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General Tabletop Discussion
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Skill challenges: action resolution that centres the fiction
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8742060" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Yeah, I agree. So, that is pretty much my 4e DM prep process nowadays. I think up some cool dramatic scenes that might arise, and the stat blocks and some terrain that is already fairly well implied (or hard established) by prior play or genre expectation, etc. I would go out to the Compendium, find stat blocks that looked pretty interesting, and just print them to PDFs, and then make a 'roster' in GIMP, 1 to 3 sheets of stat blocks on a page. If something needed some more explication, then I'd go to my Wiki and make a page for that NPC with their stat block, plus anything else that I thought was potentially relevant, ideas about what resources they have, tactics, etc. </p><p></p><p>Generally I spend an hour or two a week on that stuff. Typically most of it would come into play, and I could just bring the printouts with me and write on the backs or whatever during play, and then write up the action afterwards. Of course, often, things would take a different turn, some player would throw out some completely different take on what was happening, or they would just go off into left field, and then the good old MMs get to come out, and things get done completely ad-hoc! But my job was really more to just find the right stat block to create a fun fight or whatever, and add some silly crazy terrain, than to tell people what they were encountering. By gosh they went to Spider Forest, it ain't filled with ogres!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8742060, member: 82106"] Yeah, I agree. So, that is pretty much my 4e DM prep process nowadays. I think up some cool dramatic scenes that might arise, and the stat blocks and some terrain that is already fairly well implied (or hard established) by prior play or genre expectation, etc. I would go out to the Compendium, find stat blocks that looked pretty interesting, and just print them to PDFs, and then make a 'roster' in GIMP, 1 to 3 sheets of stat blocks on a page. If something needed some more explication, then I'd go to my Wiki and make a page for that NPC with their stat block, plus anything else that I thought was potentially relevant, ideas about what resources they have, tactics, etc. Generally I spend an hour or two a week on that stuff. Typically most of it would come into play, and I could just bring the printouts with me and write on the backs or whatever during play, and then write up the action afterwards. Of course, often, things would take a different turn, some player would throw out some completely different take on what was happening, or they would just go off into left field, and then the good old MMs get to come out, and things get done completely ad-hoc! But my job was really more to just find the right stat block to create a fun fight or whatever, and add some silly crazy terrain, than to tell people what they were encountering. By gosh they went to Spider Forest, it ain't filled with ogres! [/QUOTE]
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