Played Second LFR Game Tonight and Had Fun
September 19, 2008 by shent_lodge
Filed under 4e, Gaming Conventions, RPGA Activity
A different DM and a different module made a big difference in LFR game quality. The bad part is the DM lives 1.5hrs away. We usually only see her once every couple of months or at the local mini “cons”. I had fun, because this time the DCs and monsters appeared to be reasonable for 1st level and skill challenges were not as blatantly obvious as in my first game. In fact a couple players seemed confused while in “meta-game mode”, because they were expecting the DM to say OK roll for these three skills…(boring) and she never asked. It felt like I was in the environment this time helping to complete a task that had a reward worth taking. Oh, and the wife had a blast literally, with her 1st level fire breathing dragonborn, she laid low many a beast during play. At one point in the module, she fearlessly jumped off a balcony to head off a mob of minions. Her vote on her first 4th-ed RPGA game was two thumbs up.
What really made it fun for me was, in the same combat as above, for the first time in many, many, years, I was allowed to swing from rope, down into a mob of minions, and by burning an action point at the end, I was allowed to attack (I missed but it was fun) thanks to some DM free-form, in-game decisions that are allowed now, and taboo in the old RPGA Living Greyhawk. The game ended up being more like what I imagined the new RPGA would be like, while my first game felt like more of the same bad old crap just with shinier facade. The DM made the game.
Matter of fact, the whole group had fun.
On a note about mechanics, we notice that wizards are better at religion than clerics because the skill set for religion is based on intelligence not wisdom. And, it appears a fighter can throw a dagger at a target from a distance as part of a combat challenge (PH p76) to mark it and then close for melee, or use the mark to draw the opponent away from a bloodied PC forcing it to attack the fighter.
Odd quote of the night ”Oh, and I critted the baby.” It is not as bad as it sounds.
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Heh, yeah it’s an amazing thing how important a GM can be to giving a good impression of the rules.
RE: the mark thing. I don’t /think/ the intent of the challenge rule is something to give you an extra attack (i.e. throwing a dagger, closing and then attacking all without an action point being spent)… I don’t have my book handy to look at the phrasing, but that specific case is probably outside the spirit of the rule at least. However, tossing the dagger as your attack and using that to mark it is reasonable… it represents the fighter going “Hey, big guy… I’m coming for YOU!” and using the thrown dagger to get it’s attention . The mark in no way /forces/ them to attack the fighter. If they want to beat on their bloodied opponent they get a -2 to hit, from having to watch and see if that fighter really is coming for them (or some such explanation), but if they are willing to eat that… swing away man, swing away.
I figured the fighter could close after tossing the dagger and then use an action point to attack, or at least, toss something that direction to help reduce the chance of the bad guy hitting a PC in trouble while the fighter in heavy armer lumbers forward into battle. I am just liking the combat dynamics in the new rules.