In honor of the release, I wanted to revisit Worldbreakers as a mechanic, and talk about what I’ve learned about monster design.

More Powers does not Equal More Expressive. It’s a common trick to give a monster powers to express every ability, but in 4e that kitchen-sink design actually detracts from a monster’s uniqueness. A few powers with more dramatic abilities mean more than many powers with subtle and  nuanced effects. Less powers alo is easier to run.

For Heaven’s Sake, Use the Monster Manual 3 Math. It makes such a huge difference in the ability of a monster (especially a solo) to use the damage boost proscribed in MM3. If you need the info, you can get it here and here.

While We’re At It, Action Recovery is a Must. Action Recovery — the generic name for removing dazed, stunned, and immobilized conditions on a solo — is essential. You’ll see it with a lot of cute names on Worldbreakers, but you’ll see it. Even though Worldbreakers get a clearing effect, many parties can lock down for almost the entirety of the battle. Use this on your solos to give them a fighting chance.

Counting Rounds is Just Wrong. Yes I learned my lesson. I spent a lot of energy in playtesting trying to get the right amount of rounds for the Worldbreaker effect. I realized in one play-test that the counting of rounds is just not something you do in 4e. That’s when we went to the temporary hit point model, and that’s when it finally clicked. One thing I was trying to do with the Worldbreakers initially was to have  a flow of valley (low threat) – peak (high threat) – valley - peak – valley . Combats in 4e don’t last enough rounds for that. A better “flow” is valley – peak – valley. This gives players time to get their licks in, get their tushes kicked, and get their last licks in. It fits more naturally within the structure of the 4e combat system.

Challenge is OK, Interesting is What Matters. I think most groups will find Etherkai challenging. I expect that some groups will find him completely deadly, while others while find him to be completely soft. Here’s the thing: I built Etherkai (and the rest of the Worldbreakers) to be interesting first and foremost. A lot of powers force unconventional interactions with the players, and he does some pretty crazy stuff. I can’t as a designer control challenge at the table. Dice are fickle. Some groups are very optimized, others are just average. I can’t fully control challenge unless I can fully control all these factors. I have a lot more say in how the monster is presented. When you read a Worldbreaker monster, you’ll get a rich back story and understanding of its motivations and personality. You’ll know how to present this monster to your players in the story. No matter what happens after that, the memory of that presentation will stay.
If there is a tip I’d like to give to GMs everywhere, it’s to let go of the notion of challenge a bit. Go for interest first , and see how it liberates your gaming. Many GMs confuse difficulty or danger with excitement.  I say…look at roller coasters.  I am not saying make artificial challenges, I am saying look at how danger and excitement occupy two separate spaces. Roller coasters are prety  An encounter doesn’t have to be a killer to excite players. Make exciting encounters first.

I’ll have more lessons when the next Worldbreaker comes around. Please pick up Etherkai  (it’s $2 with great art and great layout) and let us know what you think! I hope you enjoy it.

4e also has a lot of magic in it,  as any self-respecting high fantasy game should.  The game supports some basic magical forms of movement in teleportation and flying (which is not necessarily magical in nature). Someone brought up Lodoss War in chat and another form of “magical” movement came to me:

Treerunning.

To some people this might seem ridiculous. Running through trees? In the context of anime or wuxia fiction, this movement makes perfect sense. But…What is treerunning?

Treerunning is a form of movement that allows the creature to move from one tree to another.  When treerunning, a creature flies from a current tree to a tree no further than 5 squares away.  You can move a number of trees  equal to the specified speed.  Entering a tree counts as a move, as does leaving a tree. You must be within two squares of a tree to enter it, and you may place yourself on the ground with 2 of your current tree when you leave a tree.  Treerunning characters are considered to be 5 squares above the battlefield.

With that keyword what do we get? Ninjas running through trees and wuxia sword warriors. We expect the numbers for treerunning to be low — 1 to 3 — but the characters will still be fast manuevering around the battlefield.  It is a bit of verbiage to define, but in a casual game you probably don’t need to be that rigid about it. You’ll see shortly too that this template extends in all sorts of interesting ways.

The first thing many will  notice is that this movement is very fast . You move up to 5 squares per point of treerunning.  But you don’t put something like this in play in isolation.  If players run through trees, can’t NPCs?  And, more interestingly, can’t treerunners be “shaken out” of trees?

The enemy ninja is making his retreat through the trees! The party is earthbound and lagging behind. The party wizard shoots a fireball at the tree the ninja is  going to leap to next, forcing him to ground where he can be caught!

What is interesting about treerunning is that it puts trees “in play”.  Those trees were just hindrances at best.  Now, they are another layer to the battle.  You’ve added an extra dimension with a new movement type.

Not Just Trees

OK, I understand.  You hate trees, amiright?  Fine. With some simple find and replace we can get:

• roofrunning
• stonerunning
• firerunning

Roofrunning lets us do some pretty awesome urban parkour fight scenes. Even with the verbiage above, the overall effect is probably less overhead than it would be to have endless athletics and acrobatics checks.  Now we only make those checks when players make special stunts or when something really matters. Assassin’s Creed anyone?

Stonerunning and firerunning are great in very specialized environments, but have more limited uses in more common areas.  These are OK on PCs, but on monsters?  They can turn an encounter into an interesting surprise. Imagine fight dwarf stonerunners. The adventurers expect slow plodding dwarves, but instead get dwarves bounding around them on the stone!

