Recent content by The Fighter-Cricket

Good to see that Mike is doing new stuff. I got to know his work mostly during 4E and liked what he did in his column "The Challenge of Skill Challenges". That gave me some very useful advice on this (back then) very innovative part of D&D. Also the "Hammerfast" supplement for the haunted...

Until now my heart was poor and suffered from a lack of cool combat moves. But, lo! 4E has risen again! :melee::close: 🥳 Praise be to Level Up and all who breathed new life into martial powers! Let my fighter unleash Bowling Blitzes, let my barbarian deal Death Blows! Let my warlord... oh...

Good to see some love around here for the Nentir Vale. Two of my most beloved campaigns I ran were situated in it. I really like that there aren't any metropolises around, (not counting Hammerfast) just Fallcrest sitting in the middle of the map as a last remnant of a bygone era. Besides that...

Oh, dear innocent forum user, how precious it is that you never had to see a real edition war. I remember ten years ago... sometimes I woke up shrieking having dreamed about people wishing other people death for liking "a dumb, overcomplicated, miniatures tabletop game, that is basically WoW...

Now this is an edition war I can get behind! :D

Who is this James Haeck, I why do I suddenly want to build him a shrine to praise him for his wise words?

I never heard of any of those podcasts (except the Wotc one). The only one I listened to regularly in 4E times was the "Dungeon's Master" Podcast with their recountings of the encounters program which I found quite entertaining. Now seems to be the perfect time to widen my horizon. Oh, and an...

I really, really would like to agree with you - but I think unfortunately 4E wasn't very good when it comes to adventures. At least in the first one or two years this wasn't the case. But the later adventures (like Madness or Reavers) were super solid. Also a lot of stuff from the later Dungeon...

I worked through 10 pages of thread just to express here my deepest satisfaction with the reverence with which 4E can be treated nowadays. After ten dire years of steadily defending 4E my soul is finally at ease. :) Now I have to find a way to run my new 5E campaign more like a 4E one without...

And, lo, behold: The people yearned for the Lord of War for many a moon and their cries went unnoticed by The Apostate Whose Name Rhymes With Pearls. And the people craved a class that they held dear from the old days but He Who Begrudges Us A Totally Okay Class Concept (cursed be his name) did...

I'm glad I don't play with anybody who's too invested in Mercer and his gang. But I can imagine a lot of (young?) folks who get into the hobby via RPG shows could be more susceptible to believe every round of D&D should be like this. Mercer should put this message as a disclaimer before every...

I can only agree with the last posts: Try the smaller Chaos Scar adventures from Dungeon magazine (if you have access to them). Works good for casual groups because there isn't a big engulfing meta story that your players have to memorize. Even though I absolutely love Zeitgeist, it's nothing I...

Yeah, it's important to not take it personally that this kind of group just didn't work out. It just seems that somehow the dynamic between all of you calls for something different then D&D. I would also suggest Boardgames as an answer! I also have some friends with whom I have a nice time...

Hey, thanks for linking to your blog! I have read the article you mentioned, then some additional ones, and I'm liking what you are doing. I think I will be spending some time at the Raging Owlbear's from now on.

Then you did it instinctively the right way! Your approach can be translated to many other 4e adventures: Just leave the interesting encounters.