D&D 4E My 12th 4E Demo

[Dragonblade]

Nice read! Well done, Fitz!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Did the new-to-gaming players enjoy it?
What did the oldschoolers think?

The newbies stuck around for a bit and talked about it. The women (girlfriends of the 3.5 players.) really got a handle on their characters quite quickly. They had a little help from their boyfriends at first, with deciding what to do, and they weren't afraid to ask me questions, but by the end they were pretty much making all their decisions on their own, and had the math down. The Warlock's player really liked her blasting power (it helped that she had most of the killing blows in the first fight.) and The Dwarf Fighter's player really enjoyed being kicked by the Skelelal Colossus. I think she felt tough, by getting booted by a giant and picking herself up from the dirt to run back at it...

I'm not so sure about the oldschoolers as they had to run out the door, but I'll talk to the playe r of the Eladrin Fighter on Wed, and the player of the Rogue shook my hand and thanked me. He had a few bad moments like being shot bloodied by an archer early on and trying to get at the necromancer only to take a Crit Ray of Pain and failing a few saving throws. Spent alot of time failing ang getting thumped, so the dice weren't going his way. He DID manage a few cool moves like using the arm of a dwarven statue to swing from and flip off of a dias and roll to his feet in front of a skeleton and stab it... so he got the flavour I"m sure.

Fitz

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My question is, how much difficulty are the new players and yourself having, if any, in keeping track of things like which monster they've marked, and which monster is bloodied, etc? Are you using any tricks to make it easier....is the burden of keeping up with it all on the DM, or is it just a non-issue that I shouldn't worry about? Does it slow the game down significantly? Or is it possible that you just haven't had to worry much because of the relative low number of monsters in the demos?

Well, there WERE 12 skeletons in the first fight, 9 minions and 3 archers. I haven't had much trouble keeping track of marks in my head, but I've been thinking of simply cutting small pieces of post-it to stick on the bottom of miniatures just to make sure none are missed. Similarly, I've just been using greater description when something gets bloodied, the same way most DMs will step up the description for the kill-shot. I've been calling bloodied "broken" when it comes to skeletons, and describing them missing a limb or head and still fighting.

As for conditions, which I think are harder to deal with than marks, I give out cards with "Ongoing Damage" or "Dazed, Stunned" or "Slowed, Immobilized" and the effects written on 'em. Hand the card back when you make the save (or otherwise meet the end of the condition)

I agree that the mark is the only rule that breaks the "ease" of play standard for 4E and I think they could have found a better way to do it, but it's not too bad.

Fitz

As far as the Warlock goes, yup I mistakingly wrote Wizard. Fixed it, thanks

 

[Gargoyle]

Well, there WERE 12 skeletons in the first fight, 9 minions and 3 archers. I haven't had much trouble keeping track of marks in my head, but I've been thinking of simply cutting small pieces of post-it to stick on the bottom of miniatures just to make sure none are missed. Similarly, I've just been using greater description when something gets bloodied, the same way most DMs will step up the description for the kill-shot. I've been calling bloodied "broken" when it comes to skeletons, and describing them missing a limb or head and still fighting.

As for conditions, which I think are harder to deal with than marks, I give out cards with "Ongoing Damage" or "Dazed, Stunned" or "Slowed, Immobilized" and the effects written on 'em. Hand the card back when you make the save (or otherwise meet the end of the condition)

I agree that the mark is the only rule that breaks the "ease" of play standard for 4E and I think they could have found a better way to do it, but it's not too bad.

Fitz

As far as the Warlock goes, yup I mistakingly wrote Wizard. Fixed it, thanks

Thanks, sounds like I need to come up with a plan for dealing with all that beforehand.

 

[That One Guy]

Awesome story, thanks.