We can extend ‘running’ to all sorts of environments.  As we do so we create a free-flowing, agile environment. We build rich movement and even richer potential for counter-movement into our battles just by expanding where the battle can go.

Introducing Running to your Game

The only question is: how do I bring this into my game?  There are a number of ways, but a model I like is to introduce it with your monsters.  The characters fight a monster who uses the running type on them.  the first 1 or 2 encounters with this type the players have no option but to counter. another encounter might let characters burn an encounter to get ‘running for a turn or so.  Past that, you might let characters take a feat to get that movement type permanently.

For extremely magical ‘running, you could make it an option available to  characters depending on race or culture.  Getting back to Lodoss War, it is obvious elves from there should have the option for treerunning. Tieflings might get firerunning available to them, while shadar-kai might recieve shadowrunning, etc.

However you introduce it, adding new movement types can add some pretty unique thrills for your game.

What type of ‘running could you use in your game?

This is the fourth in a series of blogs, designed to help you add a little moistness to your 4e D&D game. The first half of this blog provides a few examples of layers, with rules for those provided in the previous entry of this series.

Sample Layers

Below are a few samples of how a layered encounter map might be designed.

Shoreline

This is a simple three-layer encounter location.

The top layer of these maps includes a large beach along the side of the map and increasingly deep water along the other half. The 3 squares closest to the beach are difficult terrain and do not require Athletics checks, but creatures cannot move between layers in those squares. Additionally, creatures on other layers have total cover from creatures on the shore.

As characters move farther away from the shore they begin to swim, and start making Athletics checks when they are 4 squares from the beach. Once they are swimming they can move between layers and can target creatures on other layers normally.

The second layer is smaller than the first, with a steep slope on the far right squares. Creatures in a sloped square do not sink when they fail Athletics checks. This layer is close to the sandy beach, and the movement of combat is disturbing the sediment. All squares in this layer are considered to be lightly obscured.

The third layer is only slightly smaller than the second. The water on this clear and offers no concealment. Along the side runs the rocky shore, now a vertical drop.

This third layer can be modified with such features as small underwater cave. Other layers could include terrain such as coral or seaweed.

Iceberg

This is a very simple four layer encounter

The top layer is the surface of the water, with a small iceberg exposed on the surface, along with other floating chunks of ice.

The iceberg is solid but only partially above the water, so it provides cover (but not superior cover). Moving from the water onto the surface of the iceberg costs an extra square of movement. The iceberg itself has slippery icy patches. Creatures that move more than 3 squares must make a Moderate DC Acrobatics check or fall prone.

The lower three levels are similar, all underwater with the iceberg in the middle of the battlemap. The iceberg itself blocks movement and line of sight. The only variation between layers is the size of the iceberg.

The water around the iceberg is dangerously cold. Creatures that start their turn adjacent to the iceberg take 3 cold damage per tier.

At the DM’s discretion, the iceberg could be clear in places, and thus would not block line of sight.

The iceberg could also move as the fight progresses, acting and shifting cover. If a moving iceberg strikes a stationary character they must make an immediate saving throw. If they succeed they remain on their current layer but are pushed along by the iceberg. If they fail, they are pushed down a layer.

Whirlpool

This is a more complicated four-layer encounter location.

The top layer of this map is the surface of the sea. Dominating the middle of the layer is the opening of a vortex, sucking creatures underwater.

On this layer the whirlpool is burst 5 zone, 11 squares across. Creatures that end their turn on the outer 3 squares are pulled 1 square closer to the center of the zone and slide 2 squares clockwise. Creatures that end their turn on the inner squares are pulled down a layer.

On the second layer, the whirlpool is a burst 3 zone, 7 squares across.  Creatures that end their turn on the outer 2 squares are pulled 1 square closer to the center of the zone and slide 2 squares clockwise. Creatures that end their turn on the inner squares are pulled down a layer.

On the third layer, the whirlpool is a burst 1 zone, 3 squares across. Creatures that end their turn on the outer squares are pulled 1 square closer to the center of the zone and slide 1 square clockwise. Creatures that end their turn on the inner square are pulled down a layer.

On the fourth and lowest layer, the whirlpool occupies a single square; the whirlpool does not move creatures but counts as difficult terrain.

Sample Encounter

This uses the shoreline maps. That map can easily be cropped to three wide but short battlemaps, each covering a narrow section of the shoreline.

(This encounter does use monsters from the MM1, so remember to increase their damage before use.)

Encounter Level 9 (2002 XP)

Setup

4 sahuagin guards

1 sahuagin raider

2 sahuagin priests

1 sahuagin baron

The fight starts with the sahuagin baron on the first layer, swimming but visible. The remaining sahuagin begin the fight underwater: the guards and raider on the second layer, and the two priests are on the third layer.

Tactics

The baron swims out to open water where it can use its swim speed to greater advantage, goading the PCs to come and attack. Meanwhile, the raider and guards will await below, possibly throwing their tridents to strike the PCs, and acting as living cover for the priests.

The sahuagin, knowing they will be fighting at a distance, should have brought a spare trident. The tridents also likely sink, allowing missed projectiles to be recovered as the slowly descend.

Once the PCs are in the deep water, the baron will swim down, and join its allies on the second layer.

Features of the Area

Sediment: The sand stirred-up on the second layer, and grants concealment to targets on different layers.

Terrain

Under the waves there are dangers unknown on the surface, areas of unique wildlife and locations of power.

Under the waves there are dangers unknown on the surface, areas of unique wildlife and locations of power.

