Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6461205" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Not a problem.  Your efforts and this thread is one of the few reasons I'm inclined toward visiting this board anymore.  So glad to help and read of your adventures.Good stuff.  One of the great things about the Themes and Paragon Paths of 4e is how thematically provocative most (but not all) are and how richly they are tie into the conflicts and antagonists that 4e puts front and center.  With those 3 PPs, I'm sure you'll have plenty to work with. I find that forcing the PCs to deal with threats that they can't hack away at (eg they have to deal by deploying tactical countermeasures - eg Medium Acrobatics check - or preemptive strategy) becomes a better and better expenditure of your encounter budget XP as the game progresses:a)  It lowers the total HPs required to burn through to "win" an encounter.b)  If the hazards/traps are appropriately synergized (thematically and mechanically) with the rest of the encounter, it forces the players to think "one or two moves down the line" and approach the resolution of the encounter through vectors beyond DEPLOY MOAR HURT; eg they avoid this or that, because it hurts and its action economy doesn't go away at 0 HP...because it doesn't have any HP, while they are doing this other thing.c)  Keeps fights mobile and interactive as they're supposed to be in 4e.They do.  Just keep in mind to use something like (Encounter Power - Free Action - roll ST at the start of your next turn) sparingly and only for important bad guys.  You want to reward the deft use of control effects, but "named" bad guys should have abilities to at least attempt to shrug one off now and again (so it doesn't disproportionately impact a fight coupled with a big nova round).For instance:1 level 8 Elite Swarm (which is an abstract form of a commander and a bunch of his shock troops) @ 700 xp.At Bloodied, break it out into the Standard (Leader) commander (350 xp) who is at Bloodied and 4 minions (88 xp apiece * 4 = 352 xp or ~ 350) for the final standoff between the (worn down or maybe rallying) good guys and the BBG and his troops.If you don't mind, I'm going to copy and paste (and sblock) a post that I did on another thread (of which I didn't care to respond to the response because [a] it was unresponsive and it was probably too off-topic and I didn't want to derail further).  It will be helpful here to convey my thoughts (which I'll try to sum up at the bottom).[sblock]"Player-focused" design causes an internal feedback loop that consistently gives myself and my players a satisfying gaming experience.For instance, in a current Dungeon World game I'm running, my players are playing the following characters:The system rewards 1 XP to players for each of the following things:1) Fail a "move" (roll a 6 or less)2) Fulfill your alignment3) Resolve a bond4) At the end of each session, these three questions are answered as a group:- Did we learn something new and important about the world?- Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?- Did we loot a memorable treasure?For each “yes” answer everyone marks XP.It is a tightly designed system marrying these components, the basic resolution mechanics, player moves, GM moves, and very transparent and focused GMing principles. Given my two PCs, here is a short list of thematically laden scenes/conflicts I should be framing them into:1) An antagonist defiles an innocent specifically or innocence as an idea, especially if it can manifest as an opportunity for a duel - Otthor.2) A set of precepts that a society is ordered around which may have some tension (which she could perceive as unjust) built within them to perpetuate the culture's values or fundamental needs (such as exploitation of a particular caste, might equals right, or over-burdensome debt/duty fulfillment) - Saerie.3) Opportunities for Otthor to clash with the people of this world and opportunities for Saerie to learn from them - both.4) Opportunities for Otthor to be bewildered or awe-struck by the wilderness so Saerie may teach him its ways, price, and boons - both.5) The people of Gilliad's Rest needs to be placed in peril - Saerie.6) I need to put in place strong, wicked, and exploitative antagonists that advantage themselves by or mistreat the weak, the meek, and the downtrodden - Otthor.7) We need to learn through play just what the lost art of the Bladesong is and how it may be found/recovered - Otthor.8) I need to give both of them opportunities to strut their thematic stuff (moves) from their classes/race:a) Duels (especially with humanoids) + gallant warriory stuff that lets him express his martial/magical prowess, his boldness, and his accrued martial mental acumen - Otthor.b) Hunting/tracking/treking/stalking; living in the unforgiving wilds on the strength of your own skill and your loyal animal companion alone - Saerie.9) Together, we need to learn new stuff about the world and about the characters as we "play to find out what happens"; Which means low prep (no over-riding metaplot that dictates the play agenda in place of the "player-focused feedback loop") and very low resolution setting (as this will emerge through play).With even a modicum of GMing skill and proactive players, it inexorably funnels play precisely toward that "player-focused feedback loop" that you apparently are not a fan of.[/sblock]So that is Dungeon World and its Alignment and Bonds.  However, other games, including Marvel Heroic's Milestones and Mouse Guard's (Burning Wheel derivative) Beliefs/Goals, do the same.  4e with its Minor Quest system fills this system niche; elegantly and transparently synthesizing character (player) objectives/rewards in a simple feedback loop of the game (which pushes play towards where its meant to go).If you're interested at all, you may want to just take a look at <a href="http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/playing-the-game#TOC-Alignment" target="_blank">http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/playing-the-game#TOC-Alignment</a> and the examples of Bonds for each of the classes and elsewhere.  They're extremely brief, extremely transparent, focused goals for a PC in a game session.  You could easily just have each of your players pick one and you could weave them into play.  Once resolved, they can pick a new one.  Or not <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  Either way, enjoy.</blockquote>

Verification