Archive for the ‘4e D&D’ Category

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Freestyling Skill Difficulties in D&D 4e

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

A PC wants to jump 10 feet in the air without a running start? No problem. Just look up the difficulty in the Player’s Handbook or Rules Compendium.

Jumping Man

DC 10?

A PC wants to “sell” a random traveling merchant the equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge in your game world for a mere 20,000 gold pieces? Ummm… That’s a difficult DC, right?

Skill DCs can be tough to decide on the fly. Sometimes a difficult DC doesn’t seem to cut it for the crazy thing a PC wants to try, and sometimes you’ll notice DC inflation as you constantly make every skill check high difficulty to challenge highly skilled PCs. How does one navigate the harrowing minefield of skill DCs? Never fear; I will tell you!

Easy DCs: I often look at these as the consolation prize for what would otherwise be a failed check. Example: you ask me what you know about Minotaurs. I have you roll a knowledge check. You roll poorly but still make an easy DC. I tell you common knowledge about minotaurs; they are horned humanoid bull-like creatures that can sometimes be found roaming mazes. So basically, your character gets to know what an average player might know (or a little less) and you save yourself from complete embarrassment.

Other than that, I save easy DCs for rolls that should only be interesting if you roll really low on them. Things like tricking a child (hilarious if you fail) or securing a meeting with the head of the thieves guild (raise suspicion or get into a fight on a failure). Heroes shouldn’t routinely find these things difficult so higher DCs aren’t appropriate, but it can make a memorable session if you roll a 1 or 2 on one of these rolls and get yourself into more trouble.

I should note that I do not use easy DCs for group skill checks, even though this is recommended by the rules.  Requiring only half of PCs to succeed on these checks for overall success makes these challenges easy enough; they don’t need to be easy DCs on top of that. I determine the DCs for group checks like any other DC, but I do keep the rule for requiring only half the PCs to succeed. (more…)

Posted in 4e D&D, advice/tools, RPG Hub | 6 Comments »

Cheers, Gary book at Gen Con

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Cheers, Gary

The Gygax Memorial Fund asked me to edit a book based on Gary Gygax’s enworld QA thread, which I harvested and put online.

Just the Gary Gygax-written portion of that thread is huge – it could be published as a ten-volume set. I cut it down to what I think are the most interesting questions, answers, and anecdotes, and it’s still over 300 pages.

The book will be available at Gencon, at the Old School Renaissance Group booth (#1541). Get this: Gail Gygax and I will be at the booth, autographing copies of the book. Think about what this might mean to you. Your very own autograph from that blogofholding guy!!! Plus Gail Gygax. Past performance is no indication of success, but other things I have autographed (like checks) have gone up in value as much as $1000.

The other hilarious thing about this project, besides the fact that I’ll be autographing something, is that I’ll be volunteering at the OSR booth. I like OD&D, but my group plays fourth edition. Come on by the booth and say hi. You’ll know me because I’ll be the only guy at the OSR booth talking about his dragonborn ardent.

Here’s a sneak preview of the book: my introduction.
(more…)

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Posted in 4e D&D, legacy D&D, news, RPG Hub | 17 Comments »

suggestions for 5e: lose shift and opportunity attack

Monday, July 25th, 2011

I played 4e with a 3rd edition player the other day and she said, “I thought 4e combat was supposed to be simpler.”

It’s true that, while 4e did some great streamlining, it added a bunch of new complications. Here are my suggestions for simplifying Fifth Edition combat:

  • Get rid of the Marked condition and similar defender abilities.
  • Get rid of opportunity attacks – or, more precisely, make opportunity attacks a class feature belonging to fighters and similar defender types. (Taking a general rule and making it a class feature is a great way to hide complexity – the way 4e First Strike, a rogue feature, replaces 3e’s rule that everyone is flat-footed until their first combat turn.)
  • Take away Shifts. All they are is a way to avoid opportunity attacks anyway.

Now people can move around with impunity in combat, except around close-combat-trained defenders/soldiers, who are sticky. And instead of adding rules, we’ve cut out a giant block of rules with a scalpel.

I’d use these as 4e house rules except that so many exceptions-based rules key off every rules element. Exceptions-based rule design is great, but it does mean that house-ruling is always slightly more involved than you’d like.

Posted in 4e D&D, game design, RPG Hub | 7 Comments »

a flaws system for 4e

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Rory did a great job listing the problems with many flaw-based systems: they encourage min/maxing and don’t necessarily add a lot of fun. I decided to see if I could come up with a flaw system that would increase table fun.

Rule 1: Flaws shouldn’t make your character be useless in combat. If they have any combat effects at all, they should increase randomness and/or wackiness.

Rule 2: Flaws should support archetypes. Feats and other character abilities are meant to build larger-than-life heroes. When possible, flaws should do this too. They should be reminiscent of existing play styles and/or literary heroes.