Dark Water

This is an area where the foulness of the shadow realm has tainted the waters, turning them black and foul. The water is sticky and thick, making swimming a challenge.

Effect: Squares of dark water are lightly obscured and creatures with a swim speed treat the area as difficult terrain. Creatures without a swim speed take a -5 penalty of Athletics checks.

Fey Algae

Infused by the living force of the arcane world of the Fey, this resembles pond scum only much more virulent and found in any aquatic environment. It forms thick clouds that blocks vision and clings to anything that enters.

Effect: Squares of fey algae are heavily obscured. Creatures that enter or start their turn in a square of fey algae take a -5 penalty to Perception and Stealth checks and a -2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends).

Geyser Jet

Similar to a thermal vent, these periodically erupt in a torrent of scalding water.

Effect: The DM rolls a d20 at the start of each round. If the result is 9 or less the geyser erupts; creatures in burst 1 around the geyser take 5 fire and acid damage per tier.

Jelly Bloom

These are massive schools of jellyfish, sometimes thousands of the creatures, which float through the water and act as a hazard to swimmers.

Effect: Creatures that enter or start their turn in a square of a jelly bloom takes 10 lightning and poison damage per tier.

Razor Coral

This sharp-edged coral seems harmless but is sharper than polished steel.

Effect: Creatures that enter or start their turn in a square of razor coral take ongoing 3 damage per tier (save ends).

Tangle Weeds

Patches of this seaweed have been known to drown divers and snare the unwary.

Effect: Creatures that enter a square of tangle weed must make a Moderate DC Athletics or Acrobatics check or be grabbed (until escape). The escape check uses the same DC, but with a -2 penalty on the check.

Thermal Vent

These chasms send out waves of heat, and legends say they are clefts into fiery regions of the elemental realm.

Effect: When a creature enters a square with a thermal vent they take 5 fire damage per tier and the creature is pushed up 5 squares.

If the encounter takes place on a layered battlefield the creature is instead pushed up a layer.

Undertow

A side effects of powerful waves, this is an underwater current that pulls people down into deeper and deeper water.

Effect: When a creature enters an undertow they must make a moderate DC Athletics check or be pushed down 5 squares.

If the encounter takes place on a layered battlefield the creature is instead pushed down a layer.

This is the third in a series of blogs on Aquatic Adventures. This article provides some needed rules for underwater combat.

Layered Combat

One of the solutions for 3D combat proposed last time was layered encounters: multiple battlemaps each focusing on a single slice of the action.

Layers are an abstraction on standard combat, ignoring precise movement and distance in favour of a simple system that is easy to run. Instead of tracking elevation for each creature, there are multiple maps all stacked vertically. This is similar to having a combat take place in several small rooms, all adjacent to each other.

Despite being separate maps, layers are still treated as the same map or location for rituals and powers that target the entire battlefield. Creatures are able to see and hear across all layers unless blocked by additional terrain.

For ease of movement between layers, it’s a good idea to number the grid for identification, like as a chessboard – or the game Battleship.

As a default, layers are treated as being approximately five squares apart.

Moving Between Layers

• Creatures must move to adjacent layers.
• A moving creature appears in a square at the same position as the one they left or a square adjacent to that one.
• Creatures with a swim speed can move between adjacent layers as a move action. They do not need to make an Athletics check to change layers.
• Creatures without a swim speed need two move actions to move between layers. They must make an Athletic check to change layers.
• Creatures cannot end their turn between layers.
• Creatures provoke Opportunity Attacks normally for leaving threatened squares.
• Forced movement that moves a creature more than five squares can instead be used to move a creature between layers. The forced movement must still obey other limits (i.e. you cannot pull a creature on the same layer onto a different layer).
• Creatures that fail three Athletics checks in a row by 5 or more sink to a lower layer.

Attacking Between Layers

• Attacking between layers does not impose a penalty on attack rolls.
• Melee and close attacks cannot target creatures on a different layer.
• Ranged and area attacks with a range of 5 or less cannot target a different layer.
• Ranged and area attacks with a range of 6 to 10 can target an adjacent layer.
• Ranged and area attacks with a range of 11 to 15 can target up to two layers away.
• Each subsequent range increase of 5 can target an additional layer.

Skills

The skills chapter of the PHB and Rules Compendium includes all the DCs for moving in water, including treading water. This section adds a few more options for skill use.

Athletics

Skilled swimmers can attempt more while underwater than the frail or unskilled.

• Immobilized creatures can still make Athletics check to avoid sinking; they cannot move but can still tread water.
• A creature that does not move or make an Athletics check sinks 1 square at the end of its turn.
• If a creature succeeds on an Athletics check to swim by 10 or more, it does not need to spend an extra square of movement for the first square it enters.

Endurance

Only the hardy can withstand the crushing pressure of the deep sea.

Action: A free action made at the start of a creature’s turn

DC: The DC is based on the type or pressure. DC 15 for light pressure and DC 22 for heavy pressure.

Success: A creature can ignore the effects of deep sea pressure for the encounter.

Pressure

Water is heavy, and without magic the pressures of being deep underwater can crush an unprepared diver.

There are two types of pressure: light pressure and heavy pressure. In the open sea, light pressure is between 100 feet and 500 feet underwater (20 squares to 100 squares), while heavy pressure is 500 feet or more underwater (over 100 squares).

