This Modern Death

In my last series of posts I talked about making Skill Challenges more central to the game play of D&D 4e by adding in elements from combat into SCs. In this article I will be talking about how to speed up combat, add more drama to combats and make combats feel more like the epic fights players are use to from fantasy movies.

In fantasy books and movies heroes rarely get hit based on the skill of their opponents but rather on their own failure to block at a critical time. Thinking about this and listening to Ryan Macklin’s Master Plan podcast on tangibility in mechanics led me to the idea of having the players be the only ones able to initiate an attack. Only when a player fails to successfully hit his opponent can that opponent strike back. To keep the game from over balancing the player’s opponent should automatically hit the player with an attack of it’s own of equal power (i.e. a Daily power if attacked with a Daily power). Another balancing factor is that whenever a player or an NPC draws an Opportunity Attack that attack will automatically succeed.

Using this option will both speed up combats in your game but also make each roll of the d20 more exciting as the players watch to see if they will hit or be hit. This also makes the players feel more in control of the combat because it is their roll that determines their fate not the roll of the DM. Movement tactics will become much more important and the decision to take a hit to get better position will be that much more important.

As you can see it does not take much to take normal combat and speed it up. Let me know how this works at your table.

- J.B. Mannon

This Modern Death
Episode 40 - Religion
Running Time - 01:02:09

Kristin, Randy and Shaun discuss the role and use of religion in RPGs. Also, we’re going to GenCon and GOCon 3. At the latter, we’ll hopefully be able to check out A Penny for My Thoughts by Paul Tevis.

Lastly, big thanks to Jenn from the Trap Cast for hooking us up with a room for GenCon! Also, come check out the forum and send us your questions about Dogs in the Vineyard!

• Canon Puncture
• Open Design Podcast

This show is a member of Goblin: The Gaming Broadcast Network.

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 Episode 40 - Religion [62:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

One word that brings to mind LARP’s, or at the least a bunch of guys sitting in their parents basement with cloaks on, is prop. So lets fix that. Props are great tools that can help players feel a connection to their characters and the world around them at large.

For instance, in one campaign I ran, one character got a note that was incriminating for an NPC. The player hated the fact that the rest of the group gave up the note. Now I had typed the note and dyed the paper with coffee and crumpled it up. It looked cool and it was cheap and fast I think I spent 10 minutes working on it. I remember the players crowding around the page when I handed it to them. The fact that they traded something that was not much, but the value of this little clue became much larger. I then made that part of the bigger plot. So props can change the direction of a campaign. So keep that in mind.

Well what can you do as props? Maps that you hand draw or do as printouts. Notes, Journal pages, ID’s, Passcards. The list is endless, you just need to think about the things the players will interact with in a physical manner. If they mess with something then think of how you might make a prop out of it. For those really ambitious these types of things can be the memories that people have from the game. Some things to do get a ton of cool looking fonts from hand writing to graffiti to wingbats. Those can help to add little bits if you have the time learn to use a graphics program as well. They are invaluable skills and if you post them others can get some use out of everything you create as well. Get a laminater and use it for badges. Get a big collection of head shots of people. Those are useful even if you just need to grab one for an NPC.

So now you see there is something about props that is cool and makes the game better. Plus you don’t have to be a guy sitting is his parents basement to do it. Though those guys do have the time to make great props.

By  Zendead

In my last Skill Challenges post I wrote about making Skill Challenges (SCs) more like combat by adding penalties. In this post I am going to address the other side of that concept and talk about adding rewards to your SCs.

I feel that if you are going to add more difficulties to your SCs then it is only fair to balance that with rewards equal to the potential for damage. Again, this balance of carrot and stick is similar to how combat feels. Players know going into combat that at the end of it they are going to have a nice XP boost and probably some treasure to share out. If your players know that they will be receiving similar rewards from a SC they will involve themselves just as much as they would in a combat.

Just because the players deserve an equal reward in SCs does not however mean that you need to hand out the same rewards. Experience points are always a good way to go and you should hand out the XP that the DMG suggests at the end of a SC but it hardly makes sense to hand out gold for successfully discovering that the evil cultists hideout. A better alternative is to give the PCs some special bonus that will help them in the next combat.

