Our Ladies of Sorrow: Modern Gaming, Scary Women
To D&D players, it can take some explanation of why I like modern gaming and put it on my list of favorite gaming genres. I like that there’s no buy-in, and I find that it’s easier to pull off horror and weirdness stories since the characters are closer to the players. Even in a 1920′s Cthulhu game, there are these same issues of needing to know what has been invented (buy-in) and playing characters that are harder to relate to (hard-drinking, smoking pulp archetypes.)
That’s why, in addition to working on a modern game, I’m always on the lookout for solid modern adventures. But many of them fall into the more cinematic style where everyone is an action hero, spy, or both, thus making the subset of adventures I’m looking for even smaller. [Read the rest of this article]
Friday Chat (Early edition): Are you a Backseat GM?
I’m posting this early since I will have limited net access tomorrow.
On Friday night, I get to lay aside my Dungeon Master’s Screen, maps, stack of books and other DM paraphernalia to grab a lone piece of paper, one rule book, a set of dice, a pencil and a mini. I get to play Star Wars Saga edition and my good friend Franky is going to be the game master.
Whenever I get to play in a new game I get nervous. Not because I fear I won’t play my character properly Rather, I’m nervous that I’ll turn into a Backseat GM again!
A Backseat GM will:
- give ‘the look ™’ when the GM fumbles a rule.
- reach out for the book for a rule before the GM is finished saying “Let me check”
- try to use meta game knowledge of adventure design to move the story forward
- argue with the GM if a ruling is made that contradicts a ruling in his own game
- begrudgingly recognize the GM’s authority but may let any frustration show in passive aggressive ways.
- will have the urge to do all of the above but will fight it tooth and nail to leave the poor GM alone.
I really worry about turning like that because, quite frankly, I would hate to have players do it in my own games (fortunately I don’t… or if I do, I’m now good enough to ignore them). Additionally I know that if I turn on backseat GMing mode, my attention will be focused on the GM and not on my game, robbing of the simple pleasure of playing just one character in someone else’s world.
Willfully giving up control is another, entirely different issue.
Discussing this with people on Twitter yesterday (many suffer from this) made me realize that I tend to become a backseat GM only when I sense that the GM in front of me isn’t confident in his skill to pull off an adequate game session. I sense the fear and I don’t like that. I think that one of the requirements for me to implicitly trust other GMs is for them to project a sense of competent confidence. In such cases, the backseat GM goes in the trunk and I can enjoy the show.
I know I sure did in Chgowiz’ Gen Con Swords & Wizardry game.
So of course, my goal is to focus solely on the game. It will be a new game system (albeit familiar) and an all new gaming group. I’ll be playing a Scoundrel to the core, shooting first and asking questions later. And if all else fails… there’s always a grenade.
What about you, are you a Backseat GM? When does it trigger? How do you deal with it when it does? How do you avoid it?
Post publication edit: In a freaky unplanned coincidence, NewbieDM posted about the very same subject too! Had we known we would have made this into a Ha said/He said post. Enjoy his take on things here.
City of the Overmind: Rumble in the Vats 3D, Part 2
See part 1 here.The interesting thing about a D&D session that consisted entirely of one fight is that I can relate it through the classic phases of a D&D combat encounter. What’s that you say? Over the last 10 years, ever since I started playing 3e, I noticed that all fun combat encounters shared similar phases such as:
• Exploration: What is the DM going to send at us this time?
• Contact: I have a 23 does that hit? No? It Grabs me? What the hell?!?.
• Panic/Despair: Oh 5#1t! We’re all going to die!
• Turning point: Yay, they’re fraking bloodied!
• Mop-up: Victory! This fight is ours, we just need to kill them now!
Of course, this is not the only formula of a well designed encounter and it does not cover PC defeat. However, I’ve seen it many times so let’s relate the encounter in those terms.
Exploration
The encounter began with all PCs starting on the floor level. The Philosopher Grell (A Controller) and 3 Horrid Grells (Soldiers) started on the other side of the map, flying 2 squares (10’) over the highest platform.