• In areas of light pressure, creatures without the aquatic keyword take a -2 penalty to Perception checks and all Dexterity-based skill checks.
• Light pressure can be ignored for an encounter with a DC 15 Endurance check.
• In areas of heavy pressure, creatures without the aquatic keyword take a -5 penalty to Perception checks and all Dexterity-based skill checks.
• Heavy pressure can be ignored for an encounter with a DC 22 Endurance check.
• Effects and abilities that permit breathing underwater do not bestow the ability to ignore pressure.
• Effects and abilities that remove penalties for underwater combat bestow the ability to ignore pressure.
• Creatures without the aquatic keyword that move from a depth with no pressure to heavy pressure (or the reverse)  in less than one minute, take damage equal to their bloodied value and are deafened (save ends).

Falling & Sinking

In many ways, sinking is falling, only slower and with no damage.

• Creatures sink 1 square at the end of their turn.
• If a creature fails an Athletics check to swim by 5 or more they sink.
• Immobilized creatures must still make Athletics checks to swim or they sink. Failure or success does not end the immobilized condition.
• Grabbed creatures do not sink unless the grabbing creature chooses. They can still choose to make Athletics checks to tread water.
• Grabbing creatures can either chose to sink with a grabbed target, make a single Athletics check to tread water for itself and the target, or use the target’s Athletics check.
• Restrained creatures do not sink, unless the DM rules the individual power does not prevent sinking. This does not end the restraining condition.

Next Time

On the next blog in this series I will provide a couple sample layers and additional terrain to use in underwater adventures.

This “hands-off” approach to powers is understandable, but limiting: Some people get so into that mindset that they will say things like there are things the characters can’t do because there is no power for it. With this mindset, D&D becomes quickly limited in scope. Fortunately this is extreme (but I swear to you people have said this to me) and people lie on a spectrum. What I want to do is get you to join me on the coolest side of the spectrum: Powers aren’t limiting; powers are everywhere.

If you think of a power as a frame of action, how the system can be used to do what you want leaps right at you. You want to kick down that wall? Your fighter is using the ‘kick down the door’ power implicitly. Other rules regulate this action, so you don’t need to make a new power to express this, but just thinking of it in this way forms a pattern of thinking that makes it easy to create powers on the fly when you do need it. When you put a real world action into the frame of a power, you “freeze” and turn it into a token that can be used in the system to link your game’s fiction and the mechanics.

When exactly do you create a power on the fly? Two situations come to mind:

Roleplaying award. I use this most frequently. If someone has a moment of exciting roleplay, maybe I give him a boon or maybe I provide the player with something that gives a small bonus or situation on the spot to “freeze” that moment and manifest it in the game. Something your player does often can become a bit of a schtick. Say a player’s character pulls pranks often. After she pulls a particularly effective and funny prank, you give the player the power “Always the Jester”. Let’s say it is a daily power that you can use to gain a +1 bonus to an attack. Weak for a daily power, but let’s say that it recharges when you pull a successful prank. Now you have a power that rewards the player for roleplaying and working within her character’s personality.

Treasure Replacement. Here’s my secret: a few months ago, I stopped giving out magic items in my home games. I use inherent bonuses, and then I give out effects based on what the story dictates. Players might find a magical weapon, sure, but when they do it is more likely to use artifact rules or my tragic imprint rules than a standard magic item. Otherwise, I’m giving the players special powers that relate to what is happening in the story. Sometimes I give the players “narrative loot” –I’ll ask them to describe what they found within some parameters — and then let that narrative loot come into the story later. That crystal ball they found earlier can come into play when least expected or most needed. We can decide what it does then and give it a power on the fly.

Most people might not feel comfortable with this, and much of what I suggest requires trust between the players and the DM — I don’t recommend this at your local encounters — but in the end it’s worth the squeeze. Viewing powers as omnipresent frames for action waiting to be plucked out of the air whenever needed is much more interesting and useful for RPing than viewing powers as a limitation.

Ever try something like this? How did it work for you? Talk to me.

Roderic wished he’d stayed on dry land.

Introduction

Exciting adventures are not confined to the land. Prior editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game included a myriad of undersea races and monsters that could be used to craft underwater encounters or adventures. Most of these classic creatures are absent from the current edition of the game, and aquatic adventures – or other types of 3 Dimensional encounters – have not been prominently featured.

The likely reason is that underwater encounters can be tricky, and in a 3D space it’s hard to have the same tactical miniature-based combat for which the current edition is known. 3D battlemaps are not easy to draw or construct. And purely narrative combat does not mesh well with the 4e rule set.

This is the first in a series of articles dedicated to the subject of adventuring underwater.  This series will focus on some solutions to the mapping problems and advice on adventuring, as well as adding a whole sack of new monsters and descriptions of the various undersea peoples.

Campaign Considerations

How much of this and the subsequent articles apply to your game depends on your campaign’s scope: how long the party will be underwater. A party could be beneath the waves for an encounter, an adventure, a story arc, a tier, or even the majority of a campaign. It’s a good idea to start with this information when planning, because so much else depends on the duration spent undersea.

Short Term

For a single encounter, the GM does not need to worry about such concerns as breathing underwater or complicated 3D terrain. An average party should be able to hold their breath for the entire fight, even those with low Con scores and Endurance checks. However, the focus should be on making a good underwater encounter, and less on making a good encounter that happens to be underwater; the fact the fight is underwater should not be trivial. Every such encounter should feature a monster or mechanic or bit of terrain that can only exist underwater, the aquatic elements should not be superfluous or forgettable. Underwater encounters should not just be an excuse to dump the PCs in a pool of difficult terrain or take advantage of a lack of strong swimming skills or appropriate powers.

