tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post3708728706413252157..comments2023-04-28T10:46:14.916-04:00Comments on Run a Game: The Fifteen Minute WorkdayRun a Gamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12555528519708213579noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-91686744432155985762013-05-10T16:11:37.020-04:002013-05-10T16:11:37.020-04:00I have little to say here than to say I like this ...I have little to say here than to say I like this response to Angry's concerns, and this sort of encapsulates one of the many things that, as a DM, I like about 4e D&D.Kirt Dankmyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15176693641755312121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-62770358464077890492013-03-30T11:02:37.515-04:002013-03-30T11:02:37.515-04:00A few thoughts:
1) As someone who has played sinc...A few thoughts:<br /><br />1) As someone who has played since 1st Ed., for me I don't really feel the imbalance, it just is the game, so some fixes, like the FATE one, are changing the game. Mind you, I like FATE/action points a lot. They just aren't D&D to me.<br /><br />2) Part of the genre, I think, is that it is suppose to be more dangerous out at night and it is good to be holed up somewhere and resting. Originally, and by that I mean before 1st Ed and before I was playing, the non-humans (which generally meant the monsters) were the ones with the ability to be effective at night. Yes, you could be a dwarf or elf, but that was a class in itself, which ruled out being a wizard also. But everyone wanted more, so that was gone by 1st Ed.<br /><br />3) One think which has gotten more prevalent, I think, is resting more often. My perception used to be that resting really meant sleeping (or whatever it is that elves do), not just being quiet and reading a book, so you could not get your spells back several times during the day. Actually, clerics in 3rd Ed have a mechanism for this in that they can only get spells back at a certain point in the day. You could easily house rule that resting means a solid amount of uninterrupted sleep. And you really can only do that so often.<br /><br />4) In first Ed, is was common to have critical hit and critical failure charts. By 3rd Ed, they have a weak built in version in that if you confirm a critical hit, you do more damage. You could give the players the option of giving one of your above described lingering/debilitating wounds instead. And that monsters would generally take that option.Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12485384994602712532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-85064652414552453712013-03-21T23:47:07.330-04:002013-03-21T23:47:07.330-04:00My educated guess at what you mean by "very D...My educated guess at what you mean by "very D&D":<br />1) There are many disparate metagame resources to manage, as opposed to a unified one. I.E. 4E has encounter powers, healing surges, action points, rechargeable and consumable items and those pesky daily powers. Other editions have only the latter three, but plenty of them. <br />2) Those resources are readily available for use except when they've been used recently. I.E. I don't need to build up points before unleashing a daily. <br /><br />I suppose if you want to keep that D&D "I have a library of powers" flavor, you could pin the point system's rest-avoiding properties on top. Find whatever reason you want to award points: taking wounds, pulling off more-dramatic-than-usual acts, accomplishing story goals, running extra encounters, etc. Then put point prices on recharging dailies, and for 4E regaining surges, during a short rest. <br /><br />In 4E you could even use action points instead of adding a new number... keep the existing limitations (spend only one per encounter, reset to one after a long rest), but give them out more liberally and let players spend one or more per short rest on piecemeal recharges. I guess the real concept is to avoid the 15-minute day by spreading the effects of a long rest over the long day, and the points are just one way to track and balance the concept. Blankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07143186614785344090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-16700740490116971982013-03-21T11:39:57.690-04:002013-03-21T11:39:57.690-04:00Point System: Love it. I can see how it would wo...Point System: Love it. I can see how it would work, mathematically, too. The benefit is that players will try to build up points in easier fights, so the GM will have incentive to vary the challenge level. <br /><br />The drawback is that it's not very D&D, which is my complaint about Angry's daily rationing system. You need a setting that it fits for. If you built a Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger tabletop RPG, you could totally use this. It's a little like the Penny Arcade Precipice of Darkness system where you gain MP each round and some powers generate MP, or cost 0; but big attacks cost more.<br /><br />It does create a metagame currency other than action points, which allows more metagame systems. I don't think D&D is the place to use a lot of metagame mechanics though. But a new fantasy game could do this.Run a Gamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12555528519708213579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-11920041219612887662013-03-21T10:57:43.687-04:002013-03-21T10:57:43.687-04:00Angry's second idea and your FATE-inspired one...Angry's second idea and your FATE-inspired one both sound like they'd entice players to take on more encounters, but feel a little complicated (the former: "Okay, so I have which powers for this fight now?", the latter is yet another modifier to remember). <br /><br />A suggested simplification inspired by various video games: Get rid of rest-based limitations on powers and substitute a resource that's built up by using your "normal" powers, and spent on the fancy ones. In 4E for instance, say that an at-will or basic attack gives 2 "power points", an encounter costs 3 and a daily costs 7, or something like that. Let players either bank their points across encounters, or use unspent points outside combat for, say, extra healing surges or action points. Or if you want to simplify resource management even further, replace surges and action points with power point expenditures as well. <br /><br />If you want the narrative effects of FATE-style wounds (which I do like, depending on the style of game), they still fit easily on top of the "power point" system, in fact the bonus for carrying a wound could be extra gain, or reduced cost for powers that somehow relate to the wound. Example: The big tough fighter's leg was badly cut in that last fight. Until it heals she is slowed, but if she makes a melee attack without moving she gains 1 bonus point, or maybe her "turn to stone and become extra-tough" power costs 1 less.Blankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07143186614785344090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-51823119990090932822013-03-18T13:25:50.464-04:002013-03-18T13:25:50.464-04:00Adventure-Refresh powers: That's a good idea....Adventure-Refresh powers: That's a good idea. And it's not a revolutionary idea: The World of Darkness games had backgrounds and merits that had game session or adventure refresh back in the early 1990s! I wonder why D&D never thought to borrow those ideas? <br /><br />Game session refresh seems to incentivize the wrong things, but story-based refresh has a lot of value. I bet the reason D&D shied away was that there's a verisimilitude problem: WHY can't the wizard use his spell again until after the adventure is over? Did he only bring enough bat guano for one fireball? Why can't he just buy more bat guano for next time? On the other hand, if D&D's designers cared about verisimilitude, they would have done away with hit points and armor class... <br /><br />XP Penalty for resting: I suggested that in the part inspired by tournament play, except that my suggestion is both a stick and a carrot -- starts at 50% but jumps to 150% so you have an incentive to keep going and earn big bonus rewards.<br /><br />Resting before finishing a quest / milestones: I think it might be easier to build some time pressure into a plot than hacking a quest into segments. Players never seem to do stuff in the order I thought they would, so it would be hard for me to predict where the milestones should be set.Run a Gamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12555528519708213579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737331211018613722.post-14569006858964099842013-03-18T13:03:52.231-04:002013-03-18T13:03:52.231-04:00Admittedly, this works best for 4E, but if you tur...Admittedly, this works best for 4E, but if you turned it around from "Daily" to "Adventure"? Admittedly, this is more "stick" than "carrot", it seems like the game is focused around the "adventure" so why isn't the resource management similarly focused around the "adventure". If you wanted a bit more flexibility - institute some sort of penalty/consequence for taking a long rest, either something like XP (cause you are making it easier), or some sort of in game consequence of starting, but not finishing the quest. You could break it down into milestones (to use a 4Eism) or something similar to allow for more frequently refreshing of abilities.Arashihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com