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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8455295" data-attributes="member: 82106">Yeah, sigh, I remember making EXACTLY the same comments. I even wrote it all up in detail and handed it to the developers (I assume they basically didn't read any of their email/comments, they just pretended to want them). There were quite a few of us doing that on the WotC boards, with varying details, but generally in the same vein. There is a real REASON why something A/E/D/U-like is desirable! Honestly I've broken with that paradigm in my own design at this point, but the key details remain, there are substantial enconter-based resources that are held pretty much equally by all classes and builds of character. You all go into every fight, or other situation, with resources at the ready and roughly in the same quantity as everyone else (there are also daily resources, again everyone has the same). There are certainly some things to tweak in a system like 4e, like how swingy combats are, and the exact ratios of daily vs encounter resources. I think the daily ones are actually a useful tool, if you reduce them too much then you lose some ways to easily model stress on the party. Many sorts of games don't need that, but IMHO it actually works pretty well for FRPGs of the D&D ilk. Too much and the GM gets burdened with certain pressures (trying to subvert a tendency to stop and rest all the time for example). Too little and basically every fight has only plot significance, or else pure hazard value on its own. This is a major part of the reasoning for my own design decisions. HoML has, basically, ONE resource, power points, that underlies all the others (you can invoke riders using them, emulating daily/encounter powers, and they also work as both HS and AP effectively). Tweaking pacing becomes silly easy. How many of these points do you start with after a complete reset (Recovery) and how many do you get back after every (short) rest. The more you go with the later, the further you move towards pure encounter resources, so its pretty darn easy to tweak! Honestly, I currently have the limits set at you start with 8 points and get one back after every rest. Presumably you're going to use 2-4 points in an average fight and the day can then go from 2 to 5 or 6 combats depending on difficulty, etc. and you can then throw in your challenges and such to arrive at whatever the total encounters per day expectation should be. Tweaking the starting number changes the expected day length, and tweaking the recovery number shifts you more into pure encounter mode (and presumably you then cut the starting number a bit, perhaps).You can also do fun stuff with that design. Like Consumables are 'frozen power', you can spend a point, carry out a ritual, and 'embody' its effect in a consumable. That lowers your available power points by one until its used or discarded. Planning is now fun and interesting! It is pretty thematic too, the Alchemist is pretty serious when he says "and I'll need a vial of your blood..." lol.</blockquote>

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