It’s a good idea to exercise restraint when planning a single encounter. There shouldn’t be monsters AND unique terrain AND multiple 3D elements AND constant skill checks. There should be enough underwater elements to emphasise that the unique nature of the fight, but not so many as to be overwhelming. Balance is less of a concern, beyond the standard balance needed for an encounter. The GM does not need to establish firm rules for underwater combat or set fair DCs for skill checks. Instead, attention should be paid to making a fun one-shot encounter; the underwater rules become a type of mini-game.

For example, an encounter might have swift-moving currents of water that can carry a character across the battlefield but have harder Athletics checks needed to swim normally. Or there could be a swirling vortex moving randomly across the battlefield shuffling characters as it passes, while the moving water might make it easier to swim one direction but harder the other.

For a full adventure, the rules require a little more attention. They have to be consistent and usable for an extended period without dragging or slowing down play. If every single encounter requires repeated Athletics checks for every single move action – even travelling an incidental distance – the players without that skill will quickly become frustrated. It’s possible to forgo checks for simple and standard movement, however longer distances or quick movement should still require checks: the characters are literally out of their element and the gameplay should still reflect this.

It’s a good idea to write-up a campaign cheat-sheet, a copy of the rules for underwater combat and the Athletics DCs for swimming. Both are likely to be referenced multiple times and having a quick-reference copy will greatly speed-up play and reduce page flipping.

An underwater adventure also needs a way for the party to breathe. For most adventures, a simple ritual will suffice. There are two rituals that devoted to underwater survival: water breathing and water’s gift (found in the PHB1 and Primal Power respectively). The first confers just the ability to breathe while the second does the same while making underwater combat far easier. Alternatively, new alchemical items or consumable magic items will also serve. However, these do not need to be permanent. In fact, it works better if there is a built-in time limit, driving the story and party forward, while reinforcing the fact that their survival is entirely dependent on an outside force.

Adventures themselves should emphasise the fact the players are strangers in a strange world. Under the sea should be presented as alien, as if the characters had journeyed to another plane or unknown world. The party should have some trouble performing normally simple tasks. A deed that is a simple skill check on the surface might be the basis of a short Skill Challenge, and something that might be done automatically might require a check. However, the PCs are still heroes and should be treated as such. Things should be harder but not impossible, and the GM should emphasise their successes in such an alien environ.

Long Term

For the initial few adventures, it’s a good idea to start with some of the short term advice. It gives the players a sense of progress as their characters advance from fumbling outsiders to more comfortable surface-world expatriates.

Longer underwater tales, lasting for multiple adventures or an entire tier, mean that encounters need a little extra work to avoid repetition. If every fight features ocean currents and 3D combat the game risks becoming boring or predictable. It becomes much more permissible to have encounters that just happen to be underwater; it’s should still be a key element, but not every fight needs to showcase the underwater world or its tactical opportunities. It’s easier to ignore skill checks for swimming, except for extraordinary situations. It’s also possible to add more elements to combats, as the DCs for Athletics checks should have become common knowledge and be easily recalled. This allows encounters to get a little more complicated with more going on without slowing down play.

The largest concern for extended stints underwater is breathing. Rituals can work, but will quickly become an expensive tax on survival, unless the group is particularly high level. Low-level groups might be unable to afford or perform the necessary rituals, and some groups might even lack a ritual caster and be unable to reliably and regularly cast breathing rituals.

It’s easier to simply give the characters a way to breathe underwater early, such as a boon or permanent magical item. An NPC ritual caster somewhat works, especially at the beginning of the arc, but eventually there should be no time restriction on survival permitting lengthy stints away from safety and security.

It’s also a good idea to give the characters a base of operations, a safe haven where they can store perishable items, sleep, cook, and generally be dry. This might be a small island, an air-filled cavern, a magically protected keep, or some kind of fantasy submarine (such as a large apparatus of Kwalish). While the characters should feel comfortable underwater, it should not be their home and there should still be some small element of the surface world to remind the players than their characters are just visiting.

For long term adventures, the underwater world should be portrayed less like an alien world and more like a foreign land. There are strange customs, incomprehensible languages, and unusual ways of doing familiar things. But there should be recognisable elements of day-to-day life, common activities that tie the surface and aquatic worlds together. DMs should add quirks to the populace and think of unusual ways common tasks might be performed, but follow that up with something familiar and common to both the players and their characters.

Permanent

It’s also possible to run an exclusively underwater campaign. This might feature aquatic races in addition to the normal PC races, and instead it’s forays onto the surface that are ventures into an unfamiliar or alien world.

The characters need no attachment to the surface world and might operate out of an underwater settlement, a Nentir Grotto. This might even be their home, where they have spent all their lives. Or they might sleep out in the wilderness, like surface adventurers camping out between towns.

In this style of campaign the GM should assume the PCs can breathe and function underwater, perhaps awarding a free bonus to Athletic skill checks related to swimming (or simply lower the DCs to reduce the memory load). There should be no mechanical bonus to playing a native underwater race or penalty for playing a surface race; players shouldn’t be punished for playing the character they want to play. As such, all characters should start with a boon or ability or small magic item allowing them to function underwater, and simply be required to justify this in their backstory.

Look for the second blog in this series in a few weeks, which discusses encounter design. I plan to follow that up with expanded underwater rules, terrain, a big blog o’ monsters, PC races and magic, and maybe something else.

