The GM Advice thread: Killing your players quickly

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The GM Advice thread: Killing your players quickly

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Lugubrious posted:

Of course you could also lie and just say "hooray you magically have just enough experience to level up"

This is how we are running our 4th edition campaign - the DM doesn't give out XP, we just level up when the story dictates.
This way we can go off on random tangents or miss planned encounters, and the DM doesn't have to worry about us getting too much exp, or worrying about infinate spawning skeleton traps

It works really well.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2009 19:16

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 01:08

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

lighttigersoul posted:

Hmmm. . . That's a neat concept, actually. Instead of item drops, make points where their 'weapons' power up in a suitably visible and cool fashion. . . Very gamey, but still would be neat for that type of game.

There is rules for how to do this in the adventurers vault.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2009 12:50

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Super Waffle posted:

I'm wondering if this final boss battle will be too tough for my group. They're level 2, 5 members, Feylock, Battle Cleric, Paladin, Wizard, and Ranger. I'm planning on having them fight 3 level 6 Shadar Kai, 2 Gloomblades and a Chainfighter. Should I take each one down to level 5? 4?

Our first death in 4th edition was to some shadar kai. We were level 4 and it turns out there were 3 chain fighters and a gloom blade.
They have some ability that lets them shift a bunch of spaces and make multiple attacks, and also have invisibility and insubstantial type powers.
We found them very hard to lock down and my wizard got chased down by them and got the top of his head sliced off

I'm not saying your encounter is too hard, just that they have some interesting abilities that might take your party by surprise (as it did us)

Oh and they had a cockatrice in a bag that they threw at us in the first round that sort of kept us on the back foot whist we were scared of getting turned to stone

# ¿ Aug 13, 2009 17:34

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Lord Twisted posted:

That sounds solid then. I think I'll probably try to stick to the "official" economy and continue doing my own thing with EXP levelling up every so often, unless someone else speaks strongly in favour of official EXP budgets.

Even if you use the "level up when the story tells you" method (which you should as gently caress keeping track of experience levels), you should still use the EXP budgets for encounter design as they are a very good guideline.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 18:16

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Faerie Fortune posted:

I've got a 4e campaign starting soon (my last one fizzled out but the players still want to play so we're starting fresh with some new characters) and instead of the usual "YOU ALL MEET AT A TAVERN, GO DO STUFF!" opening, I'm opening with a gladiator tournament. Now this is fine for most of the players (Fighter, Sorceress, Wizard, Cleric) as they all have reasons to be there and in the tournament but the remaining player is an Assassin and neither me or his player can think of a logical reason for him to enter a tournament like this. So the solution is not to have him in the tournament and have him do something else, right? No problem.

What I have worked out is that he would be there specifically to kill a member of the audience, and would undertake a skill challenge to do so while his mark was distracted by the fight, which would be what the other players would be playing through. Again, no problem there, I've made sure that he'd gain equal amounts of experience and money from this as the other players from their combat encounter.

But my problem is this; a skill challenge is significantly easier and comes at less risk than combat. They're all 1st level so failing his encounter won't mean death or anything, just a bit of a hit to his reputation as a man for hire, and the other players losing their fight just mean they won't claim the grand prize. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the other players might think it's a little unfair that one player gets to do a skill challenge when they have no choice but to fight. I'm definitely not going to let him do it all at once, he'll get his shot at his rolls after all the combat turns have finished, to simulate the fact that it's all happening at the same time. My main issue really is with the exp/gold. The others will be fighting a single target worth 400exp and gaining 800 gold between them from making it to the tournament final, and again, they might think it unfair that one guy gets the same amount of exp and money from something that took less effort.

Is there any way at all to balance it so that it's a) fair and b) makes sense? Or have I already managed it and am fretting for nothing?

Your players shouldn't really be thinking about it as an us vs them thing - there should be no "fair" - if it's cool then it's all good.

Skill challenge could involve having to avoid guards, sneak about in the rafters etc. Failed rolls could involve falling and losing healing surges for instance. Just because it is a skill challenge doesn't mean it is easier.
It would also run much better if you ran them both at the time, so that the assassin guy doesn't just get to watch the fight, then the fight guys all get to sit around watching the assassin.
Think of skill challenges the same as fights, get the assassin to roll initiative and put him in the fight initiative order - run the skill challenge round by round, describing what is going on for that particular skill check, then moving onto the next character in the fight and so on.

Best thing we ever did with 4th edition was to ditch exp as a resource that the players accumulated. We just level up when it fits the story.
Likewise with money, they shouldn't be thinking about it as the cash we got for this is ours and the cash we got for that is his. Just put it all in a big pot and divide it evenly. Saves so much hassle and arguments.

Mr Beens fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Aug 15, 2011

# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 17:20

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