News
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Aggro management in D&D? Please! link
Here's an excerpt from an alternate universe... other time... other space... in which I run 4e... to show how I'd handle the use of the Marked condition:
Me: The gnoll swings his axe at player1's warlock.
P2: He's marked. If he's not attacking me he takes damage.
Me: Who are you to say who he attacks, beep-hole? Why should he target the dwarf with a billion AC and HP that he knows he has no chance of hitting when there's a ripe target spewing acid on him every turn? He's hitting the warlock, so get over it!
P2: Fine. He takes damage though.
Me: The crap he does. Maybe you should take damage for not attacking who I want you to! BBftH! 90 damage!
P2: I'm at -32. Just wait til I roll a 20.
Me: Is that so? Take 90 more, douche.
P3: How'd that gnoll survive four acid blasts anyway?
Me: He has class levels. Deal with it! Oh, and his buddies rolled 20 on their recovery check. They're up again.
You see, being restricted as a GM would make me far more heavy handed, even moreso than in the second campaign. Know this: I decide the rules, not the books. While I run with most of the rules in 3e, it would not be so in 4e. In that, I'd dispense with story and would feel it was my goal to get a TPK every session. It would be the only way I'd derive satisfaction from it. In other words, it'd be like Hack Master: GM vs PCs.
Wednesday, February 7, 2008
I'm not even going to comment on this article. It'd be shooting fish in a barrel. I read about Monte Cook's system and like it: dead at negative Con, disabled from 0 to neg-con bonus. Might try that if the opportunity arises. Oh, and the DC for the Fort save to stabilize is 25. With my Nat-20=30 rule, even an elven mage with Con as his dump stat can still make it with the same odds as the normal rule (5%).
- Adam
Thursday, January 10, 2008
So I suppose you've heard the news. I guess that'll keep crap like Airships from being made. Nevertheless, some of those books have good ideas presented that are just not implemented well. So this is the wind from the publishers. Most are going to sit down with the OGL and see if it restricts them creatively or not, then decide whether it's worth forking over the five-grand. Mongoose outlines things nicely. Many of the publishers that started with d20 have (to paraphrase Jolly Blackburn) weaned themselves from the d20 teat. They have their own systems now and don't depend on what direction WotC goes. Hackmaster 5E is absorbing Kalamar as its default campaign setting, for example. I doubt there'll be a flood of early supplements as there was with 3E, and the 5K admission fee and new standards will certainly thin the herd of weak product and small-time contributers. What concerns me is that all 3rd party stuff for D&D must be based on the Players Handbook. To what extent I wonder. Also, the SRD will not be in a usable form as it was implemented by www.d20srd.org, but way more general, lacking context. No more 3-ring binders with the rules printed out. Buying the book is the only option. Hmmm... pass.
-Adam
EN World 4e Info
DnD Insider Usernames
Will - Shadowsnipe
Adam - Axcalibar
Clifton - Butcher_Jackson
Coming Soon
LN Oath Enforement Dude
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