Here are my flaw rules:

If you decide to take an attribute at a value of 8 (a dump stat), you must choose a flaw in that stat. If your lowest attribute is 10, you don’t need to take a flaw. (Players who take an 8 are often aware of their dump stat and often play it for laughs anyway.)

You get rid of your flaw if you ever raise your stat to 10 (so, by epic level at the latest).

STRENGTH FLAWS
Civilian: The first time you make a melee attack in any encounter, your spastic unpredictability gives you combat advantage. However, any time you miss with a melee attack, your opponent may choose to automatically disarm you as a free action.
Feeble: You can’t carry heavy items (or wear heavy armor, or your own share of the supplies). Even if your group doesn’t track encumbrance, you should insist that your burden feels so very heavy.
Puny: You have the same weapon restrictions as a halfling. A halfling with this flaw must use all weapons two-handed.
Can’t swim: If you can’t reach the bottom of the water with a toe, you’ll start to drown. You are probably also afraid of water.
Can’t climb: Someone will have to rig up a rope and pulley system to get you up cliffs. You are probably also afraid of heights.

CONSTITUTION FLAWS (not that anyone ever takes 8 Con, since it is used for HP)
Medicine dependent: You require a daily dose of drugs and potions to avoid being Weakened. You occasionally cough blood into a handkerchief.
(more…)

Posted in 4e D&D, RPG Hub | 8 Comments »

When Theory Meets Practice – Character Flaws

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

There are a lot of interesting ideas for running D&D or making tweaks to the rules that sound really cool when you first think of them but that sadly don’t work out in actual play. I will explore many such ideas in this series: going over what makes the ideas attractive in the first place, explaining why they don’t work, and suggesting compromise solutions.

Character Flaws: In most rpgs that offer a system for flaws, the characters can take one or more flaws in exchange for some kind of benefit. So maybe my character is blind but gets an extra feat to compensate for their blindness.

Teen heartthrob Peter Dinklage

The Attraction: Flaws can be fun roleplaying opportunities and give more depth to a character. It can be fun to play a one armed fighter sometimes or a character whose pride is so strong they will NEVER retreat from combat.

Furthermore, many epic heroes from film and literature have notable disadvantages that can be fun to mirror. Conan the Barbarian is extremely prideful and has an impulsive nature that gets him into a lot of trouble. Horatio Hornblower (that noble fantasy hero) has a strict code of honor. Tyrion Lannister is an ugly dwarf reviled by those who first meet him or have heard of his reputation (of course, in the HBO series he is played by teen heartthrob Peter Dinklage).

The Hard Truth: There are a lot of potential problems with flaws: (more…)

Posted in 4e D&D, game design, RPG Hub | 9 Comments »

everlasting provisions, leveled

Monday, July 18th, 2011
This entry is part 1 of 13 in the series wondrous items, leveled

My old houserules for leveling magic items mean that every piece of magical treasure has the potential to gain power in ways that the players can’t predict. Furthermore, WOTC recently invented the concept of the “rare magic item,” but haven’t given us lots of examples.

While some items may get mechanically better (for instance, a +1 sword becomes a +2 sword), it’s more challenging to improve items that don’t have numeric bonuses. I thought I’d go through the Wondrous Items in the 4e Player’s Handbook and give examples of how each could gain powers that reflect their history.

Everlasting Provisions

This item is provided solely to give PCs a rationale for ignoring food logistics (which they do anyway). Still, even a magic picnic can have a personality of its own.

1. The Guildmaster’s Everlasting Provisions of Coercion
Among the daily items in these Everlasting Provisions is a bottle of fine wine. When the food is created, the user can cause the bottle to either be normal wine, a wine that infects its drinker with Cackle Fever, or a wine that provides a Cackle Fever antidote. The difference between these wines may not be determined by nonmagical means.

The Guildmaster used the diseased wine, and the promise of an antidote, to persuade many people to do her favors who might not otherwise have done so.

2. Chef Aron’s Everlasting Provisions of Inconsistent Quality
Besides the normal, filling meals, every day’s provisions come with beautiful pastries. Each day, the pastries have different effects on all consumers (roll d6):
1: Illness. After an hour, the eaters become sick. Unless they make a DC 17 Endurance check, they lose a healing surge and are Weakened for an hour. On a failure, the check and consequences are repeated every hour until they either succeed on the Endurance check or take an extended rest.
2: Addiction. The consumer can’t stop thinking about the desserts. The next day, the consumer will be Weakened until they eat one of the pastries again or take an extended rest.
3: Normal. The pastries are delicious.
4: Extra healing. The first healing surge spent before the end of the day heals additional hit points equal to the consumer’s Healing Surge.
5: Extra energy. If the consumer has less than two Action Points, they gain an Action Point.
6: Glittering Prizecake of Wonder. Each consumer finds a magical trinket baked into their pastry: it may be equipped into an empty ring, neck, or head slot. While equipped, all skills gain a +2 item bonus. The trinket disappears at the next extended rest.