As I mentioned before, all Grells were already bloodied and I assumed that they had all used their Action points. It worked out beautifully; I never felt that the fight went into grind.
Most of the party rapidly moved to the nearest structure and climbed the numerous ladders to the second level. I explained that the Reservoirs were massive and made of cast iron. Fangs had had time to study while ‘away’ last game. I explained that weak spots could be targeted (at a level adequate DC) and the reservoirs could be punctured to spill out their content. Thus, Corwin (Halfling Sorcerer) sent an Acid Orb that destroyed a weak weld point… the resulting gush of Toxic Goop (too far to hit anyone) started filling the whole floor.
Yan: These little cans can fill the whole area?
Chatty (thinking rapidly): The cans represent the bottom part of the reservoir which are much larger above that point! So each ‘can’ will flood the whole map by 1 square.
Math: That means that we can’t pop them all now, there’ll only be the 3rd floor available by then!
Chatty (Smiling evilly): that’s the idea.
As the dungeon filled up, I told the players that the goop ‘attacked’ everyone in it at the top of each round. Almost everyone climbed on the second level… except Yan’s Barbarian (Nanoc)… he chose to charge another reservoir instead.
Instant Contact to Despair/Frustration
The PCs moved to the second floor and the Grells moved toward the middle of the map splitting in four. The group divided in 3 sub team without really discussing it, a rare occurrence with my players.: Corwin and Rocco (Stef’s Halfling rogue) climbed to the 3rd level of the structure, Nanoc splashing in the goop, charged a second reservoir (and missed) while Fangs, Usul (Invoker) and Dworkin (Shaman) advanced toward the Grells from the second level. Then the proverbial piece of terminally digested food hit the no less proverbial aeration apparatus. From the first damaged Vat,came a bio-mechanical construct built like a Serpent. It shot a beam of focused radiant light right into the face of Usul, blinding him and started repairing the reservoir. The Grell Philosopher sent out a psychic call and 6 Headsquid Zombies rose from all over the map and attacked (and new ones kept coming back when they were killed). The Philosopher then sent a Psychic Storm, hitting Fangs, Dworking and blind Usul, hurting them and dazing them.
Nanoc for his part experienced the effect of the Toxic Goop, a combination of Acid and psychic energies that hurt him and dazed him. A Grell reached him and grabbed him, putting him in dire straits. The remaining 2 Grells moved in on Rocco and Corwin, pincer style.
By round 3 all players were excited and worried. The Goop’s dazing effect made the fight quite harder and with 12 monsters (4 Grells, 2 Arctide Welders and 6 Headsquid Zombies) on the board the situation looked grim. We had reached the ‘Oh Crap’ stage for sure.
However, it became clear to me that one player was NOT having fun. Mike seemed downright pissed off, having his character dazed and blinded while failing save after save. On top of it all, he had missed a few important early fight attacks, compounding his frustration.
Now having an angry player at the table is always a touchy thing. At any moment the player can have an emotional outburst that may scrap the whole evening or, at the very least, dampen a good part of the evening. While I knew enough not to take it personally (it’s just a game and sometimes your dice (or the DM’s) roll against you, I didn’t want to add to his frustration on purpose. I also decided against broaching the subject with him at that time. I’ve yet seen someone have a rational discussion when angry and he was in what I call ‘smoldering’ mode. I was however confident that the game would turn his mood around eventually. In fact, often the best solution to anger is to let it pass.
So I refrained from having the Grells attack him while he was disadvantaged and let the game do it’s thing.
Turns out I was right.
Turning Point and Mop Up.
The fight’s turning point occurred when the party managed to control each Grell. It started with dazed and grabbed Nanoc…
Chatty: As the Grell approached to grab you, you noticed that it retracted its tentacles, making sure none touched the Goop you’re wading in.
Yan: Oh! It fears the liquid? Then I freaking hit the Vat so that the stuff sprays us both!
