Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="King Nate" data-source="post: 4530331" data-attributes="member: 7435">My first game experience was with Keep on the Borderlands and its “sandbox” style. I ran that game like crazy, I can’t remember how many times my players were remaking new characters and playing the “same” game all over again getting a different experience each time.When I discovered other modules and adventures I couldn’t conform to the strict rules set by them. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would waste time playing the game any other way than the sandbox version. (I might still have this problem today, but it’s nowhere near as bad, oh and it I didn’t have the fancy sandbox name at that time or I might have realized why I was having this problem).I’m currently working on converting KotB to 4e for my homebrewed campaign. Some of these issues I had encountered while doing so. This is what I have done.FIRST: The original adventure was set for 6-9 players levels 1-3. My idea was to recreate every encounter as a first level encounter then label them, easy, standard, hard, and Irontooth. The plan is to allow players to go to any “level” of the caves. When the players level up, I modify the encounter for a level 2 party sticking with my easy, standard, etc. 4e isn’t the first to come up with scaling encounters to the players, here’s a couple pages from the 1977 Basic game. <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/Basic_1977.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a> The second paragraph tells us to keep the dangers appropriate to level. Then the third paragraph says to make sure that knight talk in flowery phrases like “thou” instead of “you” and that characters should swear to Zeus, Crom, or Cthulhu!SECOND: Forget the parcel thing. I still keep the balance but I’m not tied to parcels. Level one treasure parcel for five characters gives you 4 magic items and a Total Monetary Treasure worth 720gp. In a sandbox game you don’t know where your players are going so instead of throwing 10 parcels out there you don’t use parcels. If the characters pick-pocket someone and gains 20gp, I subtract that from their Total Monetary Treasure. If they kill a goblin and he has 3 cp, I subtract that as well. When building encounters I indicate the places I would like to have magic items. When the players reaches one of those spots I mark off a magic item. If they don’t have any magic items or gold left in their Total Monetary Treasure then they get nothing, but part of my job is to make sure I spread the TMT evenly and realistically throughout their level. By the end of their level they should be getting the last pieces of gold and magic items from their TMT. Using the Total Monetary Treasure number instead of parcels. Potion of healing cost 50gp, potion of vitality cost 1000gp, a potion of recovery cost 250pp, and a potion of life cost 1250pp. Just like it is in the player’s handbook, you could also use other consumable items by subtracting their cost from the TMT.   THIRD: Experience Points: While I still use actual numbers on page 121 of the DMG gives an alternative to handing out experience points. Simpler Experience Points says that you tell the players that they gain a level after they complete eight to ten encounters. Don’t count really easy encounters, count really hard encounters as two, and don’t worry about precise XP totals. If you use this method and the players continue to stay on a weaker level, just lower the difficulty of the encounter a notch (standard becomes easy) in addition on page 123 of the DMG says you are well within your right to tell a player that an encounter doesn’t count towards a milestone. Very easy encounters shouldn’t contribute towards a milestone. These two things could help motivate players to change levels.  FINALLY: Wandering Monsters: I use two different types of Wandering Monsters. The first is the randomly determined kind. These are either standard or hard premade generic (in some cases not so generic) encounters. You still gain XP and Treasure from them just subtract it from the TMT. The other kind are penalty wandering monsters, characters are not being careful, making bunch of noise, etc. These are easy premade generic encounters that do not count towards milestones, have no treasure, and if you are using the experience suggestion above they won’t count towards gaining levels either. Player’s shouldn’t want these type of encounters and should take steps to avoid them. They just get in the way and use up resources.</blockquote>

Verification