Another thing: to reduce the length of combats, I used an automatic morale fail rule: all monsters which don't have bloodied abilities try to flee when they reach the bloodied mark. Bloodied monsters fight to the death unless they are beaten by an Intidimidate skill check vs. Will. Optionally an Intimidate skill check can be attempted on all monsters which are of a lower level than the PCs.
Also, I run initiative in blocks, each block being the size of the PC party. Possibly collecting the same monsters in each block, so that all of them use the same encounter abilities at the same time. This saves A LOT of rolls and bookkeeping.
Playing: Yton, A halfling troubadour in an Eberron (Savage Worlds) campaign; Hans a freelance duelist in a Runequest 2nd/3rd edition campaign; The Vociferous Bastard from Innsmouth, a scoundrel in Mushgnome's Chainmail Carcosa.
Re: OD&D-izing 4E; AKA "4E Lite" « Reply #48 on Jan 7, 2012, 6:18pm »
If you want to get rid of the grid, you could try replacing it with fate zones and using elements of the recent D&D board games like Wrath of Ashardalon to fill in the blanks. Fred Hicks had some cool ideas there: http://www.deadlyfredly.com/2011/02/hack-use-fates-zones-with-4e/
Here's my take on it:
The battlefield is divided up into a number of 'zones' each equivalent to a 4x4 dungeon tile in size, but dungeon tiles are not needed here. A list or flowchart will do just fine.
You can use melee or touch attacks against creatures that are in the same zone as you. You can use thrown or short ranged attacks against creatures that are in an adjacent zone. You can use long ranged attacks against creatures two zones away as long as you have line of sight.
Blasts, bursts, and auras affect all creatures within a zone. Wall effects can affect the borders between zones or bisect one zone into two.
A single move action moves you to an adjacent zone, though you may provoke opportunity attacks for doing so. Difficult terrain requires two move actions to enter and exit. Elves are exempt from this rule.
I've glanced at the rules, and I've heard some anecdotal reports that somehow the mechanics are less fiddly; is this true?
Hey Kesher!
I haven't played the new Gamma World yet, but I read the rules a couple of times when it was first released.
Gamma World is an extremely simple set of rules. Back when I read it, it felt more like a very streamlined 3.5 than the 4e presented in the Essentials book.
I don't know enough of about either game to be able to tell if porting 4e DnD over to the gamma world 4e would be easy or hard. But at first glance, it seems like an easy, but very time consuming task.
Playing: Yton, A halfling troubadour in an Eberron (Savage Worlds) campaign; Hans a freelance duelist in a Runequest 2nd/3rd edition campaign; The Vociferous Bastard from Innsmouth, a scoundrel in Mushgnome's Chainmail Carcosa.
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,673 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: OD&D-izing 4E; AKA "4E Lite" « Reply #50 on Jan 8, 2012, 12:20pm »
Gamma World is an extremely simple set of rules. Back when I read it, it felt more like a very streamlined 3.5 than the 4e presented in the Essentials book.
Interesting. I wonder if there is a Word doc with the new GW rules in it. That would allow me to have a starting point and tweak from there.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
If you want to get rid of the grid, you could try replacing it with fate zones and using elements of the recent D&D board games like Wrath of Ashardalon to fill in the blanks. Fred Hicks had some cool ideas there: http://www.deadlyfredly.com/2011/02/hack-use-fates-zones-with-4e/
Here's my take on it:
The battlefield is divided up into a number of 'zones' each equivalent to a 4x4 dungeon tile in size, but dungeon tiles are not needed here. A list or flowchart will do just fine.
You can use melee or touch attacks against creatures that are in the same zone as you. You can use thrown or short ranged attacks against creatures that are in an adjacent zone. You can use long ranged attacks against creatures two zones away as long as you have line of sight.
Blasts, bursts, and auras affect all creatures within a zone. Wall effects can affect the borders between zones or bisect one zone into two.
A single move action moves you to an adjacent zone, though you may provoke opportunity attacks for doing so. Difficult terrain requires two move actions to enter and exit. Elves are exempt from this rule.
Skimming through the linked article, this seems like a more convoluted version of combat than the normal gridless combat (OD&D, AD&D, BD&D).
It seems to me if you want any kind of gridded combat, you should go all out (3e or 4e), or not at all. The FATE grid just seems (to me) to use the worst aspects of the two systems - the handwaving of the abstract method with the bookkeeping of the grid method.
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 168 Location: Blackmoor Karma: 5
Re: OD&D-izing 4E; AKA "4E Lite" « Reply #52 on Mar 11, 2012, 9:30am »
I'd give 4E a try if it was simpler. I know, everyone says that the mechanics are easy, but I see too many player options and throw my hands up in disgust. Gone are the days of a simple spell-list, but welcome to the days where you have pages and pages of details on how to use every power. Someone needs to revise this again before 5E comes out.
KELT-SET =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bishop of Blackmoor Found B/X D&D in the 1980's =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - Gary Gygax
I'd give 4E a try if it was simpler. I know, everyone says that the mechanics are easy, but I see too many player options and throw my hands up in disgust.
It's as simple or as complex as you make it. It's not like everyone bought the PH back when it first came out and said "Too bad we can't play until the PH2 and PH3 come out."
Play a PH-only game and then tell me you had too many options.
OD&D-izing 4E; AKA "4E Lite" « Reply #54 on Mar 11, 2012, 10:54pm via the ProBoards Mobile App »
Did it. Too complicated. The combat rules are straightforward enough, although managing them seems to take a fair bit of time. But all the character feats, skills and powers drive me batty.
But then, I never played card games like Magic, and was never much for video games. Folks who did are probably used to this sort of thing.
And I'm not keen on how powerful the characters are right away. "Fun at any level" seems to mean eliminating levels 1-5 or so and renumbering.
All personal preference, but I'm not in to building characters by optimizing selections from a myriad of choices that consist of fine tuning powers and combinations of powers that buff up other powers.
I just want to go on an adventure.
Again, just my personal preference. Them that likes that sort of thing should carry on.
This is brilliant, and is some of the first solid work I've seen on how to ODD Type IV without changing the player interface. The rest of the Hack (linked on the blog) is well worth reading, too. This makes me itch to run Essentials...
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