For an intro game, I’d cut out a lot of stats and have powers as a reward for completing a quest.

For a demo, I’d try to give a bit of role playing, a bit of exploration, a bit of combat and a bit of treasure…. making sure not to end the session with the treasure. Did that once. Pretty anti-climactic. Especially when the players didn’t realize that the characters grow in power through game sessions.
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..PC Origins Scenario =-.

KISS is you friend here.

@Lanir: We had the game last nigth and it was an Absolute blast! The story and the mechanics were all tied together and that Ball/Chain thing played out so cool when a player readied an action to grab it when it passed and used it as a swinging vine to climb on the opposing platform.

You do touch a very important point about setting players in a corner and I was careful about that. In the same room, a dwarf tried jump-climbing a 10′ ledge and missed. However, I allowed another PC to climb for free by using the dwarf as a ‘step’. On the next round, I let the dwarf climb without a roll by having the PC on the ledge give him a hand.

So I didn’t penalize the failure by asking for another dice roll… which is what I feel your message is under the tongue-in-cheek Snarkiness.

Ultimately using unusual rolls for things is a very old idea. Set your goals higher, you’re creative and you can reach them. Otherwise for just plain unusual rolls you might as well be running White Plume Mountain instead and having people roll to see if they fall off the disks and die or not.

Which is fine, though I do hope it’s not out of some misguided pride. An “I designed this, so it’s best” sort of view. I don’t think it is, though I haven’t paid enough attention to his discussions on edition to know.

But yeah, it makes me smile to use Monte’s setting with the newest edition of the game. I’m not clamoring for a 4e conversion like many have done… as I don’t believe it’s necessary.

As for the Close burst 1 thing, yeah, I agree. But this was late night designing for the game table Thanks for pointers though… they were noted.

1) Personally, for demo games, I like to stick as close to RAW as possible. But this isn’t a Game Day event or anything, and you know your audience somewhat, so it should be good.

2) Does anyone else find it ironic that Ptolus is being used to help convince people to try 4e, when Monte is anti-4e himself?

3) One note for the Junk Gun: Technically, when it explodes, it won’t hit the Ratling, as a Close Burst doesn’t include the origin square. I would actually keep the text as is, and add “The Ratling Gunner takes this damage as well, with no attack roll.” since he’s holding the thing. Or change the beginning to just read “The Ratling Gunner and every creature in a Close Burst 1″. Not a big deal for a demo game, just a tip for when you do start publishing.

Your adventure sounds pretty fun, I just need to schedule some time with a DM that knows how to run 4e and give it ago.

Let us know how the adventure goes.
.-= Tyson J. Hayes´s last blog ..We Need You, We Want You, We Got to Have… Your Opinion =-.

Get your monster in the list on the left side of the screen.

Right click it. The menu offers lots of options. Choose ‘Copy as Image”

Open MS Paint.

Paste the Image there.

Crop all the White and save as a Jpg.

Voilà!

And yes, the MB is phenominal.
.-= callin´s last blog ..Birthright Encounters Four =-.

As for the Dung gun, I can’t wait to describe its effect ‘You are covered with something brown and very smell… oh Sh…!”

And I hope I get to pull the explosive gun trick… I might cheat

For my very first DM session in 4E I began the game with the PCs in the middle of a bar fight. All of the weapons were improvised, from mugs of ale, to barstools and tables, to bowls full of scalding hot stew used as projectiles. What I liked about this as an intro scenario was that it allowed everyone to explore and use the combat system while keeping it lighthearted and fun – no one had to worry that if they made a newbie mistake someone would lose a character or they would fail to resuce the princess.

I love the rat men you’ve come up with and I think they would be great for introducing new players to the system. The randomly breaking weapons and dung guns would keep people smiling rather than worrying too much about whether they are using the most efficient at-will power. It makes me laugh when I think of PCs being scared that the rat man gunner might roll a critical failure!

It’s actually a Paper Wiki with Monte keeping the password

The setting also survives the transition to 4e quite well. I especially like the concept that high level adventurers now hold positions of power in the city.

The only thing you lose is the ability to play out of the book as a sandbox (not the book’s main role anway), Monster Stats and 3.5 Mechanics (okay, that’s like 30% of the book)… but making your own on the fly as the campaign progresses is easy.

@Doomdreamer: I agree 100% about the heroic task. One of the things I like about 4e is the feeling of competence players have from 1st level onwards. Yes they still miss their target 50% of the time, but in terms of skills, the success rate feels a lot higher.

Good call.

But to make sure the session was a total success, I would have the players succeed at an actually heroic task, all while making them *earn* their success. That way, players feel like they can do great things, but not had them handed to them. A sense of accomplishment is key to me.
.-= doomdreamer´s last blog ..Quick Note Conundrum =-.

Great ideas you’ve got there. I ran my first “selling 4e to my players” sessions in Ptolus, centred on the Arena. This gave us chance to really put the combat engine through it’s paces while at the same time being open to tonnes of ready-made politicking plothooks.

Good call on reskinning kobolds at Ratmen. Oddly enough this brings ‘em closer to the original D&D rendition of kobolds as small dog-like creatures with not a lizard-like trait in their body.

Looking forward to how this turns out!
.-= greywulf´s last blog ..Endday Prelude: Plotting and expectations =-.

Here’s 2 glaring ones: The Ratling Skirmisher’s Bite should deal poison damage. (Other ratlings don’t have the attack because their weapons won’t likely all break in a fight)

The Ratling Young’s Shifty power should say ‘ratling’ not kobold. Poor confused ratling.

I also hate when DMs put in house rules that add nothing to the game experience… like adding fumbles that break weapons in 4e. Of course I’ll be putting in my own house rules tonight but having read part of the DMG 2, I think that Mouseguarding is totally within the spirit of the game,

I just LOVE double standards. You can’t do it, but I can because I’m hard headed and awesome