tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post8303316063795703276..comments2024-03-26T02:31:48.024-05:00Comments on Trollsmyth: 4ggravationtrollsmythhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-66180543131777481182008-05-15T13:14:00.000-05:002008-05-15T13:14:00.000-05:00wulfgar:So does anyone know what the "optimum" or ...<B>wulfgar</B>:<BR/><I>So does anyone know what the "optimum" or designed for number of PCs for 4e is?</I><BR/><BR/>I believe the assumption is a party of 5 PCs. Don't quote me on that, though.<BR/><BR/><B>James</B><BR/><I>It all depends on how "hard coded" these assumptions are into the game as a whole. If I ditch the treasure packages system and give my PCs less treasure than expected, how well will they be able to face level-appropriate challenges?</I><BR/><BR/>Well, no, they'd be all out of whack with the leveling system, and you'd have to use the old mark-one-eyeball to pick appropriate challenges, just like we used to back in the day. The rest of the game should work fine, but you'd be off the reservation, which means you'd pretty much have to home-brew everything. Published modules would all be too powerful or too weak, and the treasure listed in them would be tailored to their system and not your campaign.<BR/><BR/>Now, I'm almost-old-school. I'm used to taking a module and putting a few hours work into it before I play it. So this is no big deal for me. But if you're used to just plucking it off the shelf and running it after just a quick read-through, then the less you stray form the system, the better off you are. Which means, yeah, the game is designed around a lot of setting assumptions, such as lots of magical goodies lying around and all that falls out from that assumption. If you want to play a low-magic game, you're heading pretty far off the reservation, and you'll likely need to houserule a few things. And the way everything hangs together, from what I've seen, doesn't exactly embrace houseruling. <BR/><BR/>Time, of course, will tell.<BR/><BR/>- Briantrollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-38483238139252754492008-05-15T09:26:00.000-05:002008-05-15T09:26:00.000-05:00In their defense, I will add that it's also the ea...<I>In their defense, I will add that it's also the easiest thing to jettison from the rules, especially if you home-brew your own adventures and setting.</I><BR/><BR/>It all depends on how "hard coded" these assumptions are into the game as a whole. If I ditch the treasure packages system and give my PCs less treasure than expected, how well will they be able to face level-appropriate challenges? What if I give more treasure? What worries me more and more about 4e is that it's looking less and less like a toolkit for playing a wide variety of fantasy campaigns and more like a very specific, very scripted kind of game geared toward a very small set of campaign types. That's cool if you like those types, but if you don't, 4e has nothing for you.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-91749895640980624352008-05-15T08:45:00.001-05:002008-05-15T08:45:00.001-05:00Here's an important question.So if the number of e...Here's an important question.<BR/><BR/>So if the number of encounters, sessions, and treasures found between leveling up are all prescribed, wouldn't there have to be a standard party size to base all of these numbers off of?<BR/><BR/>So does anyone know what the "optimum" or designed for number of PCs for 4e is?<BR/><BR/>Good post by the way. I never got into 3.x, but when 4e was announced I was intrigued and came "this" close to preordering with amazon. I'm glad I didn't everything I've heard in the last couple months has made me less and less and less interested.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-43478537324625132702008-05-15T08:45:00.000-05:002008-05-15T08:45:00.000-05:00Here's an important question.So if the number of e...Here's an important question.<BR/><BR/>So if the number of encounters, sessions, and treasures found between leveling up are all prescribed, wouldn't there have to be a standard party size to base all of these numbers off of?<BR/><BR/>So does anyone know what the "optimum" or designed for number of PCs for 4e is?<BR/><BR/>Good post by the way. I never got into 3.x, but when 4e was announced I was intrigued and came "this" close to preordering with amazon. I'm glad I didn't everything I've heard in the last couple months has made me less and less and less interested.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-2949605035881269642008-05-15T07:46:00.000-05:002008-05-15T07:46:00.000-05:00Trouble is, all those newcomers WotC is hoping to ...Trouble is, all those newcomers WotC is hoping to bring in with this new edition of the game, aren't going to know any better. They're going to see these rules and just assume this is how the game is "supposed" to work.<BR/><BR/>Le sigh...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-89030711721868542992008-05-14T15:37:00.000-05:002008-05-14T15:37:00.000-05:00In their defense, I will add that it's also the ea...In their defense, I will add that it's also the easiest thing to jettison from the rules, especially if you home-brew your own adventures and setting. <BR/><BR/>Still, it highlights assumptions about how the game is to be played that just leave me cold.<BR/><BR/>- Briantrollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-12658823033271425332008-05-14T13:52:00.000-05:002008-05-14T13:52:00.000-05:00Until this, everything I hated about 4e could, in ...Until this, everything I hated about 4e could, in the cold, clear right of reason, be dismissed as just a question of style and taste. But <I>this</I>, this strikes me as just plain dumb. Not merely dumb but actually undermining so many elements of what makes <I>D&D</I> the game that it's been for nearly 35 years that I can't help being a little angry at WotC and the designers who created this abomination. <BR/><BR/>A pox on them all.<BR/><BR/>(And irony or ironies -- the word verification for this post was "diafw," which any good MMORPG player would know is close to the classic curse "die in a fire." How's that for serendipity?)James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-6210343778586311682008-05-14T13:37:00.000-05:002008-05-14T13:37:00.000-05:00I agree completely, they are taking away the abili...I agree completely, they are taking away the ability to make the game your own (or making it rather difficult to do anyway). I am sure they will have success, but they won't have my money either.Mike D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13199531732115178349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-2247332397108898602008-05-14T13:13:00.000-05:002008-05-14T13:13:00.000-05:00Excellent post! I am glad that critical people are...Excellent post! I am glad that critical people are out there right now. I honestly didn't know if I simply didn't like 3e because it wasn't MY D&D. I play 2e and it seems that everybody who learned the game prior all hate it too. So, maybe it was just random bigotry on my part, however, I don't think so.<BR/><BR/>I like a good, strong DM, I'd rather play in "his" world, then any factory produced fantasy world. The later versions of the game seem to be aimed at strengthening weak dungeon masters, however at the cost of eliminating the strong ones completely.<BR/><BR/>Reading all of the 4e hype, one can't help but wonder if one should finally update. I am very glad that both sides are out there right now, and it is stuff like what you just brought up that really kills the game. It is clearly aimed at a DM that just doesn't know any better, and while this rule can be ignored, how many exactly like it are also in the game? It is very disturbing to me.RipperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.com