D&D 4E JamesonCourage's First 4e Session

[JamesonCourage]

You're pretty dialed in already. That is a great second session and good job documenting it (the mechanics conjoined to the narrative are clear and present).

Thanks I felt like I had a pretty strong grip on things during play, and the players are having a great time, so all seems to be going well thus far.

On the "Arcana Bomb" thing, that is one of the great things about 4e. There are lots of ways to handle this. You can:

- You can just as easily page 42 it and use a fitting damage expression and downsize contingent upon effects added (down one for burst, down one for slow, etc). What is truly great is that, if there is no real gain in the action economy, you can just adlib some kind of cool X-Men like "Fastball Special" whereby (in the fiction) the Wizard pulls a small pint of Witchfire (or some other genre name) from a bandolier, says a word or two, taps it with wand and tosses it to the Monk when the Monk says "Bartender. Brew please!" The Monk then tosses it at the bad guys (burst 1 in 10, creatures, L + 3 vs Ref, 1d6 + 3 fire) and the "Arcane Bomb" explodes with the equivalent punch of a standard At-Will. No action economy gain over the monk just using a standard at-will. Just some fun, handy utility (but not overpowering) and some narrative dynamism. Win.

Yep, I plan to lean heavily on page 42 whenever the players try to do stuff like this. The Wizard started the game out only knowing the Brew Potion ritual, too, so when she asked if she could alter the wine in the bottle, it seemed fine to me, since page 42 will generally keep things in check mechanically. She was the only player missing this last session, but I'm hoping that she keeps up the out of the box thinking. It's very cool to see that, and it's a great trait that "new" players bring to the game. I plan to keep rewarding it, rather than punishing it.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

That was another great write-up, [MENTION=6668292]JamesonCourage[/MENTION].

I particularly liked this bit:

The Warpriest said that it was his time to die, and then killed the Shadowmancer. Afterwards, the mark of death of still on the Shadowmancer (very unusual), and a successful Religion indicated that he should retrieve it. When he picked it up, I gave him The Raven Queen's Shroud alternative reward. In-game, he can now mark people for death, and The Raven Queen will give her blessing on it (good for his quest).

Alternative rewards are one of my favourite parts of the game and I really liked the way you handed this out.

 

[JamesonCourage]

That was another great write-up, JamesonCourage.

Thanks! We're scheduled to play Tuesday, and I'm debating whether or not to post about it again. I'm not sure if we've reached a "we get it, you guys played 4e" point yet.

I particularly liked this bit:

Alternative rewards are one of my favourite parts of the game and I really liked the way you handed this out.

I definitely like them a lot. I didn't even know about them until I started to go over the compendium, but I'm keeping my eye on them. So far, three PCs have them (two Kord-related blessings for the followers of Kord, and The Raven Queen's Shroud for the Warpriest), and the players seem more interested in these than in magic items (though the dwarf quite liked his new Warhammer). The player of the Warpriest seemed very, very happy about his new reward (now that he can now mark people), so I'm glad I gave that one out.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing where things go on Tuesday, and I may or may not post about it. Either way, it should be a fun session. I feel like I'm really getting the hang of 4e, and I'm glad I have a good group for it

 

[Manbearcat]

You should continue to post your sessions. I'm enjoying reading them and I'm sure that plenty of others are as well. At this point I'm just basically reading your posts, enjoying the recap, checking for questions, answering them if they haven't been addressed and if I see an area that some insight may help, I'll offer it. I'm sure plenty of others are doing the same.

 

[D'karr]

Thanks! We're scheduled to play Tuesday, and I'm debating whether or not to post about it again. I'm not sure if we've reached a "we get it, you guys played 4e" point yet.

You should continue to post your sessions. I'm enjoying reading them and I'm sure that plenty of others are as well. At this point I'm just basically reading your posts, enjoying the recap, checking for questions, answering them if they haven't been addressed and if I see an area that some insight may help, I'll offer it. I'm sure plenty of others are doing the same.

Yep, I'm enjoying them too. I'm waiting for any questions that might crop up.

 

[JamesonCourage]

You should continue to post your sessions. I'm enjoying reading them and I'm sure that plenty of others are as well. At this point I'm just basically reading your posts, enjoying the recap, checking for questions, answering them if they haven't been addressed and if I see an area that some insight may help, I'll offer it. I'm sure plenty of others are doing the same.

Yep, I'm enjoying them too. I'm waiting for any questions that might crop up.