Nanoc did hit, and a huge blast of Goop sprayed out. The Grell was washed away by it and never resurfaced (aberrant creatures got stunned by the liquid, it was my ‘alternative win condition’ to help speed up the fight).
Yan: Hell yeah!
The Warden, having a reach of 2 in his Oak form used his new feat (that I had suggested, woe is me) slowed the Philosopher when I tried to move away toward the Shaman and Invoker. It never left the grips of the Warden and Shaman’s Spirit companions.
Corwin used one of his sorcerer feat/power combos and managed to stop one Grell’s progress by slowing it on each hit and creating a storm zone that kept pushed it away. It stayed in that ‘eddy’ until slain by the Sorcerer.
Rocco on the other hand did it old school style. When he noticed that the remaining Grell was flying right next to the highest point of the 3D structure, he promptly climbed up to the top…and jumped on the Grell! After 2 rounds of sneak attacks, the Grell and rogue plummeted down into the goop. Rocco then rapidly swam onto the nearest platform.
Stef had quite the satisfied smirk on his face. Go you!
The remaining monsters were eventually dispatched.
Epilogue
During the fight, I informed Mike that his character could detect the presence of a strong divine power source in each welder, so much so that he was able to find the still hidden ones and destroy them before they got activated. He recovered relics from each welder, each link to a different god: A pendant of Lolth’s, a chip of Kord’s Axe, A Feather of Erathis’ wings and a key of Sehaine. That last one was the missing key part.
Quest completed!
As the last reservoir was gutted and the whole area completely flooded, I described how everything started bubbling and described the huge Squamous (and Rugose) amorphous creature that rose from the Goop. As the players fled back into the city, I explained that it was giving chase and that the next game would cover that chase and its effect on the city.
Chatty: So picture this. As you leave the Vats, you hear rioting coming from the inner-city, the Vats behind you are overflowing with Toxic Goop and you’ve got a mad Godzilla chasing you, destroying everything in its path.
Yan: That’s freaking cool!
I love this game!
Lessons Learned:
- 3D terrain and gridless gaming works better than expected in 4e. With a good measuring tape and goodwill all around, it’s really easy to adjudicate.
- The Goop should not have dazed PCs. With the Grells already doing this, the Goop could have done something else like a penalty to defense or some ongoing acid/psychic damage.
- A 3 hour fight can work, provided that there is plenty for players to do.
Bonus:
Here’s a few other cool pictures of the game.
Look at this status flags!
Rocco is fighting a headsquid Zombie and a Head Squid while the Grell is stuck in a Storm
The Whole Setup, at the start of the fight.
Interview: Matt James, Co-Author of "Monument of the Ancients"
“Monument of the Ancients“ was published in Dungeon #170 and is an adventure set in the Forgotten Realms for 13th level characters. The capsule description is thus:
If myth and legend are to be believed, the antediluvian monument defends a region of Faerûn where the boundary between the world of Toril and the Elemental Chaos is weakest. At the monument’s heart lies the Anchor of Chaos, an arcane bulwark sealing a cosmic fissure between the planes. Were the enchantment powering the Anchor to fail, the Moonsea North would stand defenseless against a full-scale invasion by forces of elemental evil. Unbeknownst to the citizens of Phlan, that day is nearly upon them.
We sent a few questions to Matt James, one of the adventure’s co-authors (along with his brother Brian R. James) and the webmaster of Loremaster, to better understand “Monuments” and about being published in Dungeon.
Critical Hits: Without spoilers, what can you tell us about the story in “Monuments of the Ancients”? What kind of adventure is it? [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: RPGs in Various Flavors?
