Comments on: The D&D Fourth Edition Time Machine

By: wlkeR

wlkeR — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:22:58 +0000

I met a 4th Ed Flumph along with a bunch of his fellows in the Fool’s Grove, the adventure WotC published on 1st April 2009. That’s sure worth a try…

By: Making Old Mechanics New Again | Dungeon Mastering

Making Old Mechanics New Again | Dungeon Mastering — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:36:16 +0000

[...] little while back in my Fourth Edition Time Machine article I offhandedly commented about using the disease framework to handle cursed items. Folks [...]

By: Hymn Collections For The Week Of 11/15 « The Spirits of Eden

Hymn Collections For The Week Of 11/15 « The Spirits of Eden — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:58:11 +0000

[...] at Dungeon Mastering has a post about introducing old school feel back into your 4e games. I’m not exactly [...]

By: Dra8er

Dra8er — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:19:45 +0000

Hailing from the era of OD&D, what I miss most is that our gaming group could go a whole session without even lifting their weapons and still have an AMAZING Role Playing experience, the 4E shift to Roll Playing is stifling, but with some work a good DM can overcome anything.

Great suggestions all!!!

By: Kolbold Minion

Kolbold Minion — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:42:14 +0000

To convey the “old school” feel, I useually make the game very heavy on mundane elements. For example, “the players will head out of the village of Barrelrock after a hearty breakfast of bacon, apples, and mead” as apposed to “the players leave the village after an extended rest”.

By: Yax

Yax — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:28:07 +0000

DId I mention I miss THAC0? It was challenging enough that it made me feel good every time I figured out if I hit or not. Now things are too simple!

By: TGN

TGN — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:39:55 +0000

The idea of a cursed item working like a disease is extremely interesting! I love the idea of risking one’s life because we need something to smack that vampire RIGHT NOW. It is worth exploring in my games.

By: Steve V

Steve V — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:26:28 +0000

That’s what I really like about 4th edition, it really gives that old school feel to the game with mechanics that work one heck of a lot better. Though there are still days when I pine away for 1st edition or even basic/Expert edition.

I have been know, on occasion, to break out the Rules Cyclopedia and run a one shot or two. It’s a lot of fun and those who never played the earlier editions, get a real kick out of it. But then again., I have a really great game group I DM for.

By: rmckee78

rmckee78 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:35:14 +0000

@Buccaneer: Make sure you let the wackiness loose with Mutant Future. The game has a great community too. I have been writing about my prep for my first Mutant Future campaign on my blog and people have been really helpful.

Another thing you can do is to rely heavily on the random generation tables in the DMG. This can give your game more of that gonzo old school feel. 4E does not have as many random tables as the old school games but many of the items have the same names. With a little work an OSRIC (free .pdf) table could be converted to 4e easily.

Let the roleplaying happen in the retelling. Don’t worry about having an epic story prepared ahead of time, let your players put everything in context when they recite their adventures.

Give more XP for getting gold out of the dungeon than you do for killing the monsters. This will lead to the players being more clever about how they get the gold.

By: Buccaneers Guild

Buccaneers Guild — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:47:19 +0000

@rmckee78 Good advice on the search roles. I like that feel. I long for some of that old school feel back in our games, so much so that I’ve bought Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord! Gonna have fun with those.