Chef Aron had no natural gift for cooking, but after doing a favor for a fey lord his banquets would occasionally lead to surprising results.

3. Jeks’ Everlasting Provisions of Shared Understanding
Until the next extended rest, everyone who shares the glasses of whiskey that accompany this meal gets +5 bonuses to Diplomacy and Bluff and -5 penalties to Insight.

Behold the magical tablecloth of Jeks, a diplomat whose conferences usually led to quick agreements, although not always ones of great wisdom.

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Posted in 4e D&D, RPG Hub | 2 Comments »

a literal points of light campaign

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

Hundreds of years ago, the weak red sun finally flickered out. Every remaining settlement maintains its own little sun-star, which provides daylight to an area a few miles in diameter.

Every year, a ritual must be performed to renew each town’s sun-star. The ritual uses up gold. Adventurers are sent into abandoned, dark, horrifying cities and ancient dungeons, and told, “Return with life-giving gold!”.

If adventurers become rich enough, they can generate a new sun-star and start their own Point of Light settlement.

In such a world, normal plants and animals are at a premium, while metal can be foraged from the dead cities, so metal armor might be cheaper than leather. That makes this cold world the reverse of the Dark Sun setting.

The few orchards would be carefully tended, and no one would waste valuable wood on torches. Perhaps everyone knows a ritual that causes a gold coin to burn like a torch.

In the vast cold darks, the monsters are touched with shadow or aberration. The forests are hostile, and the shadows wait for the sun-stars to die.

Posted in 4e D&D, fluff/inspiration, RPG Hub | 5 Comments »

character sheet on a business card

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

One of the obstacles to pick-up D&D is that you probably don’t have your character sheet with you. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could fit it in your wallet, along with your Monster Manual?

Business card front

(high-quality printable version)

Business card back

(high-quality printable version)

Character sheet sizes have varied greatly, from the austerity of the one-page Basic character (with lots of whitespace) to the excesses of the four-page 3rd edition sheets. In fourth edition, the character sheet has shrunk from the original front-and-back version to the delightful one-page Essentials sheet, which now has 12 lines for “Powers and Feats”, enough for any character as long as they’re level 1.

Character Sheet on a Business Card: My 2 x 3.5-inch character sheet has pretty much everything the official D&D one has, but it’s dollhouse-sized. In order to use it, you might have to write in a fine, spidery script, and possibly change your character name from “Robert the Warhorn, Eater of Worlds” to “Bob W. Eater”, but that’s a small price to pay for the ability to accidentally hand your 12th-level warlock to visiting businessmen.

Skills and Attributes: I laid out the business card so that you write your skill bonuses in the margins. Also, you’ll underline your trained skills, which saves a couple dozen checkboxes.

Powers and Feats: You don’t have room to write your powers, but that’s not really unusual for a 4e character sheet. You should be using power cards: they also fit in your wallet. Also notice that this character sheet has room for 15 feats – three more than the Essentials sheet!

Notes and Character Portrait: It’s not a character sheet if there’s nowhere to draw a portrait. In the combined Notes/Portrait section, you won’t have much room for both, but the player who is doodling elaborate blood spatters on her orc barbarian is not the party note-taker anyway.

The business card format: The nice thing about business cards is that they’re super cheap. You can print up, like, 500 business cards for like $10!

Posted in 4e D&D, advice/tools, game design, RPG Hub | 13 Comments »

here’s a solo monster that doesn’t get repetitive

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

I ran a solo monster that one of my players described as “maybe too gross”, which means, success! I thought I’d share it in case you want to disturb your players.

I’m not providing specific attack and damage numbers, since I just ran it using Monster Manual 3 on a business card. I made it a 14th-level solo, but it should work at any level.

Description: The creature was found in the throne room of a once-magnificent ghoul-infested palace. It’s a large, twisted collection of bodies, body parts, and palace treasure, all in roughly human form: each of its arms is a whole person, bending at the waist like an elbow and using arms like fingers; its stomach is a barrel of brandy; and its head looks at first to be tiny, but it’s just a regular-sized human head on the top of a huge, bulky body. Instead of a jawbone, it has a hand, the fingers of which each end with a tooth.

The monster’s left shoulder is a golden chest with a key in the lock, and the animate corpse who forms its left arm is attached to the lid of the box. The creature has been impaled through-and-through with a golden harpoon, which doesn’t seem to have slowed it down.

Note: This is a lot of information to give the players. I shared out the details, like the cask and the harpoon, over several rounds.

Actions: This was a solo monster, so I had it roll 2 initiatives.

On the first initiative, the monster made a pretty normal attack: a level-appropriate slam that targeted 1 or 2 adjacent creatures.

