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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Abstruse" data-source="post: 5945572" data-attributes="member: 6669048">I'm a big "go with it" improv-style DM myself. I've scared players before when I walk into a session and they think I'm completely unprepared because I just have a list of NPC/monster stats and maybe a map or maybe not to run a session. Never had a boring session though except the time when the players spend 2+ hours going over with the wizard what they'd have him craft during downtime in the kuo-toa temple. I can do the same thing in 4e, but I have to do more planning.When I say the difference between encounter-based design and adventure-based design is the difference between an action movie and an adventure movie comes really from where you're spending your time during DM prep. In 4e, I spent all my time creating interesting encounters, finding just the right monsters with just the right mix of powers and just the right terrain. In PF, I spend all my time creating the monsters themselves, taking the core race and putting class levels on them and putting gear on them and so on...makes me think more about what the NPC's history and theme and backstory and personality. So the encounter-based design of 4e makes me focus more on how the action will play out, which makes the encounters themselves stand out. Adventure-based design makes me think more of the story and history of the characters, which puts them at the forefront. Again, neither approach is bad and you can put time in for the other side of the equation in both systems, but the system pushes you to do it in how it's designed in each case.What I really want in Next as a DM is flexibility. I want to be able to run pretty much any style of game myself and my players want to run. I want to be able to do Keep on the Borderlands, Tomb or Horrors, The Evil Eye, Against the Giants, Storm Tower, and Dragonlance all in the same system with very little fuss and muss when it comes to the rules. I want to be able to just flip through my archive of Dungeon Magazines or my box of old modules and adventures, pick one at random whether it's from 1981 or 2011 and be able to run it by just replacing monster stats and still have it make sense.I also want to eat ice cream for dinner every night and not be fat. I don't expect to get exactly that, but the closer they get, the happier I'll be.</blockquote>

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