Four Against Darkness enhanced
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 เม.ย. 2020
- Four Against Darkness meets d100 Dungeon and they like each other.
intro (0:00); 4AD meet d100 (2:13); behind the scenes (3:03); the joys of tinkering (34:26); the adventure beings (36:27); final thoughts (1:02:28)
my d100 vids are here: • d100 dungeon
#solorpg #geekgamers #fouragainstdarkness - เกม
Enjoying this content? You can support the channel by donating on PayPal: paypal.me/geekgamersDeborah
get SOLO GAME MASTER'S GUIDE:
US customers: tinyurl.com/yckpsrxe
UK customers: tinyurl.com/ykarakda
get WANDERINGS: tinyurl.com/5cj3d4jc
This seems intuitive and I'm glad that you posted this. I have played a lot of four against darkness but not D-!00 Dungeon, but I think this makes sense I'm going to learn D-100 and do something akin to this myself. Thank you. The 4AD adventures are really good for the most part they overlay adventures on top of the combat system and dungeon generator you find in the core book, they do give you expanded tables and new characters and different monster tables to go along with the theme of said adventure. But I do like what you did here, tinkering with rules is the heart and soul of this type of gaming so I applaud you for putting out there your ideas.
Combat Board Games Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed and are thinking about doing the same.
Between school switching to online and quarantine I have been going a little crazy. I have been trying to find something solo to play by myself. I have 4AD sitting on the shelf. I just got D100 Dungeon in the mail. Your videos have kind of help steer me a bit, so for that I’m thankful. The past couple of days I have been trying to play Ruins of the Undercity with B/X (Old School Essentials) rules. Some of your tips and ideas have helped. I’m basically journaling it as I play it. I think it’s going well. I have always played well in my own brain, and solo gaming seems to fit that pretty good.
Anyways after rambling for a bit- Thank you for your videos.
Thos1001 Oh that’s so good to hear. I’m glad when people find my vids useful especially for games that I am not demoing/playing. And yes now is indeed a great time to spend soloing and mixing and matching. Thanks for the comment.
Basically, I love each and every video that comes from You.
Thank you, that made my day.
There's a lot of potential for homebrewing and modification in this system.
Good news: MarcoOmnigamer is working on a Lovecraftian take on 4AD called Four Against the Great Old Ones, as we speak! It's on BGG already.
ソルグル Great news and I will be buying that for sure.
Just an update, it is out now. :-)
How is it?
Not sure who you are asking but personally I I didn’t like it at all. It was too preprogrammed for my taste and as such not in keeping with the series. I found it super disappointing.
Thank you so much for doing a video on 4 Against Darkness. I've been eagerly waiting for your play-through and thoughts on this game :)
FYI, Skills are things presented in Four Against the Abyss, which is the Expert mode version of the game (level 5 heroes). Although skills for level 3 Dwarves, presented as clan skills, is already published in Concise Collection of Classes, and more level 3 skills for the core classes are underway for future supplements (like tattoos for Barbarians which will be presented in the 2nd book of the series that Buried Secrets belongs to, a solo hero campaign book series for 4ad)
joshua Mathews Good to know. As mentioned in the vid, all I have is the basic ruleset. Glad you enjoyed the vid
@@GeekGamers01 Thanks for the reply! I'll make two posts. One to comment on the rules clarifications you asked for (I don't think others mentioned it?) and then if you don't mind, I'll make some supplement suggestions based off playthoughs I've seen from your channel in the past.
Treasure Rules: I believe you get the treasure regardless of what happens in the encounter. If your Rogue disarms it or if your Wizard gets burned to a crisp, you still would get to roll on the treasure table. I think this was meant to be akin to the hidden treasure rules on page 58, regardless of the complication rolled, you still get the treasure. A second/collectors edition of the corebook is underway as many have pointed out to Andrea, the creator, that some of the rules are organized in odd places (if you go on the FB group page, he is super great at answering any questions about the game or rules). And he's even shared previews of collecting all the monsters from the 4ad supplements into a monster manual that has illustrations to go with each monster- this will be like a companion book to 2nd edition.
Quests: I'll come back to this in my second post, but rule wise with the Core, you get quests only if you encounter the woman in white (I think she is a special event) or if you roll a quest reaction when encountering a boss (I think option 1 for dragon is a Quest if memory serves me). So the tile you were given the quest on is the tile that you would need to return to to complete the quest and roll on the Epic Rewards table. Though the developers have stated that with 4ad you are both the GM and the Player (they call it being the "playmaster), so giving them a quest at the very beginning is still appropriate and doesn't break the game- maybe they would need to just travel back to town to complete the quest, but maybe you shouldn't make it an epic reward, just let them roll once on the treasure table (because how the game is written, finding a quest is supposed to kind of be an awesome rare thing, hence why obtaining an epic reward is like a big milestone for the play experience).
