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You are here: Home / Archives for 4e

The Real State of Dungeons & Dragons

January 2, 2012 by TorgHacker

In a nutshell, D&D started off the year in a state of confusion and concern, but has ended the year fairly strong. WotC is looking towards the future and D&D’s torch holders have done much to improve relations with their customers.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons

Critical Hits Podcast #33: Erik Scott De Bie and Mike Shea on Sandbox Gaming

December 23, 2011 by Mike Shea

Mike Shea and Erik Scott De Bie talk sandbox gaming, specifically in Dungeons & Dragons 4e.

Filed Under: Critical Hits Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM advice, planning, sandbox, sandbox gaming

The Smallest Kid in the Sandbox

December 5, 2011 by Shawn Merwin

Designing content in a shared-world setting is fraught with dangers. Disgruntled fans are armed with all manner of weaponry, but none as dreadful as the ‘canon.’

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, campaign design, forgotten realms, lfr, living forgotten realms

Redesigning the Epic Tier

November 28, 2011 by Dave

Both Sly Flourish and I have talked a lot lately about the issues we’ve run into at epic levels in D&D. While there are certainly rules issues, I believe fixing them all would take up a lot more than single column. However, I do have some ideas on alternate ways to restructure how the campaign […]

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, campaign planning, DM advice, epic, epic tier

The Scaling Woes of 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons

November 25, 2011 by Mike Shea

D&D 4e is a wonderful refined combat-focused RPG but it scales poorly as levels increase. While many of the elements of 4e scale along a linear path, many powers and effects scale at a much greater rate resulting in large imbalances between PCs and the threats they face at higher levels. This makes it hard for dungeon masters to challenge PCs.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM advice, epic, epic tier, paragon, paragon tier

Review and Giveway: Dungeon Mapp for iPad

November 4, 2011 by Dave

Dungeon Mapp (iTunes link) fills in a missing piece of that equation for those who play RPGs on a grid, most notably the past few editions of Dungeons & Dragons and its spinoffs. Dungeon Mapp is an app for the iPad that lets a DM build dungeon maps (or wilderness, or several other terrain types), as well as populating the maps with extra features. You can then use it to entirely run your combats from within the app, placing party members, monsters, and managing initiative all from within the program.

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, app, iPad

Critical Hits Podcast #32: Mike Shea and Dave Chalker on Epic Tier Play

November 3, 2011 by Dave

Mike Shea and Dave Chalker talk about running epic tier games in D&D 4e.

Filed Under: Critical Hits Podcast, Podcasts, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, DM advice, epic tier

D&D Ninjas Have Arrived

October 11, 2011 by Dave

Today, my first Dragon magazine article was published: “Class Acts Assassin: Secrets of the Ninja.” This article, as part of the Kara-Tur theme of this month, brings PC ninjas back into D&D as a build of the Executioner Assassin introduced in Heroes of Shadow.

Filed Under: News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, dragon magazine, dungeon magazine, ninjas, Oriental Adventures

The One-Page Character Sheet

September 29, 2011 by dixontrimline

So here is a game that I really do enjoy, and yet, there is this scar on my beloved which prevents me from embracing it completely: the character sheets are 8000 pages long.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, character sheets, design

Why I’m Starting to Love Epic 4e D&D

September 22, 2011 by Bartoneus

I started playing and running 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons right as it was released. I started my current ongoing campaign back then with a party of 1st level characters and now three years later I’ve run over 50 adventures and the party is up to 24th level characters. The campaign has had its share of rough spots and tough times, but overall I’d say it has been an incredibly fun experience and something that I look forward to every other weekend. Dave was also running a campaign that was on the same track as mine only slightly ahead, but due to a myriad of reasons a few weeks ago we ran a day long, jointed finale that closed his game out in style and unrestrained awesomeness. What I’m discovering more and more over the last few weeks is that running epic level 4th Edition is some of the most fun I’ve ever had running or playing in any D&D game.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: 4e, 4th Edition, advice, D&D, DM, dnd, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, epic level, epic tier, GM, roleplaying games

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About the Author

  • TorgHacker

    TorgHacker is the alter ego of Dean Gilbert, a 41year old meteorologist living in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. He has been playing RPGs for over 27 years including D&D, Torg, and 13th Age. He is a freelance RPG designer with credits in the Annihilation Event Book for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and the upcoming Firefly RPG Corebook and Things Don't Go Smooth. He can be followed on Twitter @TorgHacker and Google+.

    Email: horushawks@shaw.ca

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