RE: {mystara4E} Re: Adventure path inventory and analysis
David Knott
1) The B series modules give away way too much monetary treasure. Dividing their monetary value by about 10 seems to get us closer to the proper amounts.
2) Magic item conversion is anything but straightforward. Some items just cannot be converted for adventures of the proper level - the corresponding items are just too high level. Such items should probably be replaced with 4e items that have no counterparts in earlier editions.
3) Encounters definitely need to be adjusted or even replaced to provide the right level of challenge - the most obvious conversions can easily be too tough or too easy. I think you just solved the problem of rooms with encounters that are too easy - keep them individually easy but combine multiple rooms into a single battlefield. That just leaves the problem of isolating the tougher encounters from those in neighboring rooms.
At this point, I am still confident that these problems are solvable....
-----Original Message-----
From: John Hofmann <Gengh...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:55 AM
To: Mystara4E <myst...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {mystara4E} Re: Adventure path inventory and analysis
Here's what I'm finding my from 4e campaign. Basically, it's very
difficult to convert old material to 4th edition. The way the
mechanics of the game are structured, 4e is very focused on balance
which isn't something that's true of earlier editions. Earlier
editions have their own sense of balance, but it's not like 4e's.
That being said, you don't want to have adventure settings that are as
densely packed as the old-school ones. You don't want to open a door
and see 2 skeletons, open the next door and see 4 zombies, etc. That
doesn't really work as well in 4e. What you're looking for in 4e is
collections of rooms that all fit on one battlemap and have multiple
things going on at a time. The best encounters we've run so far
utilized either one large floor with multiple rooms (in a haunted
house outside of Threshold). The monsters were scattered throughout
the rooms and when the PCs and monsters discovered each other,
everything started moving.
I'm taking the tack of trying to keep the theme of an adventure but
pretty much rewriting it from scratch. So far, I'd have to say that
I've been very unsuccessful mainly due to a lack of time. We're
running about 2-3 encounters per week (we have a 4-hour weekly game
with 7 or 8 PCs) and I don't have a lot of spare time to prep
encounters. So far, I think we've run about 15 encounters and I wrote
maybe 9 of them myself and that's pressed me for time.
I'm bringing these things up to give you guys some perspective on how
this game actually runs. Your mileage will, of course, vary. DM prep
time, for me, is limited by work, other interests, girlfriend, and
sleep, and preplanned encounters are worth their weight in gold.