TBH in my last full-up campaign I think I didn't prep anything for months at a time. I just wrote notes and spent maybe 20 minutes per session making bookmarks into the Compendium to bring up at the table. I didn't make a single stat block, nothing, just reflavored stuff on the fly, etc. Nobody knew the difference.
I fan-girled out when I went through all my stuff before moving and found so much 4e stuff that I bought a long time ago and saved for a rainy day. I have enough adventures/tiles/DM books to probably run an entire campaign's worth of adventures without having to do too much myself.![]()
My son started a 4e game with the local church youth group. I offered to help on the off chance he needed a second GM. He said extra people might turn up for the first one, but at worst I'd have to run a game monthly for a few months.
So ... now we both have a full table of 6 each and they just asked us to run every second week rather than every month. I'd prefer 13th Age myself, but he's in charge and prefers 4E. And it's my second favorite F20 game anyway, so no real issue there.
So, I've been playing 5e for about a year - with the best group of players I've found in at least 10 years. But recently the DM announced he has to stop DMing to focus on his thesis, but we could still get together to play board games on our gaming night.
I tentatively suggested I could try running a 4e game, and to my surprise everyone's willing to give it a try. So I'm starting them off in Fallcrest as employees of the tiefling trading company that has an office there. But I guess my one sentence conceptual pitch would be:
"Raiders of the Lost Ark with the Grey Company in place of the Nazis"
So I'm starting them off in Fallcrest as employees of the tiefling trading company that has an office there.
They actually covered this ides in a Unearthed Arcana article that is all 4E, but covers the mechanics that led into the 5E version.I've taken the whole traits/bonds/flaws system wholesale: I love it. I still use 4E backgrounds etc... but I love the way these really flesh out the character especially for those players who sometimes struggle with that sort of thing. And I've coupled that with inspiration as well.
They actually covered this ides in a Unearthed Arcana article that is all 4E, but covers the mechanics that led into the 5E version.
Do you know where to find the article? Dungeon/Dragon mag?
Dragon Magazine 422
Article: Unearthed Arcana; Building a Character, Random Background Stories (pg 14)
EDIT: Author: Matt Sernett
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I love that article for random background generation! Another one that is fun, but not as in depth (good for quick character building) is "Where do I come from?" in Dragon 383, p. 79.
The article I was talking about though, was Unearthed Arcana: Personality Traits in Dragon 427, p.31. They went with the flaws and merits route from 3.5, but instead of making it part of the feat system, it is an additional element to your character generation and once per session, if you express something or do something that reflects who your character is through these flaws and merits, you can get an action point.
With working with the DM, you can certainly do a hybrid of these and use the random background generation to establish your flaws and merits (figuring out your bonds will establish themselves through the background generation) to do something like what they did in 5E, assuming the DM likes to play with action points and hand them out more. That is something I do with my players, but I also work with the expanded combat rules from Unearthed Arcana: Combat Options in Dragon 425, p. 36 so they have more things to do with action points then just get an extra standard action.
I'm DMing a campaign that's at level 18 and has been going for almost 2 years. 5 players, including 2 originals and one that joined at level 3. Our current group has been together for around a year.
We're all still loving it and dreading the day the character builder disappears.
The gods have a backup for you if the fates are not kind.I light candles, say my prayers, and offer gnome sacrifices to the old gods so that the character builder never goes offline![]()