Edwin White's page

I have come to realize that, despite being fun to play, 4E is not exactly what I'm looking for in an RPG. I'm planning on picking up another RPG (probably Call of Cthulhu), but as I have a lot of time on my hands this summer I thought I'd start a little project.

While I'm not crazy about 4E's power system I do like a lot the game's underlying mechanics. I like having Fortitude, Reflex, and Will as saves. I like that a Bull Rush is a Strength check versus Fortitude. I like that characters don't have iterative attacks that encourage them to stand in place. I like that characters have many options that allow movement of themselves and enemies. I like ongoing damage, save ends effects, rituals, and spells that can be used per encounter in addition to the more power once daily spells.

At the same time, I hate how artificial and limiting the power system can be, especially for Martial characters. I hate powers that cram wildly disparate effects together, such as a sonic attack that lets allies in the area move. I hate powers like Positioning Strike that give you the power to control exactly how someone reacts to you pushing them. I hate powers that require me to perform mental gymnastics to justify how they work. I hate that powers that you wouldn't think would cause physical harm, such as illusion spells, deal damage.

Basically, I feel that 4E has wonderful mechanics, but that the game world is designed to fit those mechanics as opposed to the mechanics being intended to model the game world.

My idea is to take some of the 4E mechanics that I like and use them in a way more similar to 3E. There's a good chance that this project will fall apart and I'll just give up on it, and even if I did somehow finish it I definitely don't plan to ever sell copies of it. I would like to put in online in PDF format, though. The finished product, though being a fusion of both 3E and 4E, probably wouldn't be compatible with existing material from either system as I plan to mix in some of my own ideas as well.

So, could I get in hot water if I ever did finish my homebrew system and put it online?

At first I planned on converting Rise of the Runelords to 4E, but I think I want to start off with a shorter campaign. Now I want to run a Falcon's Hollow campaign using the various modules that take place in and around the community.

I'm starting off with "Into the Haunted Forest". I've decided not to award experience for this adventure, but the players will obtain magic items that will be upgraded throughout the campaign. They'll also encounter the Company of the Black Banner, a group that I'm hoping to incorporate into other adventures.

I didn't really run into this problem when I started converting Burnt Offerings because of the wide selection of goblins in the Monster Manual, but many of the adventure modules set in Darkmoon Vale feature encounters against a small number of monsters, such as a lone bombardier beetle or assassin vine. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should expand encounters like these?

I've been wondering about this for a while: the Paizo staff has said before that one of the reasons they did not convert to 4E is because it would keep them from telling the kinds of stories they want to tell.

What exactly do they mean by that?