So, we have come to the final part of the interview. Basically this is where we talk about your post-game impressions. What went wrong, what went right and how will you proceed from here?
What did you do after your first game?
Well, first I removed the remains of the chair that, well, succombed to the pressure. In mid-combat, suddenly one of our players almost disappeared from view, due to the chair braking under him. That woke us up a bit :-)
Anything else?
Yeah. I have a tradition of whenever I have run a new game, I go back and read through the rulebook to see what I did wrong, right etc.
Was there anything that struck you at first?
Well, nothing much actually. Some powers we may have done slightly wrong, but as a whole it played out as written. The one thing I remember is that we did slightly wrong on death saves.
Is there any area where you still feel unsecure in 4th ed?
Actually there is. I still don't feel really at home with Skill Challenges. I like the idea, but I think I need to find a way to use them that suits my style of gaming before I can use them to their best advantage.
In what way doesn't it suit you?
Even though I tried to enforce descriptions to each and every roll, there is a risk that it gets reduced to a series of skill checks. I also had problems with hitting a good level of difficulty for the skill challenges.
Was it too easy? Or too hard?
Well, both actually. When this interview was made, I have had the time to play 4th ed a second time. The first time, they where to easy, the second time they where too hard.
What did you do when a skill challenge was failed?
Well, first of all, in one of the challenges, I used the rule that for each failed skill check, a healing surge was lost. This mirrored that the challenge was a physically demanding task. Another problem that I had to think about was what to do if the players failed a challenge that was needed for the module to continue.
How did you solve that?
I don't know if it was the best of solutions, but it worked. Basically I withheld the XP for the encounter, and in the case I mentioned above the players lost all their healing surges. However, they got the information they needed, got where they where supposed to. This meant that the module moved on, but there was still some penalty for failing the challenge.
Will you use this in the future?
I think I will build upon that idea. I will try to find other ways to make a success mean an extra perk, and a failure to be a penalty. I will also try to make skill challenges more scripted. For instance making a success with a specific skill open up other uses for skills. This is mentioned in the DMG, but I havn't really used it much yet.
Speaking of the future, will you continue playing 4th ed
Well, of course. If nothing else, because that one of my groups will be playing Living Campaigns with 4th ed in a couple of months.
So, will you be using it outside of that?
I do believe so, I've enjoyed it so far, and the modules we've played are starting to form the beginning of a campaign.
What will you be using it for?
The campaign so far is meant to be some kind of dark fantasy. The focus is on combat and digging out the evil creatures that threaten the few remaining bits of civilisation.
In an earlier post, you talked about a starting setting that you perhaps should use. Do you still hold on to that?
No, not really. It turned out that the imagery I got from that setting didn't fit with how DnD vibes with me. I will however keep to the same principle.
Which one is that?
Start simple, build outwards from that.
Fair enough. So, we are running out of space here. Now that you've tried 4th ed, how will you place that in relation to other rpg's out there. Is it a revolution? Evolution? Neither?
Neither I'm afraid to say. There's very little in DnD4 that made me go "wow, I've never seen this before". They have taken a number of bits that works in other games (rpg's and otherwise), polished them so that they fit together, and then made a game out if it. And it works. It's simple, fast and gets the job done. Perhaps not without it's quirks, but it works.
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