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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5584481" data-attributes="member: 82106">I agree that 4e allows a bit of leeway in terms of running away or regrouping that AD&D generally didn't. That is a feature that caters well to less controlled sandbox type environments.I'm not sure that AD&D (and 1e specifically) really TRIED to cater to off-level encounters. In fact the early days of the game were pretty heavily dominated by a dungeon crawling convention where you had a very good idea of what sort of threats you would face. Even the random dungeon encounter tables/wandering monster tables were keyed to dungeon level (albeit you could run into some fairly nasty encounters and some very easy ones). Wilderness play was a bit different, but it was also adapted more for mid to high level adventuring. Once the PCs were approaching name level they concept seemed to be that then they would start pushing out into the unclaimed wilds, generally bringing along a significant entourage of henchmen, porters, etc. You would run into all manner of stuff out there, but a clever group would rarely be completely outclassed by what tended to be beasts, large bands of humanoids, and certain types of beastial monsters. My experience was that typically the worry was attrition in a situation where you might wander far enough from a base if you were imprudent that you would get in trouble with the 2nd or 3rd nasty wandering monster of the trip.I think later versions of the game, 2e to a large extent and definitely 3e/4e simply moved away from the 'hexcrawl' type mode of play and focused more and more on module based story driven adventures. Certainly the purveyors of RPGs seem to have found that to be the direction that was most lucrative (you can sell adventures and in any case most people are more interested in stories than in playing out highly wargamey land conquest games). Notice how Paizo has a whole adventure path now that pulls in a lot of hexcrawl style elements. It is pretty good, but it also has a fairly strong plot as well. Kind of the best of both worlds in a way. I think that might be a rather good model for a 4e game. I'm thinking I may do something similar for my next 4e campaign, place the PCs in a PoL type area with large areas of dangerous wilderness and a few small but established communities which are starting to push out to reclaim it. There can be ancient titles, warlords, all sorts of other complications, but the general thrust will be the PCs eventually claiming territory, clearing it, and moving on into a higher level game of rivalry with other would-be petty kings. Could make a good dynastic game too if it goes long enough.</blockquote>

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