Two weeks ago I asked one of our recurring polls about the age of our readers, and the results seem to be similar to what they were a year before. Back in March of 2008 we had 153 votes, and this year over the last two weeks we’ve picked up a whopping 411 votes! We picked up 7 votes for 15 or younger where we had zero before, and while the number of people between 16 and 19 has stayed about the same, the percentage dropped from 7% to 3% due to the volume of response. The percentages for age ranges 20-25 and 26-30 have stayed exactly the same as our site has grown, which I find very funny especially considering that I jumped between those groups since the previous poll. Our dominant readership is still in the 31-40 age range with a solid 38% of the results, with the remaining 10-13% still in the 41-50 or older range. I love doing polls like this because we aren’t really sure what kind of results we’ll get, though now we have a pretty good idea of the range our readers cover and that it most likely will remain largely the same as our readership grows. Think those ages have something to do with when Gygax decided to make a certain game?
Not only did we have a special two week long poll, but last week Dave posted an Inquisition asking for stories about your favorite critical hits and fumbles! We have some great comments there already, but we’d love to hear more so if you haven’t shared yet please head over there and do so.
I’ve really enjoyed reading Dave’s posts about his 4th Power project and adapting the 4E D&D system to a modern setting game as well as the comments on those posts, but it’s started me thinking about the genres of RPG that people play and in addition to that the settings we play in as well. We’ve done a number of polls about settings including back in November of last year when we asked about the next D&D setting after Eberron (which will be Dark Sun, btw) but I’m not sure if we’ve ever asked about genre like this before.
Loading ...It’s difficult to make sure that we cover every genre/setting in a poll like this, so if you answer “other” we’d love to hear what you’re thinking in comments. I’ll be interested to see if a clear combination emerges as the favorite such as fantasy and horror. I find that among our friends fantasy is usually the winner simply because D&D is the most dominant game and it happens to be synonymous with fantasy, but I also know that a lot of our friends love horror and the cthulhu mythos so Dave and I both use those themes frequently in our games.
City of the Overmind: Rumble in the Vats 3D, Part 1
Previously in Chatty’s Game.
Our heroes arrive in the Overmind’s re-education camp, finding several brainwashed monsters and losing their Warden comrade, who he went chasing after another Shifter. Once the commotion abated, the party sought out the camp’s Beholder foreman and defeated it, finding a 3rd key part and discovering how the city’s brainwash portals worked.
After resting in a discrete inn with a very special massage service (can you say Medusa?) the heroes disrupted the Overmind’s brainwash portals found in the city’s central plazas, freeing hundreds of monsters and fomenting sentiments of anger and revolt in everyone.
As they heroes approached the Vats, where the Overmind creates it’s most fearsome servants, they came upon the eviscerated remains of what appeared to be Fangs, his equipment strewn all over the floor…
Our last session was one of those gaming experiment that could have gone many different ways. Fortunately, it mostly turned out as I had planned and everyone seemed to enjoy it (with one notable exception I’ll get to later).
But for now, here’s:
Rumble in the Vats, the Cliff’s Notes
As the party started to gather up their fallen comrades’ gear, another Fangs ran to them, panting, wet and bloodied. While it started putting on its gear, he told the party that he was being chased by a group of Grells (Large Brains+Tentacles+Bird Beak). Before answering any questions, he led the party into the Vats, a series of sunken pits filled with gigantic reservoirs and multi-leveled metallic platforms and walkways.
Once there, the party spread out to fight the Grells. Following Fang’s instructions, they also proceeded to destroy the gigantic reservoirs, who promptly disgorged enough toxic acidic sludge to flood the whole area. Additionally, some strange Metal-organic snake were activated, started repairing the damaged vats and shot blinding beams of divine light at the party!
Fighting the Grells, the Snake Construct Welders and wave after wave of Headsquid Zombies, the party finally prevailed and proceeded to destroy the remaining reservoirs. As the last of the Goop filled the sunken area almost to the brim, the whole ‘lake’ started bubbling and churning with sickening organic sounds.
Out of the goop arose a grotesque creature apparently made out of all the monsters the party had just defeated as well as some draconic parts. As it screamed against the whole world, the PCs quickly climbed out of the Vats.
But the Amorphous Squamous Monster started giving chase…
Behind the Screen
Two weeks ago, I conceived a scene to combine 2 player goals: Get the last Key part to (supposedly) open a way into the Overmind’s castle and allow the PCs to destroy the Vats. Since Eric missed the last game, and since he was the one who chose the ‘destroy the Vats’ goal, I didn’t want to start the scene without him.