Well, that's cool if others are following along! It's interesting to attempt to use everything from my first thread (which I went over again yesterday). I don't have too many questions about running things yet, and so far I've been okay looking stuff up online that I can't find in the compendium (like how a passive/active familiar works, which I did find).

But, we're only two sessions in. I expect I'll run into questions. If not, if people have input, I'm always open to that, too. I know my use of skill challenges / quests may not be standard, so input on that stuff is always welcome. Thanks for the help.

 

[Kinak]

Yep, I'm enjoying them too. I'm waiting for any questions that might crop up.

Me too!

I'm not even a 4e'er and I'm enjoying following along. Keep it up!

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Manbearcat]

But, we're only two sessions in. I expect I'll run into questions. If not, if people have input, I'm always open to that, too. I know my use of skill challenges / quests may not be standard, so input on that stuff is always welcome. Thanks for the help.

I'm not sure how unorthodox your SCs are. From reading your sessions, they look very similar to the way I run my own. Mechanically and philosophically my SCs manifest in play basically precisely in the same way as MHRP conflict resolution. The successes are basically the "stress" for the challenge/conflict. The failures are basically the "stress" for the PCs. I frame the scene with respect to the stakes/context so there is clear thematic direction/focus. Mechanical markers are placed on the table. I pressure one player specifically to start it off. Player responds, fiction-first. I move around the table doing the same with respect to the the narrative evolution. Sometimes players pass the conch to each other for their respective "panel" if the prior player's panel was a support action. Pacing basically follows Freytag's Dramatic Structure. Results emerge. I have my own techniques (which I've written in various threads) but fundamentally I suspect most of us are doing the same thing. Your encapsulation of your own looks pretty unremarkable from what I do.

I was thinking of making a thread, basically a Skill Challenge Depot, where as each of us game and run a Skill Challenge that we particularly enjoyed, we could scribe it revealing running narrative married to mechanics (in much the same fashion as you have). I think such a repository might be of good use for everyone as we would have a place to go for content ideas, tutorials, and insight into various techniques. Its quite clear that the format in adventures/DMG is pretty terrible and doesn't reflect what happens in play (or what should happen in play). Again, I would highly recommend MHRP (both advice and practice in playing) for folks new to Skill Challenges who want to learn/master them.

 

[JamesonCourage]

I'm not sure how unorthodox your SCs are. From reading your sessions, they look very similar to the way I run my own. Mechanically and philosophically my SCs manifest in play basically precisely in the same way as MHRP conflict resolution. The successes are basically the "stress" for the challenge/conflict. The failures are basically the "stress" for the PCs. I frame the scene with respect to the stakes/context so there is clear thematic direction/focus. Mechanical markers are placed on the table. I pressure one player specifically to start it off. Player responds, fiction-first. I move around the table doing the same with respect to the the narrative evolution. Sometimes players pass the conch to each other for their respective "panel" if the prior player's panel was a support action.

This sounds pretty much like I run them. Mechanical markers on table, go around the table for checks (on initiative for my group), players can "aid" others to basically skip their turn (though they still need to say how they're helping / what they're doing, and then roll), put pressure on the PCs when they fail, etc.

I was thinking of making a thread, basically a Skill Challenge Depot, where as each of us game and run a Skill Challenge that we particularly enjoyed, we could scribe it revealing running narrative married to mechanics (in much the same fashion as you have). I think such a repository might be of good use for everyone as we would have a place to go for content ideas, tutorials, and insight into various techniques. Its quite clear that the format in adventures/DMG is pretty terrible and doesn't reflect what happens in play (or what should happen in play).

That could be really cool, actually. My favorite skill challenge from my 4e sessions thus far has been the Shadowfell portal challenge, because it had a lot of tension (someone dropping in it, the Warpriest player knowing how bad it was to mess with the Shadowfell this early on, etc.). But it also had some really cool moments, too, like the Warpriest (an ordained priest) stopping to pray for aid directly from The Raven Queen (though this was a failure, and he felt an evil deity blocking his goddess from helping), or the dwarven Fighter using Endurance to absorb damage for the dying Monk (which mechanically brought her back up from dying after it erased a failure).

I'd make the thread. Lots of cool stuff that people can use there, and I'd be sure to visit it as long as it keeps going.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) I know my use of skill challenges / quests may not be standard, so input on that stuff is always welcome. Thanks for the help.

I think skill challenges are in 4E are like combat in OD&D or AD&D 1E/2E: if it works for your group it's good enough.