Last article we discussed using wealth tokens instead of gold for your characters.  You want to check it out in detail, but to rephrase:

• Each level, characters can gett up to twenty tokens (4 wealth, 16 Karma).
• No character can have more than a hundred tokens at once.
• Characters spend the tokens instead of gold pieces to get items they wish and other effects as well (more on that later )

So…how does one acquire wealth and karma?  About half of the wealth your characters acquire should be gained in typical “parcel” format.  The party goes through encounters and gain wealth as karma as rewards. This half is what they earn from progressing through the story and meeting milestones, etc.

The other half the party earns by doing special things…yep, you guessed it, an achievement system!  If the characters want to earn the most possible wealth and karma they fulfill items from a bounty list.  The bounty system rewards “non-optimal” play and “optimal” play. You can place lateral thinking achievements in the bounty list for players who like that (“convince the princess that you are nobility”) or you can put straight number crunching bounties for your battle-hungry characters (“deal twenty points of damage in one strike”).

The bounty system rewards characters for doing more than going from point A to point B without forcing the characters to deviate.  The characters aren’t reliant on wealth in a way that they are punished for not getting everything they could (you can always up how much wealth characters get by default if they do feel this way) so they can choose how much they want to get into the system.  Of course, well-designed achievement systems are kind of addictive, and players may just want to see what they can do…but this is awesome too!

The Bounty System

We break down achievements at four levels:

Easy Level – things likely  done in the course of adventuring. Might require some luck but nothing extraordinary.  (“Get a critical hit”)

Moderate Effort – with a little  thought, you could do this on the fly.  (“bullrush an opponent into a wall”)

Substantial Effort – a player will probably need to engineer a way to accomplish this.  Requires some planning to accomplish.  (“Inflitrate the castle through disguise instead of stealth”)

Crazy Planning or Crazy Luck – something that is just going to require a wild swing of the dice (get three criticals in a row) or some serious game-planning, or both. It can also represent a slightly larger leap of logic than other achievements.

If we look at the bounty as a pyramid, the base of the pyramid are easy achievements; these don’t take much, but don’t offer much either. We ascend the pyramid until we get to crazy planning/luck.  We have a few of these, which are hard to do, but give the biggest payout of the bunch. To start:

We want at least five easy bounties, worth one point each.

We want four moderate effort bounties, worth two each.

We want three substantial effort bounties, worth three each.

Lastly, we have two crazy achievements, worth four wealth apiece.

Players can get their ten per level in any number of ways.  How they do it is up to them.

An Example Bounty

Assumptions are a standard, heroic tier game.

Easy:

Grab an opponent during a combat.

Hit an enemy with an improvised weapon.

Beat the DC of an Intimidate check by 10 or more.

Beat the DC of a Diplomacy check by 10 or more.

Beat the DC of an Athletics check by 10 or more.

Moderate

Score a critical hit against a dazed or stunned opponent.

Bull rush an enemy and knock them off a height.

Score a coup de grace during a combat.

Do all of the following in one round: Jump 2 squares or more, daze an opponent, give a beneficial bonus to an ally (can be healing or bonus to attack/damage/defense)

Substantial

Defeat the Mad Mage in a ritual contest.

Defeat the gelatinous cube without rolling to attack against it.

Do all of the following in one round: Intimidate one opponent successfully, Bluff another opponent successfully, deal twenty points of damage.

Crazy

Get 3 critical hits in one battle.

Do all of the following in one battle: Get petrified, get stunned, take twenty points of damage in  hit. (oh yeah, survive the battle too)

You could be looking at this and think : “Some of these seem like quests.” And you would get some sortr of prize for thinking of it in that way.  Bounties don’t need to be only combat activities.  Defeating the Mad Mage in a ritual contest could take a lot of forms, but it’s unlikely to be a fight as one knows it.

The next thing you’re thinking is:  Do I just give the characters all these up front? Probably not.  Witth the above list, you give them the easy achievements, and then you give them the others as the arise in the story. Notice that many of these achievements imply that  something can happen.  The second crazy achievement implies there is a battle where you can get petrified, stunned, and take twenty points of damage.  When the characters are in that fight, you can announceor give them the bounty.  Any player crazy enough to go through all that deserves the points.

Lastly, each bounty checklist should be able to last a few levels.  Three stretches it pretty thin. But two is about right.

Comments? Suggestions? Questions?  Let me know.

This is a five-part series on solutions to problems you might have in your game.  You might want to represent something in 4e and have no idea how to do it. You want to make a 4e world that strays from typical models, and have gotten to the limits of what re-skinning can do for you.

Welcome to the lands of homebrew!

Stop Trying out for the WotC design team

You’d think I’d take my own advice, right?

But listen, when I put something on the site I’m trying to share it with you. The more idiosyncratic I make my stuff the harder it is for you to use. That’s no fun.

What I use for my personal games might be way out of spec.  If I’m particularly hopped up on drugs at the moment, I might make something hilariously out of spec.

When you make something for your game, you’ve got to think about the your game, and what it needs. Nothing else matters, especially not standardized 4e.

Trying to make something that feels and looks like something ripped right out of a D&D book is going to kill you as you build your standard 4e game.  Depending on what you change, there’s a pretty tight ecosystem of rules whose balance you can upset, causing you to make more corrective changes and then even more, until the whole affair resembles a lady swallowing a spider to catch a fly and the hilarity that then ensues.

