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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7935392" data-attributes="member: 42582">There are pages and pages of this thread I haven't read, and so my replies are to particular posts that caught my eye. This was one.I think that what you say reveals a major weakness in the 4e DMGs. It's common to see those books praised, but I don't share that view. Yes, they have some good technical advice around encounter design and resolution. But in my view they don't have good advice on more general GMing techniques. And they sometimes use unhelpful terminology (eg identifying treasure or XP as "rewards" when, by default in 4e, the former is really an element of PC build and the latter a core element of campaign pacing). And they don't talk in a "meta" way about key features of the system, like:* the rapid scaling of magic item pricing means that a Monty Haul mistake at one level will be self-correcting within a couple of levels, perhaps sooner; * the extreme depth of PC capability, especially from mid-heroic on, means that it's almost impossible to accidentally build an encounter that's too hard; and if it happens, the zero hp = unconsciousness rule provides an easy out (make it some sort of "campaign loss" instead - that's what I did following a 2nd level "TPK"); * if an encounter is too easy, it can either be allowed to end itself naturally and quickly (self-correction at work) or else the GM can just bring in some new elements (reinforcements or whatever) - whereas that would be "cheating" in Gygax/Moldvay D&D, it is de rigeur for 4e because it is the encounter, not the dungeon or adventuring day that is the basic unit of play; * etc.This sort of thing would be fare more useful, in my view, than the stuff in the 4e DMG on adventure design, locations etc which is mostly generic stuff and not terribly well suited to 4e play at all.</blockquote>

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