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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storminator" data-source="post: 6176390" data-attributes="member: 305">Great thread so far James - I kept reading faster and faster so I could get to the posting. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Couple of random thoughts I've had as I've readLeveling: In my game, the players decide when they level. I just salute their decision and level up my monsters. That lets them decide when they need new toys. Worked flawlessly so far.Minions. Sometimes I'll put out a Standard monster or two and a batch of minions, then pick which one is the Standard at the last possible moment. Someone hits a monster and pushes him over the cliff? He fails his save (no roll) and falls to his death (he was a minion). Let the PCs do their cool cinematic maneuvers and drop people until a dramatic moment needs a monster with some sticking power.First level fights: Those PCs will be much tougher than other 1st level PCs in your experience, so pick a fair encounter then fight them viciously.Fight pacing: Usually during the 2nd round, when my monsters come up, I stop and give a summary of the fight so far, and how I see thing standing. Something like: "you burst into the guard room and killed the door guard. His troopers then formed a wall half way thru the room, and they've been holding. Reinforcements are coming, and the first javelin thrower has arrived. If you don't break thru the shield wall you'll be in real trouble." Sometimes the players need to understand how you see things.Terrain powers/effects: The biggest problem I see with these is subtly presenting that an item might be useful, then it's never touched. Tell folks the cauldron can be pushed over and boiling soup poured on the enemy. Don't be shy, at least until the players grok your work.Wish lists: Granting treasure is the one part of 4e I find generally unsatisfying. Wish lists don't really help. Getting exactly the obscure neck slot item you need to complete your build doesn't really add a lot of punch to the looting moment. I don't have an answer to this (I'm on my 4th version of handing out treasure . . . ) but keep in mind that it might need tweaking.Expertise Feats: A common refrain is that if you give out the Expertise feats for free, PCs are able to take more flavorful feats with their slots. IME, they take Improved Defenses (another math fix and no more interesting). Instead, I give them free flavorful feats. Specifically, I give them a free Skill Training per tier, and a free Skill Power per tier. My games are HEAVILY skill focused, so they still feel starved for skills (except the bard . . .)Story focus: All 4e game elements can easily be recast to match the story elements you want to present. Look at everything thru that lens, and you'll soon run the game you WANT to run, while giving your players the game they want to play. I have no doubt you'll soon master this. When you do, throw your ideas back to us!Good luck!PS</blockquote>

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