[4e] Not Your GM’s Keep on the Shadowfell: SWARM(s)!

Like the particle/wave duality of light, this week’s rules adjustments come from the understanding (or lack thereof) of how 4e swarms can act as both a single creature, and a series of tiny creatures acting in concert. The issue began when the party attempted to explore a web-covered chapel to a dragon god, buried deep in the caverns of the  kobold lair behind the waterfall in H1.  Turns out I wasn’t the only one who thought the provided map indicated a more extensive cave system – our DM has set us on his first completely original series of encounters exploring those caverns.  And with webs covering the ceiling, it’s no surprise that we were attacked by spiders and ettercaps and scorpions (oh, my!).

[4e] Not Your GM’s Keep on the Shadowfell: (Mostly) Minor Actions

This week’s change is short and sweet.  Which is appropriate, since it concerns Minor Actions.  Before the start of play this past week, our DM announced that if we wanted to trade all of our actions down to Minor Actions in a round, he would grant us a bonus of an additional Minor Action for our trouble.  In other words, instead of a maximum of 3 Minor Actions per round, we now potentially could use 4.  I expect this was in reaction to having a few of us unable to grab and drink potions fast enough to keep up with the beat down we had taken the week before (once our Second Winds were gone).  The increased threat level born of unbridled rules changes begins to rear its ugly head!  But nothing another rules tweak can’t fix, eh?

Condition Cards

There are many 4e condition cards out there. These are mine. Here’s a picture:

I was trying to get all fancy with color and stuff but then I realized hey, no need for anything elaborate. They fit in business card sized lamination sleeves (which is why they’re glossy in the photo), and there are different versions for effects with a save ends. I will at some point whip up some more with stuff like -2 defenses, +2 to hit, and so on for shaman effects and whatnot.

Random Blog Links #4: Some Space to Think

Some Space to Think is Rob Donoghue’s gaming blog. It is pretty solid stuff. Lots of 4e, lots of other material. I think he’s aiming at one post a day, more or less.

I was reminded that I ought to be linking to this because of this post, on helping players hate villains. It’s excellent. You could also invert it: 10 reasons why your players may hate your benevolent NPCs.

Ponderous

Why the hell is “seaguy” one of the top searches on this site???

(okay, yes I know Rob referred to it in one of his awesome Alternate Alpha Complex posts, but top searches? Really? Along with “rpg plot generator”, “day after ragnarok”, and  “darksun sheets” which I really, really wish was about looking for bedsheets with Brom’s art on them…)

I was looking at the dashboard to see if posting a pointer to yesterday’s article under the #dnd twitter tag drew more folks than usual over here.  Answer: not measurably so.

 

Ripping off PTA

I think the brilliant thing about Prime Time Adventures is the fanmail rule. It’s not mechanically amazing; it’s socially superb. It creates a sense of fellowship among the players because that’s what giving someone a gift does. Since it happens over and over again during the course of a game, the sensation’s intensified. Read the early actual play reports: you get a lot of people talking about how the game magically drew them together.

So let’s rip that off for D&D, or any other game that has some sort of fate point or action point or what have you.

Here’s the D&D version of the hack: you can only spend action points to give another player an extra action. Nobody can benefit from more than one AP per encounter, and you can’t ask for an AP. The AP must be used immediately.

[4e] The Portal Room Encounter

I threw my players into what I thought was a really awesome encounter last night, and so I thought I’d share.  It combined a time limit with a rushing water hazard and played off the baddies’ abilities in really nasty ways.  Right up front, thanks to Bryant and Drew for helping me design this one. They helped inject the awesome it wouldn’t have had without them.

4e Hybrids?

Anyone out there have any experience with Hybrids? One of my games is lacking in the healing department and I’m in discussions with the DM about respeccing my Dragonborn Invoker into an Invoker/Cleric. Seems like some good synergy there given my stats (high WIS and CON, okay STR) but I’ve not played a hybrid nor seen any in action so I’m curious about the experiences others may have had.

[4e] Not Your GM’s Keep on the Shadowfell: Semi-Stackable Temp HP

This week’s bone of contention turned out to be how Temporary Hit Points are handled in 4E.  During the last session we ended up getting Temporary Hit Points from several sources.  In addition to Clerical and Avenger powers which grant Temp HP, the scenario itself had a magical source for Temporary HP that the party tapped – a magic circle outside the kobold waterfall campsite.  Those of you familiar with the Keep on the Shadowfell as published will notice some customization here, as the original magic circle only gave a slight attack bonus. Since the party was third level at this point (and had previously completed the original waterfall scenario when I ran my truncated campaign), the DM had to change things up and increase the opposition.

[SoTC] Modeling Existing Pulp Characters

We’re starting up my Jazz-era LoEG game after a year hiatus, and I’m switching from Adventure! to Spirit of the Century.

I ran my character creation session last time, and it kind of stalled out over picking Aspects and Stunts.  I’ve gotten suggestion and posted for help on rpg.net, but I thought this might fit as a post here as well.

Given the length of the campaign, I added in several extra ‘novels’ worth of advancements, and ended up with 14 aspects and 7 stunts apiece. The problem is that ‘The Shadow’ complained he couldn’t fit in all the stunts he needed, and after seeing what he was having to cut out, I allowed another Stunt, and threw out a bonus Aspect as well.

But most of the players were having troubles coming up with good aspects for their characters. Several ended up taking the League membership as an aspect, but I’m not sure that was appropriate.

And adding more wasn’t helping. I suggested some quotes or quirks, but we ended the session with incomplete characters, and homework to review our source materials before next time (which should be tonight).