The simplest bonus you could give your players is a +1 or +2 to combat rolls. A small bonus like this is good for low DC SCs. For more difficult SCs you may want to give your players a one encounter special Power. An example of a good one encounter special Power might be to give a party the At-will Power to deal 1d6 fire damage on top of their normal melee attack as they were given containers of liquid fire by a merchant who wants them to stop the thieves who stole from him. Another example of a special Power might be an Encounter Power that will cause any undead the player touches to immediately disappear owing to an amulet of power that a priest gave them to help end the undead threat.

The rewards you hand out for completing a SC should reflect both the goal of the SC and the PCs actions during the SC. Who noticed what the PCs were doing while they were trying to accomplish their goal and might be willing to lend a helping hand? What knowledge did they obtain while doing the SC that would help them prepare for what lay ahead? Give the PCs things that will help in the short term and help them win the encounters that will lead to long-term rewards.

This is the end of my Skill Challenge posts for now. My next article will be on adding tension and speed to your combats by making them more like Skill Challenges.

-J.B. Mannon

This is the final episode of our Burning Wheel actual play series. Special thanks to Katie Sullivan for providing the introduction.

 

 Episode 39 - Burning Wheel AP, Part 3: When One Door Closes, another Opens [99:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In my last Skill Challenge post I talked about my personal use of Skill kChallenges (SC) and how they can be used to cover most non-combat situations. That post assumed you were using the rules listed in the DMG, which covered SCs and simply expanded on that section. This post will be expanding beyond the core concept by adding penalties during a SC. I will again be referencing the 4e rules to help guide you, the DM, in adding to your SCs.

To give SCs the same level of importance that a fight would have you need to borrow some things that a fight does to and for the PCs. The first thing is to assign consequences when a player fails a roll in the SC. The consequence should in some way reflect what the PC was trying to do when they failed their roll. The most obvious thing to do is to damage the PC like an enemy in combat and if the PC was trying to beat information out of a contact or trying to disarm a trap then damaging them would make sense.

Other methods will be needed to cover other consequences however. For instance a PC might try and get the same informant drunk but end up drunk himself. If that is the case then you could still use HP loss but it would be far more interesting to put a condition like a poison on him until the end of the next combat to represent how sorely hungover the character is.

Another idea might be to slowly increase the DC of the SC to represent how the PCs actions are making their job more difficult. An example might be that the PCs are asking nosy questions around town and the townsfolk are getting suspicious or as the PCs are working their way through a dungeon they are making too much noise and putting the denizens on their guard.

You may also use fines, bribes and other monetary and wealth based consequences. These financial consequences are best dangled in front of players as a way to remove failed skill tests from a given SC. At most I would offer only one such opportunity per SC. A good amount to ask for is the players level plus the starting DC of the SC times the number of failed skill tests up to that point. If your players really want to pass a given SC then offer them the removal of all failed tests in exchange for a prized or valuable item but don’t do so often.

If you use these suggestions in your game to add combat like weight to Skill Challenges you should also read my next post on adding rewards.

-J.B. Mannon

This is Part 2 of our Burning Wheel actual play series. Enjoy!

 

 Episode 38 - Burning Wheel AP, Part 2: The Martyr [98:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the first of our Burning Wheel actual play shows. I’m going to keep the notes pretty brief here - there’s not a lot of news or anything in the next three shows.

After these, however, we have our long-promised interview with Dave Martin from the Wrecking Crew. Also, if you really want to hear us talk about game stuff, check out Episode 32 of Narrative Control, where Kristin and Shaun gab about PC secrets.

 

 Episode 37 - Burning Wheel AP, Part 1: The Beginning of the End [98:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

With the long delays between shows, Randy, Kristin and I have decided that it would be a good idea to open up ThisModernDeath.Com to additional contributors. The reasoning is that, even with our rough recording schedule, we still want to be able to provide good content for everyone.

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