4E Preview Game!

[Xorn]

I took a bunch of shots from the 4E playtest match I was running today. The first is right after the fighting got started in the first encounter, and the second is after towards the end when a Hobgoblin Warcaster showed up and layed the cleric on his rump!

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[Sigurd]

Looks great.

What are you using the square window immediately to the left of the token box for?


Sigurd

[heliopolix]

I would guess that that is the party marching order.

[Griogre]

I'm guessing he was using it to keep track of the daily and per encounter powers - That or a neat tic tack toe board. ;)

[Dachannien]

Must... resist... temptation... to buy... widescreen... monitor....

[Xorn]

Looks great.

What are you using the square window immediately to the left of the token box for?

Sigurd

Pretty good guesses, some close. That's my player tracking window (idea from Griogre) which I use to track various effects. The "L" was to indicate the fighter had "Lance of Faith" (+2 to attack roll) until the end of her next turn, the "C" was for the warlock having Concealment every time she moves at least 3 squares away from her current position, etc. Everything on the right was just a spare token, everything next to the character is applied. The "B"s were to mark who is Bloodied (below half-health).

As far as tracking powers, they have their mini-sheets for that--Level 1 spells are "At-Will", Level 2 are "Encounter", and Level 3 is "Daily". They just check off the one that they use for Encounter/Daily. Marks are easy to track too, just have them target what is marked. Game was so much fun.

[Griogre]

I have to admit I really like your idea of using the spellbook for powers. It would be very easy and quick to type in what you want for even without a module.

[Xorn]

I took several stabs at it, Griogre, reading a lot of your posts in the process. The first time I tried it with Notepad. Ugh. After inputing all the Paladin powers, and it didn't load, I gave up.

The next time, I tried it with Notepad, and loading the client.xml in Internet Explorer to spot errors. That worked better, but man it was so tedious, hard to look at, and slow.

Then I got Notepad++ and input the remaining four characters in like an hour. It was awesome, particularly the collapsing of tags. Until there is a 4E update for FG2, I'll probably use this method, though I hope to be able to design my own sheet before then (otherwise I'll use the generic ruleset). Having the abilities be linkable was the main reason I went for a spellbook mod, and as a mod I can use it with any campaign. Though I suppose it would be possible to load it as Story entries in a module, and /export it as common data?

[Griogre]

The /export command does not really work well for "library book" type data, sadly. Mostly because the clients can't read it. I'm afraid the spellbook module will probably be easiest way.

[mr_h]

Are you using a standard d20 sheet for the characters or have you made a 4E sheet?

Dachannien
Dual monitors rock (https://supernovagaming.com/~mrh/DnD/FG/FGPict-May24-b.JPG)

[Xorn]

Standard d20 ruleset (plus my 4E Powers mod). As we don't really know and rules for character creation, investing time in a character sheet seemed un-needed to me.

So the Main tab just has all the information I have on the sheets, with Attributes, Class/Level and Hit Points listed, and "Subdual" damage being your "Bloodied" threshold. Add on languages and that pretty much covers it. Oh, in Appearance I put the quote from the character sheet.

On Combat I used Misc modifiers to everything to get the AC, Ref, Fort, Will, and Init to add up correctly. And the Ref/Fort/Will has a "+" in front of it, but I know it's a target--I just need it for the combat tracker, really. The weapons I just gave them enough BAB to make the lower one (melee or range) correct, then added/subtracted the Bonus field to make the other correct. Again, no idea on the rules that reach those numbers, yet.

For the skills, I just added 6-9 skills named "4E Skillname" and added Misc modifiers to get it to the right bonus, and checked it as a trained skill. That's your characters skills.

For abilities, I listed every ability on the front page in Feats (including descriptions) and any ability that had a modifier or die roll attached to it, I also listed under Special Abilities (without description) and the modifier/die roll. That way a player can drag it to their hotkeys easily or use it from the mini-sheet.

Inventory just has a list from the character sheet, plus three more lines with quantities and checked to show on the mini-sheet: Action Points (1 starting), Second Wind (1) and Healing Surge (# HP healed) per Day (##) where the last number is their max per day. That way the mini sheet will list these things so they can tick them off.

Spells has 3 levels for every character, the Level 1 is At-Will abilities, Level 2 is Encounter, Level 3 is Daily powers. I put every power from the back of the character sheets into my 4E Powers mod, so they are all clickable links for the players so they can pull up the powers they want to read.

All my players thus far have said they just open all the mini windows and dock them together, and rarely even reference their character sheet. They hotkey all of their skills (9 at most) all their modifiers from the ability tab, and are ready to go.

Did I mention we've been having a blast? :P