On the second initiative, it would do something unique and creepy every round. This was the round that really bothered the players.

Round 1: The dangling body of a harlequin, missing its head, raises a flute to a different head, and plays a tune. This is a will attack that causes the target to make a basic attack on an ally. (In my game, this attack critted, so I ruled that it became a Dominate (save ends) rather than a single basic attack.)
Round 2: A beautiful courtesan lodged in the creature’s back takes out a bottle of perfume and sprays it (blast 3, fortitude attack). Anyone hit must kiss the courtesan as a minor action (possibly spending a move action to approach) or take 15 damage at end of their next turn.
Round 3: A protruding chainmail hand dislodges the golden harpoon and throws it. It’s a +3 spear.
Round 4: the jaw-hand comes out of the mouth (extending unnaturally far, giving this attack reach) and makes a non-damaging Grab attack. If the target is grabbed, they are pulled adjacent to the monster, next to its mouth.
Round 5: If a target is still Grabbed from round 4, the mouth bites them, doing massive damage. If not, the monster roars in frustration, coating people in necrotic spittle (blast 5, low necrotic damage).
Round 6: 2 legs hanging from the creature’s torso wrap around an adjacent target (a Grab and damage).
Round 7: A dead, unconscious, or bloodied target (in that order or preference) is grabbed and stuffed into the creature’s body (with appropriate gross sound effects). If the creature is unconscious, it may make escape attempts on its turn.
Round 8 and on: Anyone grabbed on round 6 (alive or dead) is forced to reach out of the creature and make a basic attack.

After around 8, the monster is out of tricks, but battles don’t usually go that long anyway. If they do, things are probably getting boring, so I planned to have the monster start shedding body parts and losing hit points.

Natural 1s: If any PC rolled a natural 1 on a melee attack on the creature, it got an immediate action that let it move its full movement in a straight line, through opponents. Anyone in the way suffered a Fortitude attack or was knocked prone and took a little damage. This let the creature break out of flanks and occasionally threaten ranged opponents.

Bloodied: Like many recent boss monsters, all status effects on the creature ended when it became bloodied.

Countermeasures: The PCs could tinker with the creature in various ways to hurt it.

If a successful Thievery check was made on the golden box in its left shoulder, the lid would come off, along with the attached left arm. After that, the creature would only be able to target one creature, instead of two, with its main attack. (My PCs tried this several times but failed the thievery check.)

If the PCs pulled out the golden harpoon, they got a +3 spear/javelin, and prevented the special attack on round 3.

If the PCs turned the spigot on the barrel in the monster’s stomach, high-quality brandy would run out, filling every square the creature occupied for the rest of the battle. If the PCs decided to light the brandy on fire, it would do damage to any creature in a brandy-soaked square.

Posted in 4e D&D, advice/tools, play, RPG Hub | 2 Comments »

The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought – Roleplaying with Candles

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

I ran a session using D&D 4e’s The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought supplement yesterday. It was pretty fun! I introduced the players to the creepy crucified corpse at the intersection of five roads that points in the direction the PCs want to go and to the House of Black Lanterns, an inn for travelers that always seems to appear suddenly out of the mist.

In addition to the NPCs in the book, I also threw in some of my own inventions for inhabitants of the inn like an old city guard braving the shadowfell to help her granddaughter find her lost husband (who had been taken by banderhobbs) and a down on his luck hill giant who has grown weary of life in the Shadowfell.

In order to reinforce the mood of the gloomy Shadowfell, I used a single candle as a light source during the game (along with some last shreds of daylight).

Here are my reactions from using a candle while roleplaying:

  • Everything is gloomy: The relative darkness and flickering candlelight combined to make a pretty somber atmosphere. This was good and bad in that it reinforced the creepiness of the Shadowfell, but it also sucked some of the energy out of the session. I think I might have been able to maintain the energy more if the party was in a haunted or particularly dangerous location where something could attack them at any moment or if they were engaged in a fight with ghosts and horrible undead, but since they were traveling on a road and then later spent the night at an inn it was hard to really maintain a creepy tension so instead everything just seemed a little sadder and more subdued. I suppose I could have tried to hype up what was essentially a non threatening situation and I did a little bit, but ultimately it didn’t feel super appropriate to do so, especially at the inn, which is supposed to be a haven for travelers in the Shadowfell.
  • It is hard to see: Yep. No surprise here. For a game that requires looking at your stats or a die roll every ten seconds, it is definitely a detriment not to be able to see well.
  • I don’t want to hit the candle over: I was a little worried about hitting the candle over during the session and spilling wax on someone’s character sheet or something. I could see this being an even bigger concern during combat, when everyone is moving miniatures around and rolling a lot of dice. I am running a combat next week, so I will let you know how it goes!

Posted in 4e D&D, RPG Hub | 6 Comments »

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