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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6243602" data-attributes="member: 20323">I was inspired by [MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION] to start a thread about how I'd tweaked 4e to get an "old school" feel to my campaigns. Beyond that, I would like for this thread to serve as a discussion place for some of the more radical/creative adaptations of 4e rules to achieve a certain play style.One of the assertions I periodically come across is that 4e isnt conducive to old school dungeon-crawling. To kick off this thread I'd like to challenge that notion and provide some examples of things I've done to achieve a traditional D&D feel:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Skirmishes: 4e's encounter building designs are meant to produce epic set-piece fights. If I want a different encounter model, I need to change the design principles I use. Focus on equal or lower level threats, limiting brutes and soldiers. Consider introducing an intermediary monster type between minions and standards, "humanoids" for lack of a better name (with 33% standard HP, and old damage expressions). Then use standard MM3 stats for large or non-humanoid monsters. Use plentiful minions with close attention to complimentary monster roles, terrain, and hazards to make the encounter more challenging than the low-powered monsters would otherwise suggest. Also, with a bunch of these smaller skirmish-scale combats potential, you can also make alarms and reinforcements a greater threat. This allows you to reincorporate random encounters without worrying about spending an inordinate amount of time on combat. These sorts of smaller encounters are recognized quickly by players who will not look to their daily powers, preferring to save those, and thereby reducing the number of options they have to choose from. I am continuing to experiment with non-minis/grid encounters, simultaneous initiative, and fights using only at-wills & page 42. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leaning on Healing Surges: As other 4e DMs have noted, the main limit on how much adventuring happens in a day are the PCs' healing surges. Old school gaming relies on strategic thinking and resource-management; the more clever players can get with lateral thinking the fewer resources they have to spend. Healing surges should be the main resource the players try to conserve. Thus, look to monsters like wights that drain surges, skill challenges/hazards which cost healing surges, and provide options for the PCs to achieve cool effects by spending healing surges. For example, I allowed a spellcaster PC to improvise a dispel magic spell by spending an equivalent arcane power, and making an Arcana check to determine how many healing surges it cost her. Don't be afraid to overdo it at first, it is better to err on the side of hitting the PCs surges too much than too little. As a corollary to this, you need to provide disincentives for the PCs wanting to take an extended rest such as monsters re-spawning or adapting to PC tactics. This de-emphasizes the encounter and makes the overall adventure more important. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Exploration Skill Challenges: One of the defining features of old school play is that a lot of time is spent exploring massive dungeons or foreboding wilderness. I have found that using a skill challenge structure (not strictly limited to skills) and linking it to overland travel, rations/water/henchmen, and random encounters is a great way to handle exploration that is more abstract than following a large keyed map. Some key things to keep in mind are to give teeth to the failures in an exploration challenge; let the PCs get split apart, captured, or exposed to dangerous traps. On the matter of traps, include more of them and make them nastier than the ones presented in RAW! Also keep in mind that exploration encounters should be given thought about how they can be overcome without resorting to combat.</li> </ul>Those are my preliminary thoughts. Look forward to chatting more on the subject <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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