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Yet another Solos fix: "Solo actions"
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7058559" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>A couple of thoughts (more about encounter design generally than solos, sorry):</p><p></p><p>(1) I don't think a lot of the stuff that [MENTION=82106]AbdulAlhazred[/MENTION] is talking about needs special rules. Just one example: when <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?355600-Session-report-(Apect-of)-Vecna-defeated-demon-bargained-with" target="_blank">the PCs in my main 4e game were fighting an Aspect of Vecna on an earthmote</a>, </p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">The chaos sorcerer rolled a 1, pushing Vecna 1 square. Vecna failed his save and went tumbling 100' to the ledges below the earthmote. Then something hit the paladin and pushed him over the edge. At which point an Acrobatics roll was requested, to "do a Gandalf" (from the Two Towers film) and fall down on top of Vecna. The roll was successful, and the paladin dealt damage to Vecna with a successful basic attack, as well as taking damage himself for the fall.</p><p></p><p>Page 42 is enough for most of this stuff.</p><p></p><p>(2) I think a lot of the dynamism that [MENTION=82106]AbdulAlhazred[/MENTION] talks about mostly comes down to setting. The first combat I ran in 4e was adapted from the old B/X module Night's Dark Terror. Some cultist-types have strung a chain across the river that the PCs are boating down, and so their boat grinds to a halt and the cultists attack.</p><p></p><p>I had a slinging cultist on the bank, some minion cultists swimming through the river to swarm the PCs' boat, and a mage + bodyguard punting on a raft to attack the PCs. There was a sandbank/island. And so as well as the fight, the PCs had local "objectives" like (i) take cover in the boat from the sling stones, (ii) get out of the water onto the sandbank, (iii) take control of the cultists' raft, etc.</p><p></p><p>The result is a lot of separate but connected elements of action, no focused fire either from cultists or PCs, a lot of mobility (including what DMG2 would call "circular paths"), etc. It plays out more like an action sequence from a film than a wargaming episode, but there's no need to <em>force</em> that: the set-up engenders it more or less organically.</p><p></p><p>(3) As far as objectives other than "kill 'em all" are concerned, I leave this to the players to sort out for their PCs. Sometimes there are; sometimes not - and in practice (2) can easily bleed into this sort of thing (or vice versa). If you follow the link earlier in this post, you'll see that in the Vecna-fighting session the PCs also dealt with a demon, which ended up with them binding it into service rather than fighting it. And <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?313724-Actual-play-the-PCs-successfully-negotiated-with-Kas" target="_blank">here's a link to a write-up of a fight (with Kas and a necromancer)</a> where the PCs goal was to "rescue" the necromancer from evil necromancers (when they started out they didn't know she was one too) and they ended up entering into Kas's service. That all emerged out of the players' engagement with the situation.</p><p></p><p>Overall, I would say that strong situation in 4e has two components: (i) PC (and therefore) player goals which are engaged by the situation; and (ii) good setting material, whether that's terrain and disposition of enemy forces for combat, or vibrant stuff in the fiction for the players to latch onto in a skill challenge. I would even say that if (ii) is carrying its weight, you can slack off a bit on (i) and still have a really fun encounter. But I wouldn't want to skimp on (ii)!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7058559, member: 42582"] A couple of thoughts (more about encounter design generally than solos, sorry): (1) I don't think a lot of the stuff that [MENTION=82106]AbdulAlhazred[/MENTION] is talking about needs special rules. Just one example: when [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?355600-Session-report-(Apect-of)-Vecna-defeated-demon-bargained-with]the PCs in my main 4e game were fighting an Aspect of Vecna on an earthmote[/url], [indent]The chaos sorcerer rolled a 1, pushing Vecna 1 square. Vecna failed his save and went tumbling 100' to the ledges below the earthmote. Then something hit the paladin and pushed him over the edge. At which point an Acrobatics roll was requested, to "do a Gandalf" (from the Two Towers film) and fall down on top of Vecna. The roll was successful, and the paladin dealt damage to Vecna with a successful basic attack, as well as taking damage himself for the fall.[/indent] Page 42 is enough for most of this stuff. (2) I think a lot of the dynamism that [MENTION=82106]AbdulAlhazred[/MENTION] talks about mostly comes down to setting. The first combat I ran in 4e was adapted from the old B/X module Night's Dark Terror. Some cultist-types have strung a chain across the river that the PCs are boating down, and so their boat grinds to a halt and the cultists attack. I had a slinging cultist on the bank, some minion cultists swimming through the river to swarm the PCs' boat, and a mage + bodyguard punting on a raft to attack the PCs. There was a sandbank/island. And so as well as the fight, the PCs had local "objectives" like (i) take cover in the boat from the sling stones, (ii) get out of the water onto the sandbank, (iii) take control of the cultists' raft, etc. The result is a lot of separate but connected elements of action, no focused fire either from cultists or PCs, a lot of mobility (including what DMG2 would call "circular paths"), etc. It plays out more like an action sequence from a film than a wargaming episode, but there's no need to [I]force[/I] that: the set-up engenders it more or less organically. (3) As far as objectives other than "kill 'em all" are concerned, I leave this to the players to sort out for their PCs. Sometimes there are; sometimes not - and in practice (2) can easily bleed into this sort of thing (or vice versa). If you follow the link earlier in this post, you'll see that in the Vecna-fighting session the PCs also dealt with a demon, which ended up with them binding it into service rather than fighting it. And [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?313724-Actual-play-the-PCs-successfully-negotiated-with-Kas]here's a link to a write-up of a fight (with Kas and a necromancer)[/url] where the PCs goal was to "rescue" the necromancer from evil necromancers (when they started out they didn't know she was one too) and they ended up entering into Kas's service. That all emerged out of the players' engagement with the situation. Overall, I would say that strong situation in 4e has two components: (i) PC (and therefore) player goals which are engaged by the situation; and (ii) good setting material, whether that's terrain and disposition of enemy forces for combat, or vibrant stuff in the fiction for the players to latch onto in a skill challenge. I would even say that if (ii) is carrying its weight, you can slack off a bit on (i) and still have a really fun encounter. But I wouldn't want to skimp on (ii)! [/QUOTE]
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