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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 6194869" data-attributes="member: 6668292">Yep, I plan to make this "Five Truths" an ongoing thing, and probably work to get the Wizard involved as well. I'll probably ramp up Vecna's involvement over time, and that should do the trick. All told, all the parts fell into place pretty easily, and it definitely helps this PC contribute out of combat (between this reward and Jack of All Trades, he's not bad at these skills at all).It was about 3am, so yeah, it was setting in for some of us. They are looking forward to next session, though they seemed a bit nervous about the combat (they know the Bard is out of surges, and the dragon has them on edge). But like I said, I like keeping the pressure on them, and I think they like it once they get through it.Combat is pretty tight, and that's nice. Keywords are useful, reading stat blocks / powers is easy for me, etc. All of those are nice to have in the game, and I rarely need to reference the books (and I use the cheat sheet less and less). As far as magic goes, well, I can mostly compare it to my RPG. My RPG has a much broader magic system, but going back to D&D (any edition) and set spells makes things a lot easier during play, in that you can pick your action a little faster (especially if you're one of those "I need to do the most efficient thing" type of players).As the skill system is so very loose, using the Arcana skill to cover whatever I want it to is nice in some ways. As an experienced GM, it's easy for me to think "I see how it applies here." Unfortunately, the group is mostly new (ish) to the game, and this can make it hard for them to come up with ways to use their skills. It also makes it fairly impossible for them to judge how difficult a particular task will be without running it through me first, which can make long term planning a bit harder. It's give and take, but I definitely see the upsides ("you have the Brew Potion ritual, so yes, I'll let you make an Arcana check to rig a bottle of wine to explode").With that in mind, it's not particularly liberating, it's just lighter. In my RPG, skills are very well defined (though you can still use them in ways that aren't listed), and so the players can say "I'm going to do this, as I know the DC. I know what the potential pitfalls are, what my general chances are, and can plan around that." In 4e, everything is getting filtered through me. What's the DC to do this task? Is it genre appropriate? Do they need to run a bunch of potential skill check DCs past me, and then attempt to remember them, when planning things out? This gives me the ability to tailor the game to whatever I feel is appropriate, as DM, which is nice. But, at the same time, it doesn't let me be free of those decisions, and rely on the game for them.Again, it's give and take, and there are upsides and downsides to each method. I went into running 4e knowing this, though, and I've definitely embraced the genre-control aspect of the lighter system. While it's not liberating, it's convenient for controlling the feel of the game, and I certainly don't have a problem with it.</blockquote>

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