Even if you do this well, is it worth the effort?  Are you getting rules that work for your story?  I’ll tell you, if you want to make dear old Stormbringer for your 4e game, trying to design it to official WotC standards…is going to hurt.  Same for the One Ring, or Excalibur.  Same for, well, a lot of things in fantasy literature and movies.  There’s a ton of stuff 4e can model well, but we’re focusing on the gaps because that’s what homebrew rules are all about.

So, here’s a secret: that really out there stuff you really want to see in your game?   WotC isn’t going to make it! They don’t put out crazy stuff because they have to build things for all their players — WotC needs to design the standards the game is built on.

But you and I aren’t WotC!  It’s ok that I build something in my game like:

You know why I can do that?  It’s my game that I run.  WotC doesn’t have a rules ninja that it sends out to assassinate wayward GMs, so you’re greenlighted to build what is important for your story.  It doesn’t have to look like something out of the PHB unless you want it to.

Before we go any further, I need you to internalize that.  If you don’t, you’ll sprevent yourself from making the best stuff for your games.

Four principles for 4e.

What do these mean?  I don’t know, you’ll have to keep reading! In the meantime, tell me what you want to know about!

What problems are you having building items or rules for your 4e game?  Use the contact page or leave a comment and let’s chat.

So what’s this nonsense about powers equalling aspects again?

The only answer to that is to look at a power as a container.  What if we use the slots of our powers as hooks to hold personality based mechanics on?  Magic Missile may not describe me as a character, but I can still use that slot to hold a brief statement that does.  If I do this for an at-will, an encounter, and a daily power, I have tools for roleplay that function in the same exact way as they would in their fighting context.

Be warned that this system applies to non-essentials characters only.

Being, Desire, Action

At character creation, each player will choose an at-will, encounter, and daily power (psionic characters will choose two at-wills in place of an at-will and an encounter).

“I AM” –Statement of Being.

To the At-Will power, the character will attach a statement about the character that starts with some version of “I am”.   This is a statement of the characters base nature.  It should describe something not explicitly stated on the character sheet, so having “I am an Elf Wizard” is going to be no big revelation as that should already be on your character sheet.

Use “I am” to describe an essential bit of your character.  What archetype is he/she?  What is an core truth to describe the character?

“I am a prankster”

“I am vengeful”

“I am proud”

“I am a guardian.”

Like an At-will power, your “I am” Fauxspect can be used many times in an encounter where applicable to get minor bonus or effect.

Note that it is completely non-important and non-necessary to “link” the power and the aspect.  If you want, that’s great, but don’t get trapped trying to make chilling cloud fit your character’s personality.  What’s important is that you have that power slot.

“I WILL” –Statement of Desire

You’re next going to pick an encounter power.  On this power  you will associate the expression is “I will”.  It expresses something your character will always attempt to do.  Try to keep it broad enough that you can use it in multiple situations.  ”I will dance on the head of a pin during a full moon” is probably too specific.  Try:

“I will always protect the weak”

“I will defend my honor”

A great way to build this is to combine it with your statement of being:

” I am x, so I will y.”

“I am x.  I will y.”

and fleshed out:

“I am proud, so I will defend my honor.”

“I am a guardian. I will always protect the weak.”

You statement of desire is something you strive for, an ideal that can or cannot be beyond your reach.  It can be used as an encounter power during roleplay for a substantial bonus or effect.

“I DO” –Statement of Action.

Last we get a statement of action.  This is tied to your starting daily power and describes something that your character always does.  This statement is an action that your character takes that he/she is good at, or is uniquely powerful.  You don’t actually use “I do” here; replace “do” with a verb:

“I crush all who stand against me.”

“I stand against oppression in all its forms”

“I bless the weak with Pelor’s light.”

Statements of action allow you to expend the associated daily for great effect.

Advancing your character.

Your character starts with it’s statements of being, desire, and action at 1st level.  On starting paragon tier, the character gains another statement of desire (attach to any other encounter power you have).   When the character chooses its epic destiny, choose another statement of action (attach to any other daily power you have). You can change the powers a Fauxspect is associated with at the start of each new level.

These Fauxspects can change as the story needs, so knock yourself out with it!  If the story changes something about your essential nature, go over it with the DM and get ti changed to fit the story.

Using Fauxspects.

Now that you have Fauxspects, you need to know how to use them.  You can trigger these as the power they are associated to when appropriate.  You trigger the Fauxspect by calling it out before rolling. You then expend the appropriate linked power(encounters expended for an encounter, dailies used for the day), and then you get a bonus to the skill check (generally what you’ll be using in a non-combat encounter) in accordance to what was expended. You can only expend one Fauxpect at a time.

At-Will/Being gives you a +1 to the roll.

Encounter/Desire gives you a +2 to the roll.

Daily/Action provides a +4 to the roll, and grants an extra success if you succeed during a skill challenge. If it is not a skill challenge, the DM can describe the increased effect.

The usage must be appropriate, meaning it must fit to a reasonable degree in the context of the scene as it occurs.  You cannot invoke  ”I protect the weak” to help you successfully beat up an innocent farmer.  The DM (as always) has last word on what is appropriate, but should lean towards generosity when possible (not as much with at-will/being, but definitely with daily/action).

So, what are your questions?  You’ll note that I’m staying away from Action Point usage or Fate-specific things like tagging and compels. There will be a third part where I’ll deal with those and also with using this system with Essential characters.  In the meantime, let me know what you think and what you want answers to.

