stevekenson | D&D: Well of the Hungry One

Potential spoiler for Dungeon Delve (Chapter 4). You have been warned:

Yesterday afternoon I ran a fill-in D&D session for my friend Lyle’s campaign, giving him a chance to play and me a chance to flex my Gamemastering muscles again. I ran the 4th-level delve out of the Dungeon Delve book, involving a lost tomb, a band of gnoll raiders, and a grell. (For those of you not in the know about D&D history, the grell is one of its weirder signature monsters). It was three main encounters, plus a short introductory roleplaying encounter involving the remains of a caravan attacked by the raiders (mainly to introduce Lyle’s halfling rogue character) and took about five hours to play out.

It confirmed—from behind the DM’s screen—my feelings about D&D 4e as a fun, solid game system. The session was a nail-biter, especially the last encounter with the grell, which resulted in three different instances of PCs at or below 0 hit points. In the end, the heroes were triumphant and none of the characters died, but it was close on several instances (two characters with two failed death saves before aid reached them).

In particular, the hit point/healing surge mechanic of the system helps to create a dynamic give-and-take to the action in combat. Characters are up, they’re down, they’re bouncing back, all over the place. The same with ongoing conditions, as the players struggle to make the necessary saving throws to shrug off being stunned, immobilized, or whatnot. It makes it good when bad things happen (like the paladin getting grabbed, paralyzed, and dropped down a well) because there’s a chance the heroes will recover and still win. The damage system adds a lot to the sense of drama as the players watch their characters’ hit points flucuate and decline, managing their healing resources to keep on going, and wonder just how many hit points the bad guys have left. Will this attack be the one to take them out and turn the tide? The dreaded grell managed to go almost a full round with just 2 hit points left, so when the warlord’s final strike brought it down, there was much cheering.

Likewise, the emphasis on teamwork and cooperation for many of the characters’ powers helps to keep everyone focused on what everyone else is doing, because the players are always looking for opportunities to help each other out: Who will I give this bonus from my power? Who needs my healing abilities? Who can I work in tandem with or who is within the area of effect of this power I want to use?

I’m still not 100% crazy about the need for miniatures (and you do absolutely need them, more than any other edition of the game) and some players occasionally have issues conceputalizing some game abstractions—like how does the halfling manage to push a gnoll warrior three times his size fifteen feet across a room?—but I’ve got to say that D&D 4e is an excellent design that really captures the spirit of the game and, more importantly, is just a lot of fun to play. It definitely deserves to be played before anyone passes judgment on it, in my opinion, since the play experience is what changed my (previously dubious) feelings about it.

I’m really looking forward to getting back to playing my eladrin wizard again, and to playing some D&D 4e with friends at GenCon this year!