It’s a good thing that we didn’t play it then, because I since got new ideas and I broke up the usual format (Successful Skill check = Successful Scene/ Failure = complication) for a more classic set-piece encounter (my strong point).
In fact, I decided that since my players liked a good fight, I would give them one that would likely take the whole evening (apart from a 15 min intro and possibly a 10 min epilogue). The challenge would be to make the whole affair enjoyable and devoid of any elements that would impede the action or lead the dreaded Grind.
While mulling over how I could make a fight scene stand out, I remembered a 12 year old game that was moldering in my basement. Back in the late 90′s we played several Games Workshop Games, namely Space Hulk, Blood Bowl (2 seasons) and Necromunda.
That last one was a futuristic skirmish game set in the rusted Undercity of a huge megapolis in the Warhammer 40k world. The game featured pieces of 3D terrain made of cardboard supported by plastic walls…they were perfect for the scene I had in mind.
Here, have a look:
Cool huh?
Of course, I had to deal with the absence of grids on the 3D terrain pieces, but I had a few 9′ long plastic rods divided in inches. I was confident that we’d work something out.
Now for the reservoirs that the PCs would have to bust, I decided to use Tin-foiled soda cans. I wrote simple rules to target the reservoirs and created 4 levels of damage (Low, Mid, High, Seriously frakked), each with various ways that the Toxic Goop in them would spew out and hit nearby creatures.
The really cool idea I got while writing the effects of damaging the vats was that each emptying reservoir would contribute to flooding the area with said Toxic (Acid/Psychic) goop. I planned it so that busting all vats would flood the area to reach the exact height of the upper platforms of the map.
Now that I had a setup and rules for interactive terrain (the reservoirs), I needed monsters and a game plan for them. I wanted the scene to feature several waves of monsters (as Yan taught me when a played in his game last summer).
So I decided to tie everything that had happened so far in the game. I would have Eric’s Warden, Fangs, who by now, is suspected to be a clone of a City Within citizen, run up to the PC, all wet and bloodied, telling his mates that he was being chased by 4 Grells (1 Philosopher Grell and 3 Horrid Grells). However, these creatures are all Elites and I didn’t want to play out a fight with 4 elites as I wanted other monsters to show up later. But I really wanted to use Grells… then it dawned on me. I could make them all start out already bloodied (from chasing/fighting Fang)! Thus I have the power of the Elite, without the Hit Points!
I also still wanted to finish the scene with some sort of Toxic Horror (A Squamous Thing, think Gibbering Mouther made of melted Dragons instead of Humans) rising from the resulting lake of Goop.
I still needed something in the middle…
That’s when Chgowiz, responding to one of my prepping Tweets, told me: “You’re missing something very important.”
Knowing Chgowiz, I assumed he meant ‘randomness’ or something Old School.
Chgowiz: Yes, you need some of that too, but you need something else. Something Jeff Rients would tell you?
Chatty: I’m baffled.
Chgowiz (Sighing): You need more Laser Robots.
Chatty: …
Chatty: Oh man,you are a freaking Genius! (it’s true, he totally is)
At that point I thought: “What if I had some bio-mechanical monsters, half-abberant, half-construct that were activated to repair any damage to the Vats? And since I like Laser Clerics so much, why not make the main attack of the creature a beam of Radiant light?
Enter the Foulspawn Arctide Welder!
