Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Festivus" data-source="post: 5401734" data-attributes="member: 34532">I'll say this, I DM almost exclusively 4E, and when I have a table of people who know the rules and their characters, it's the same speed as the Pathfinder game I play in.  However, when I tried my hand at DMing Pathfinder, I stumbled a bit and the combat took a little longer because a) I wasn't prepared for the looking up of things... 4E has spoiled me with that, and b) I would get hung up on some rules questions that I didn't fully recall off the top of my head.  Both of those issues were thankfully tempered by my friend who really knows the rules.I think the take away is... if everyone fully understands the rules, speed should not be an issue, regardless of the game engine beneath the story.Let me amend my post a little:  I feel that one thing you have to do in 4E as a GM is trust the players a little to help with speed during combat.  Typically, I have index cards that I write conditions and what not down in shorthand on for the conditions on the players, but I put the onus on the players to remind me when the bad guys turn is up that there is some condition on him.  This does a couple things... 1) keeps the players engaged in what is going on tactically, and 2) frees me up to think more about tactics.  The only conditions I try to pay attention to are those that would be triggered if my guy is marked or in an aura... and that isn't that difficult to do.  If you don't let go of this, you will be lost in the flurry of conditions, particularly at higher levels when there is lots of conditions that can be present... but I find that not very different that a cleric in Pathfinder with 15 buffs up, many that affect the party or enemies, coupled with spell resistance and saving throws.</blockquote>

Verification