The core of FATE to me are aspects. Aspects and fate points are easy to grasp (visit the SRD if you need an education) , and disproportionately powerful in delivering fun gaming for how little it takes to build the initial connections with your brain.  If you’re an Aspect jedi like Rob Donoghue or Fred Hicks, then you can make the system do strange, wonderful things.

4e fandom overlap snugly with FATE fandom.  If you’re a fan of both, you’ve had to consider at least once using them together in some way. FATE  offers D&D  a lot, but the way to  peaceful FATE-4e integration is fraught with peril.  I could enumerate all the pit traps I see, but each recounted item would stem from two vital facts:

Fate Points are not Action Points. One of the things that meters the expenditure of fate points are aspects.  Aspects are a lot of things, but most crucially they are channels for fate points.  Fate points and aspects in this way fit snugly together, with such tight coupling that you really need both to feel the true expression of either individually.

In contrast, look at the action point.  Action points don’t synergize unless you are a warlord. Generally, action points are force multipliers.  All the awesome your character does is already embedded in its powers and modified by feats. Action points just provide you with a chance to do more of the cool stuff your character already does in a compressed period of time; In a round I use an action point, I get an extra action.  The action point then, is supplemental.  There are hooks into the action point, but I for one am not really a fan of making action points do much more than they already do (I’ve experimented with them of course ).  Trying to use APs as a stand-in for FPs can work, but I generally don’t like overloading the function of an AP.

We Don’t Need More Economies. If you don’t map FPs to APs (don’t do it!) then you are left with making an additional economy in many models of FATE-4e integration. When I speak of economy, I’m thinking of the resources you must track and “spend” in 4th edition already.  At this point I want to point you over to the post that inspired me to finally share these thoughts that I’ve been experimenting with for some time.

I envision 4e as relatively balanced network of micro-economies that interplay to create the experience.  The characters expend powers to attack (acquiring power inversely proportional to frequency i.e. less use equals more power), use hit points as measure of survivability, spend healing surges for “vitality” or long term staying power.  Action points augment this triangle. Feats and skills extend it.

I know that you can find a lot of different house rules and editions on this very site, but one thing I do my best to do whenever designing rules is avoiding  extra resource management to the game.  4e is not really complex in terms of rules you need to know, but the vast array of tactical level choices and the amount of “economy” decisions that must be made create for many players a cognitive burden.  Should I spend a healing surge here?  Is this attack worth an encounter power?  A daily?  Should I use an action point here or wait?  This resource management will weigh on you if you let it, and you definitely shouldn’t add more to this system if you can help it.

All this to say is that I definitely don’t want a system of mapping FPs directly into 4e.  Too much stuff! The goal for me is always to add new elements to a game in the idioms and context of the game itself.

Fauxspects

How are we going to use Fate then?  The answers start quite a ways back, with a series I started (with many posts from eduty): Off the Grid.  The basic premise here is that powers are personality, but I’ve done so much thinking and playing since then that I first need  to share the evolution of my thoughts.

We’re creating a character right now, making those initial set of decisions that build our avatar.  We choose the race of a character, giving it a cultural context and perspective in our game world.  Dwarves differ in perspective in culture from elves, who vary from tieflings or dragonborn.

Next, we decide on class.  Most people think that your class is like a job (I used to), but that’s not really true.  There are many ways to be a fighter or a wizard.  What a class actually describes is your character’s overall approach to resolving problems and overcoming obstacles.  The fighter, when faced with a problem, overcomes obstacles by confronting it head-first.  The fighter takes what the obstacle gives and endures, using his physical tools and presence to eventually defeat it.  The rogue deals with obstacles through deception, cunning, and manipulation.  A wizard deals with his conflicts through the proper application of knowledge and intellect.

Classes define our problem-solving approach archetypically, and powers represent a characters approach specifically.  Powers are personality, powers are style.  Powers are already aspects, basically.

In Off the Grid we see the start of this thought.

I know at least half of you reading this think I’m crazy, but looking deeper into the powers you picked gives you insight to who your character is. Many people disconnect ability and personality, mechanics and story. There is no disconnect between these and in fact they often converge –if you let them.

So….Split the Tree. The flavor text says:

You fire two arrows at once, which separate mid-flight to strike two different targets.

What sort of training did it take to be able to do that? Most importantly, at that moment, what is the shape of your thoughts? Are you supremely focused, taking in two targets and all the variables then releasing both notched arrows to strike with incredible accuracy? Do you go “Zen”, emptying your mind of all thought and letting flow take over?

Let’s assume the former. Your ranger fights with skill and grace, but most importantly, she uses her knowledge and razor sharp wit to make the right choice in confusing situations.

You and your party are lost in a maze. The maze is built to confuse. It’s walls are mirrors and its passages look the same. You stop for a moment. Take in everything that you’ve seen and know about this place. Others don’t remember the pebble on the ground three turns ago, but you do. They also didn’t notice the cracked mirror-wall to your left. While every one else has been confused, you’ve been collecting the tiniest bits of data as landmarks and guides. You turn left twice then right once. You build a path in your mind, seperating out all the red herrings and confusion, holding everything you’ve observed in your mind all at once. You’ve split the tree, and you’ve lead your party out of the maze.

Basically, we can use the same space that a power takes to hold an Aspect.   We can then use our powers in a non-combat encounter in a similar way to how we use our powers in combat.  You with me thus far?  Good.   We’re going to put this all to practice in part 2.