Preparing for my first game as DM in 4.0

Written by Sunday, 21 September 2008
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I haven't been DM since college... that's war roughly in 1995... 13 years ago.

I've offered one of my friends to DM for his 10 year-old boy and a few of his friends. They never played real role playing games.

I've been obsessed by the idea ever since.

I had prepared a small scenario which basically has them killing rats before getting entangled in a kidnapping story involving kobolds.

Turns out I hadn't read the dungeon master's guide 'till the end, because the scenario I was building was already built for me there - I just had to adapt it.

So I did and I play-tested it today, Marianne (awesome mother of my now-awesome and soon-to-be-awesome children) was roleplaying... the whole party.

First thing: I'm a rusty DM. Not enough confidence, so I bombed most of my planned role playing scenes - that's no biggie. Just have to practice my improvisation skills a bit.

Second thing: this is going to be way to long. I don't know what's the stamina of 10 year olds when it comes to DnD, but that thing could take 6 hours with one person deciding for the whole party... one person already moderately at ease with the rules.

So I think I'll have to forget the rats and cut the kobold adventure short a few rooms - or at least be prepared to cut everything short and provide a story ending.

Playtesting allowed me to figure our which information the players will need and not need - so I'll be able to adjust the simplified player sheets and power cards I prepared for them (more work!).

Playtesting also brought a few rules questions:

Does using second wind cause opportunity attacks?

As far as I can tell: no. Using second wind means you're concentrating on defense (while spending a healing surge).

What is the minimum distance from target for a ranged attack to work (using a bow)?

Target must not be adjacent - you can't use a range weapon as a melee weapon..

What's the difference between blast and burst?

Burst does not covert the point of origin. Bast does.

Published in Role Playing Games
More in this category: « Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 - The Day that Music Died 'Mulligan Tokens' »

2 comments

  • Comment Link Eric Maziade Sunday, 12 October 2008 posted by Eric Maziade

    Hey, it's ChattyDM! :)


    Thanks for the clarifications, friend!


    I was pretty certain that you could not use your bow point blank... but I can't find my sources...  I'm probably confused with the rules from the minis game.  Your explanation with the AoA makes plenty enough sense that there's actually not need to 'disallow' point blank shooting of an arrow.


    Your explanation of blast and burst makes much more sense than what I understood.  Though a square blast feels kind of odd - I would have expected a triangle (or a cone).

  • Comment Link The Chatty DM Sunday, 12 October 2008 posted by The Chatty DM

    Hey Eric,

    I'll be reading your post and commenting on them one by one.

    I know yo probably answered your own questions since but here's mine:

    Does using second wind cause opportunity attacks?


    It does not. Only ranged attacks and moving (not shifting) away from being adjacent to a monster causes AoA

    What is the minimum distance from target for a ranged attack to work (using a bow)?


    You can used a ranged weapon (or a "spell" like Magic Missile) while adjacent to an enemy, but that will trigger an AoA. The strategy is to use a move action to shift 1 away from the enemy and shoot him from a range of one.

    What's the difference between blast and burst?


    A blast is an area power that always touches the one using the power. It can be a 3X3, 4X4 square that must be adjacent to the one using the power...

    A Blast does not cause AoA

    A Burst can be a close or a ranged attack. A Close Burst starts in the Square of the power user and spreads around him. So a Burst one 'explodes' in all adjacent squares of the caster

    A Range burst, like a Fireball, explodes in a distant square determined by the caster and spreads from that point a number of square equal to it's Burst rating.

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