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| HP 97; Bloodied 48 | ||||||
| AC 24; Fortitude 26, Reflex 21, Will 24 | ||||||
| Immune Toxic Goop (Dmg and status effect) | ||||||
| Speed 6; Climb 4; Swim 4 | ||||||
| M Arc Weld (Standard; at-will) ? Radiant | ||||||
| +12 vs Reflex; 1d6+6 plus 1d6 Radiant | ||||||
| R Photo Pulse (Standard; at-will) ? Radiant | ||||||
| Ranged 10; +15 vs Reflex; 2d6+6 Radiant Damage, and Ongoing 5 Radiant (Save ends) | ||||||
| r Photon Overload (Standard; recharge 56) ? Radiant | ||||||
| Ranged 10, +15 vs Reflex, 6d6+6 and target is Blinded and takes 5 ongoing Damage (Save ends both), Foulspawn Arctide Welder takes 10 pts of Radiant damage and is blinded until the end of it’s next turn. | ||||||
| Welding (Minor; at-will) | ||||||
| Repair 5 hit Points to an adjacent metalic object | ||||||
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Incredibly cool no?
While I showed the monster to my good South African friend John, he started riffing about how cool it would be to have the monster have some kind of power source to fuel it’s ‘laser’ and ways to knock it out. I argued against it, having reached a level of complexity in my encounter that I was comfortable with, not wanting to add more.
However, while we were discussing this, I had (yet) another flash. One of the players goals that we hadn’t done yet, was Mike’s Invoker’s goal of bringing back the influence of the Gods to the City.
So I asked myself, what if the power sources of the Arctide Welders were Divine Relics of the major gods of the Realms? And what if the invoker could detect them?
Note my liberal use of ‘what if’ when I relate my creative process. That innane question is one of the most powerful creativity tool. I’ll discuss it more in my Creativity Series.
Once I had my answers, my encounter was complete! To avoid last time’s mistake, I did not leave that encounter to chance… this baby was a set-piece that was going to happen, not a conditional encounter.
Up Next: The Fight!
The 4th Power Project: Classes, Part 2 (At-Will Powers)
Last week I started in on the core classes, which garnered a lot of discussion. I’ll definitely be going back and revising them soon (they’re already in the works in my design document.)
So here’s what I think of as the next step, or at least a defining portion of the next step: at-wills. At-will powers accomplish a few important things in the game. They serve as the powers you will use the most, and throughout your entire career adventuring. They are the fall backs when you don’t want to use any of your encounter or dailies (expendable resources) and are more all-purpose.
But in 4e, those are also the powers you will be using every round in combat. They’re the go-to. You will probably use one of them at least once per combat. In a Modern game, that’s not necessarily the case. You rarely see the same move done in every scene. [Read the rest of this article]
Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-10-03
- i4e iPhone app released (site, iTunes store)
- Ari Marmell takes on Skill Challenges
- Using Chessboards for Skill Challenges (via Asmor)
- D&D camp, circa 1982
- Come preview the BRP project, Red Eye of Azathoth! http://bit.ly/TK8kb and http://bit.ly/zkLRd (via KoboldQuarterly)
- How one guy got his foothold in the game industry. (via Thiefofhearts)
- DDI compendium search tool: Wizbook post and direct link to .exe file
- New D&D website is live!
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games image retrospective
- Dawson City Barbers has gone on sale for October.
- 20 Neil Gaiman facts
- Rich baker teases upcoming Dark Sun D&D Campaign setting on his blog.
- New post on PA: All about my light and mirror puzzle in D&D
- Leatherbound, jewel-encrusted PHB
- The Tome Ep 117: DMG 2 Review (with guest Dave The Game)
- JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS Animated DVD Sneak Peek
- A middle school in Portland adapts a Pathfinder D&D adventure as a stage play
- Join the brand new Critical Hits Facebook group!
- They’re Using Tools wishing us a Happy Birthday!
- “Steal Smart”
Friday Chat: Oh Wait!
I can’t write a long post today (rejoice) because I’m about to start work. However, I wanted to bring a hot 4e subject and wanted to launch a discussion about it over the weekend.
My players are sick and tired of me harping on and on about the length of combat in 4e. Apparently I’m the only one who’s bothered by that. I kid you not, if I mention it one more time at the table, I’m willing to bet that someone’s to slash my tires with his pocket knife.
