don't ge . I'm not spending less time prepping for 4e than any other system. Most of my prep time involves the story,which is system irrelevant. Balancing the encounters etc. I do the same in 4e as i do in every game. I sketch out outline mobs and detail only maor PCs, where again persoanlity/motives/story elements taking the most time. Heck 4e may end up taking longer with all the terrain schenangens that may come up.

What the heck is that word that was filtered? I can't figure it out.

For me, the only way I DM 3e is using modules. I simply don't have anywhere near the time it takes to create adventures every week to the standards that I expect. I just don't.

Now, whether or not 4e will be better in this regard remains to be seen for me. But, I remain hopeful.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

What the heck is that word that was filtered? I can't figure it out.

You mean you don't get it?