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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 4715014" data-attributes="member: 40177">I agree regarding the treasure parcels.  I made the mistake of complaining to a player that, in the core rules, if the PCs were to miss a treasure, I should just give it to them anyways.  The player said, "Cool!  We will stop searching for secret doors, then!"  He was joking, but it bugged me.  I eventually compromised, and said "around three of the parcels will be 'hidden', and can only be found through play".  The rest I just give out as necessary (I wing it a lot).  So, while I may have to give out a 300 GP reward, the exact nature of that reward will depend on the nature of the impromptu encounter I've created - it could be some finely-made weapons, some ancient Imperial Coins, a mechanical parrot (yes, I have given out a mechanical parrot as "treasure", and it was loved), or whatever else.  I'm also finding that giving out ritual components is a good idea.I agree mostly with your analysis on things, though I for one actually enjoy 4e.  I know I gripe about it a lot on the forums, and there are some tidbits that annoy the hell out of me (skills!  GAH!), but overall, I like the approach the game took.  Especially regarding flavour.  Fudging die rolls can be a good GM tool, though I've moved away from using them.  I used to fudge all the time in 2e, and even carried the habit on in 3e.  The last few times I fudged die rolls were a while back, though - I once fudged a major villain's die rolls a few times so he'd actually HIT his enemies (he kept missing, and I felt that robbed the encounter of it's due drama)... plus, in the first encounter of the Savage Tide Adventure Path, one of the PCs was actually knocked to -10 on a critical, and I "fudged" by pretending to "forget" the ruling on negative hit points, and said "actually, you die at -11", which gave the cleric enough time to heal the fighter.Because killing a PC in the first encounter of a campaign is a pretty easy way to kill the campaign.Nowadays, though, I let the dice fall as they may.  Which, I admit, is a lot more fun.  Except when my beloved monsters miss with their encounter powers.My major disagreement with you is in encounter design.  I do think D&D is taking longer and longer to run through an encounter, and I do see that as a fault with the game.  I enjoy games like Savage Worlds, where I can run through numerous combat encounters quickly and then get back to problem-solving/role-playing, whereas in 4e, we don't get nearly as much covered.  However, the combat encounters in 4e are quite a bit of fun!  I disagree with you in terms of encounter building in 4e.  As another poster already mentioned, the depth of encounter rules and ease of doing so in 4e is the system's greatest strength, and I am definitely able to mess around with my encounter formats.  In the encounter I wanted to throw at my PCs today, I've messed around with things to really experiment, and it should be interesting (5 level 5 PCs against a level 6 Brute Solo + 3 level 2 Skirmishers, with interesting terrain features).Because of the versatility of 4e's encounter system, I can throw huge numbers of weak monsters at the PCs (20 minions), a decent-sized group of enemies (5 Standards), two tough baddies or a tough baddie and a trap (One or two elites), or one really big bad guy (Solos).  Whereas, because of the nature of 3e, the system really only supported fights against "Elites" or "Solos".  And I have not fudged once that I can remember since 4e has come out.  Since the game started, I think I've had about 5 PC deaths.  Maybe six.  However, most times, those deaths were due to PC craziness (the one TPK we had was because the group decided running was for suckers... the other deaths were a result of allowing yourself to get surrounded, or stepping out into the open against 10 archers).  I don't think the current edition really encourages fudging in encounters - they are not on a razor's edge, for example.</blockquote>

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