Truly, my players want to be allowed to think things over without pressure so they can get the sense that they chose the wisest power at the right time. Fine, I don’t mind if each player takes a few minutes during their turn, we’re here to have fun and I’m already doing stuff on my side to make fights shorter.
However, a few weeks ago, in my Friday Chat about the length of combat in 4e, reader Michelle chimed in with what I believe is the fundamental thing that bugs me about 4e. Here’s what Michelle said:
From what I’ve seen, one of the biggest problems is contingencies. The DM can’t just say “you take 20 hit points of damage” and leave it at that.
You see, the Swordmage has Aegis of Shielding up, so that’s 6 hit points absorbed and the damage is down to 14. Also, you have been granted Resist 5 until the end of an ally’s next turn; after you double-check that it still applies, you reduce the damage to 9. Then, you remember that you have 3 THP, so 9 becomes 6, and now you are done.
Not! You suddenly remember that you have an Immediate Reaction power that let’s you use a healing surge under these exact circumstances. You add 15 hit points back in. And now you are done, for real.
Sorry, I don’t think so. Because it’s not just a matter of doing all of this math in your head — you have to explain it to the DM, one step at a time so he can understand why you aren’t bloodied yet. You have to mark off the damage and remove the THP. You have to mark as “used” the power that let you surge. Oh, and you also have to remind everyone that because you used the power, there is a side-effect that gives everyone adjacent to you a +2 AC bonus until the start of your next turn.
The next player has been listening carefully to all of this complexity, so when the DM says “okay, your turn”, he has lost track of what he meant to do, and in any case needs to revise it to take into account the new tactical situation. Maybe not every time, but often enough.
To borrow a term favored by Neal Stephenson in his novel Cryptonomicon, it’s all about the “ramifications”. Branching contingencies, baby.
What she describes above is more or less unavoidable in 4e and I accept that no problem. The rounds still manage to go faster than they did at the same level in 3e where everyone checked rules (Spells) or rolled multiple attacks.
However, a corrolary to what she said is what I call the “Oh Wait!” Syndrome. That happens whenever a player interrupts someone else’s turn by saying “Oh Wait, I forgot to do XYZ” and proceeds to do other actions. And it happens a lot at my table and I bet it does in others too. That for me is getting a little bit annoying. It does because it grinds the game to a halt and interrupts someone else’ turn.
Now of course, I’m not going to discuss this with my players tonight as it will likely irritate them more than the whole thing irritates me. But I do plan to play each turn like this :
Phil: Okay, Pete you are next, Jack you’re after.
Pete plays his turn.
Phil: Any last actions or reactions? Anyone? No? Okay Jack your next, Biff you’re after.
Pete (interrupting Jack’s move): Oh Wait, I could have used a Minor to…
Phil: Sorry man, we’ve moved on.
As much as some players would like to have full liberty to plan moves and be allowed to reach beyond their turn to provide the party with the best possible result for any given turn, this interruption can be avoided with better planning on the part of player and with the DM giving each player more time in their turn to do everything.
As for takebacks, I will still allow them if we discover that a player made a decision based on flawed information. But I think that I will actively seek to cull the Oh Waits! of my table. I’ll stop putting time pressure on players (which may have been generating the Oh Waits in the first place) but I’ll likely not allow Oh Waits from now on.
What about you? Have you seen this at your 4e table? In other games? Am I the only one annoyed by this (maybe I just need a little DMing break)? How do you deal with it?
Critical Hits 4th Blogiversary
Art by Jared von Hindman - Head Injury Theater
So yeah, we’ve been doing this for roughly 4 years now.
I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but Danny and myself did want to send out a big thanks to all our readers. Our biggest joy of the year has to be our Ennie nomination for Best Website. Even though we didn’t win, we still greatly appreciate it, so thanks to the judges for nominating us and all you out there that voted for us. A close second was being complimented by Wil Wheaton on his blog, while rolling initiative against him via twitter. This was the same year when Tycho from Penny-Arcade told us he had read us as well. All in all, a pretty damn good year.
On to the stats! [Read the rest of this article]
