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<blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 5505281" data-attributes="member: 15538">I wrote a blog about taking some of 4e's design goals and using them as inspiration for improving 3e. The same concepts apply to Pathfinder:<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/pawsplay/1102-what-3e-gamer-can-learn-4e.html" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/pawsplay/1102-what-3e-gamer-can-learn-4e.html</a>Pay special attention to &quot;Monsters are Simple.&quot; That advice alone can cut prep time in half if you are the sort of person who gets caught up in &quot;perfecting&quot; scenarios. The second piece of advice I would offer is that you can led the story go where it may. There is no pressure to set up some elaborate set-piece with volcanic pools and what-not. It's okay if the PCs talk to NPCs. It's okay if the PCs dither; while it may seem like a pause in the action to you, if the players are really thinking hard about what to do, it seems exciting to them! Rather than conceiving of D&amp;D as a series of encounters, play to 3e's &quot;weaknesses:&quot; variety, unpredictability, strangeness, random bits of &quot;realism&quot; even if they make something less thematically consistent. Don't feel like XP has to happen on a schedule. It's okay to play really fast and loose with CR, XP, and treasure. You know what happens if you don't give out &quot;enough&quot; treasure? The PCs just level a little slower, effectively, since they have to fight harder for their XP. Hardly a gamebreaker. Similarly, &quot;too much&quot; treasure will help them fight superior opponents, causing them to level. You do want to pay attention to player sensibilities; if your player expects to get a holy avenger for his paladin at some point, it's worth it to think about how to get that player what they want, or something equivalent.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pawsplay, post: 5505281, member: 15538"] I wrote a blog about taking some of 4e's design goals and using them as inspiration for improving 3e. The same concepts apply to Pathfinder: [url]http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/pawsplay/1102-what-3e-gamer-can-learn-4e.html[/url] Pay special attention to "Monsters are Simple." That advice alone can cut prep time in half if you are the sort of person who gets caught up in "perfecting" scenarios. The second piece of advice I would offer is that you can led the story go where it may. There is no pressure to set up some elaborate set-piece with volcanic pools and what-not. It's okay if the PCs talk to NPCs. It's okay if the PCs dither; while it may seem like a pause in the action to you, if the players are really thinking hard about what to do, it seems exciting to them! Rather than conceiving of D&D as a series of encounters, play to 3e's "weaknesses:" variety, unpredictability, strangeness, random bits of "realism" even if they make something less thematically consistent. Don't feel like XP has to happen on a schedule. It's okay to play really fast and loose with CR, XP, and treasure. You know what happens if you don't give out "enough" treasure? The PCs just level a little slower, effectively, since they have to fight harder for their XP. Hardly a gamebreaker. Similarly, "too much" treasure will help them fight superior opponents, causing them to level. You do want to pay attention to player sensibilities; if your player expects to get a holy avenger for his paladin at some point, it's worth it to think about how to get that player what they want, or something equivalent. [/QUOTE]

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