D&D 4E Who's still playing 4E

[AbdulAlhazred]

I guess the map making must have been a big 4th Edition show stopper for a lot of DMs lacking the Photoshop skills or the money to buy miniatures and dungeon tiles. It takes quite a while to build battle maps in 4th Edition. I think the time is well worth it, but not everybody would not agree to it.

/Myrhdraak

Meh, just do it the old-fashioned way, draw a map on a piece of paper, and transfer it to dry-erase when you play (or even do that before hand if its a set-piece you know is coming). Nothing WRONG with tiles, but I never liked the way they tend to constrain ones thinking about encounter locations.

 

[Myrhdraak]

I can't remember if I've posted in this thread before or not, and it's not old enough to be a necro, especially considering the lack of posts with this tag these days.

So yeah, I'm still playing 4e. I just finished a 1-10 viking-themed game, have restarted another game that I'm co-dming with my wife (we run PCs in each other's game), which also has a higher-level counterpart on the cusp of Paragon that I am a player in. I've also got another game that's on hold, which is a precursor to another game that I haven't started.

I have no intent to switch editions at this point. I just don't like what I've read of 5e, in particular the return of casters having all the cool toys, but other issues as well. I also have no time to learn another new system at this stage of my life. One of the guys in the group really wants to try it but so far has not mustered the time to put together a game, so it remains untested.

I tried to do the opposite and bring in some of the good stuff from 5th Edition to my 4th Edition game, and I am quite happy with the result so far. Most exciting has been the Bounded Accuracy applied to 4th Edition. It get rid of some of the magic item "necessity", but most importantly it allows me to mix a wider range of monsters, and having balanced the XP for this makes encounter design quite fun. The roleplaying part with flaws and bonds from 5th Edition combined with character themes from 4th have also been really great.

/Myrhdraak

 

[Myrhdraak]

For the record, here it is https://www.change.org/p/wizards-of...eons-dragons-4th-edition-an-open-game-license

Signed

 

[Tony Vargas]

I also have no time to learn another new system at this stage of my life.

Assuming you're already familiar with 2e or 3e in addition to 4e, there's really very little 'new' to learn.

I guess the map making must have been a big 4th Edition show stopper for a lot of DMs lacking the Photoshop skills or the money to buy miniatures and dungeon tiles.

There were so many poster maps done for Encounters, so many Paizo flip-mats, and the everpresent option of using a chessex battlemat & some wet-erase markers, how much of an issue could it have been? And D&Ders have been using dice and other improvised tokens in place of minis forever.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I tried to do the opposite and bring in some of the good stuff from 5th Edition to my 4th Edition game, and I am quite happy with the result so far. Most exciting has been the Bounded Accuracy applied to 4th Edition. It get rid of some of the magic item "necessity", but most importantly it allows me to mix a wider range of monsters, and having balanced the XP for this makes encounter design quite fun. The roleplaying part with flaws and bonds from 5th Edition combined with character themes from 4th have also been really great.

/Myrhdraak

What did you do to import the flatter math? I've already ditched the item treadmill via the Inherent Bonus system adapted from Darksun, but I'm curious about broadening the range of creatures available and making the math simpler. I've often tinkered with the idea of making damage be the main scaling factor instead of accuracy. I'd be willing to give it a go, assuming little work is required.

As for the flaws and bonds, etc, that's quite simple. Or, Icons from 13A.

 

[Tony Vargas]

What did you do to import the flatter math?

It's just a matter of little numbers vs big ones. 5e, for instance, restricts stats to 20, gives you a +4 bonus for leveling over 20 levels (ie +1/5 instead of +1/2) and has items up to +3 instead of +6. That leaves stats very important relative to level and items, for instance. 13A accomplished something similar at +1/level by only having 10 levels.

You'd have to decide what scale of advancement you want. For monsters, it's simple, since they don't piece together a bunch of bonuses to hit that advancement. For PCs, you can leave it an exercise in basic system mastery to keep up with the monsters or simplify it further.

I've often tinkered with the idea of making damage be the main scaling factor instead of accuracy.

That's about what 5e did.

 

[fjw70]

After some recent discussions about what 4e is like my sons (14 and 10) have asked me to run a 4e game for them (we have been playing 5e). The older one played some 4e a few years ago.

So looks like I am starting up a new game soon. I think I will go strictly PHB 1 for the characters.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

After some recent discussions about what 4e is like my sons (14 and 10) have asked me to run a 4e game for them (we have been playing 5e). The older one played some 4e a few years ago.

So looks like I am starting up a new game soon. I think I will go strictly PHB 1 for the characters.

It's not a bad move, especially if you want to keep things relatively "light." Though, if one of your sons wishes to play a Paladin, you might want to consider giving him Divine Power to work with. Paladins had some poor design elements that weren't really corrected until Divine Power came along. It's not enough to ruin the game or anything, but it does mean a Paladin can feel like an ineffective Defender early on.

 

[S'mon]

Just restarted my 5 year old Loudwater campaign last night! The level 26 PCs are storming the Pillars of Night to free Shar from Orcus' imprisonment in Thakorsil's Seat...

http://frloudwater.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[pemerton]

I guess the map making must have been a big 4th Edition show stopper for a lot of DMs lacking the Photoshop skills or the money to buy miniatures and dungeon tiles. It takes quite a while to build battle maps in 4th Edition.

I'd never used combat maps/grids until I started GMing 4e. My approach is to draw things up in advance if I know what I want to use (medium: pen and pencil on paper), or to draw it up on the spot if its spontaneous. The latter tend to be a bit more simple, but even a little bit of terrain (or something tricky like a flying solo with ranged 20 attacks) can go a long way.

As far as "minis" are concerned, we use coloured board game tokens. The attached picture gives some idea of the aesthetics of it.