@@GeekGamers01
Skills: you can add skills as you have done, but fyi, the game and other supplements replace skills as you are using them with a mechanic called "saves". So all the skills you gave your players in the game, the characters already have those things in the game, mechanics wise, they just don't say it. For instance, if in another supplement (Digressions of the Devouring Dead) and you were fighting on a balcony and the vampire you're facing off with tries to hurl off the balcony three stories down, your Rogue already is quick-footed so the game would tell you that Rogues and Swashbucklers would get to add their level to the save, for example. The skills provided in Expert mode (Four Against the Abyss) are more akin to Feats in D&D then they are to skills because a skills system is already incorporated into the game it is just not explicitly there so as to save on space and so that your Player Sheet really can just fit on 1 index card.
Recommendations:
But I would recommend 4AA regardless that is for level 5 players because really 4AA completes the game (4AD and 4AA are really all you need to have the full experience and are akin to red basic book and blue expert book for the D&D box set in the 80s). Not only does 4AA add all these ways you can customize your level 5 hero, but it provides a lot of info on how to expand your town options (like different shops to visit and different hirelings to hire).
My 2nd recommendation would be Wayfarers and Adventurers. As this maybe might be what you were looking for when creating your party. Wayfarers introduces things called Character Traits. These are randomly rolled on a D66 table at character creation and are quirks and mechanical +/-'s that your character gets. Your wizard can secretly have orc blood in her, your barbarian may have spent a lifetime learning how to overcome his spell allergy and finally at last figured out how to use magical items, your dwarf might be a drunkard and be intoxicated, and your cleric secretly insane- a long time ago he was touched by the chaos god Xichtul (4ad's version of Cthulu). Then they introduce milestones (there are also D66 of these). These are also rolled up at character creation to give your character some distinction and to add a little bit more of that classic "role"play into the game. A milestone is a like a quest that that specific PC is on and they are individually based. I use CT and MS's to help me create my backstories for my PCs. Like I'll roll the CT to tell me about the personality and unique thing about my Warrior, but then I'll roll his MS and then I'll narratively merge his CT and MS to create a backstory. The reason why he has X (CT) is because this happened when he was younger and he his goal (MS) to X. Its real simple and quick but creatively fun and adds that little mechanical crunch/flavor to your PC that maybe you were looking for (because as stated, their skills are already incorporated into the dressing and curtains of the game). Finally W&A adds new classes (this is where the Gnome class comes in- as well as the Druid and Wood Elf) and then it adds over maybe 20+ spells and a wilderness d6 minions table.
My third recommendation is actually two books. Concise Collection of Classes and the new Gifts of the Greedy Guildmasters (which just came out on pdf this week). Why I am recommending this is because these two books rewrite that rule about finding quest in the dungeon. Both books introduce patrons for your party (CoCoCo has 5 Dwarven patrons and GGG has about 12 merchant/political/thieves guild patrons). These books introduce the concept that in town before your random adventure, you can now have a quest that your patron gives you before adventuring. There's more to it than that. But on a whole, the world and narrative that 4ad is set in really opens up with the inclusion of Patrons- just reading all the narrative behind the dwarves was really fun on just how different their take is from let's say Tolkien's world of Middle-Earth). Like I said, there is more than just giving you new quests for your party to go on (GGG also offers like 12+ mini dungeons for your party too) but I don't want go into that here or spoil it. But CoCoCo also gives you lots of new classes (like the Assassin class is akin to what you were talking about with your rogue) and it also offers a lot of new expert skills and level 3 Dwarf skills that Dwarves can attain at third level depending on what clan they are from. If you go the GGG route, then you may also benefit by having Warlike Woes- level 2 dungeons- because this will feature a lot of encounters that use Faction points as used in GGG and offer encounters one may face lets say on the open road heading back to the town that would require your PCs to try to socially win the encounter instead of out right murder. It also includes something new in the series that is also d66 based and it relates to encountering the Final Boss. When a final boss is encountered in a game, you can roll this D66 table and it will set up something unique and different about this final battle that would normally not be there in the vanilla experience and moreso feel like something you were encountering if you were playing D&D from the 80s and had a DungeonMaster.
Recommendation four is also 2 titles to look into. Liars Dens Burrows offers like 10 or so half hour story-lines to play through at any level which can easily be adapted and expanded out to create that narrative mission your party is on. With this, you may want to mix in a book called Twisted Minions. This is similar to the d66 boss table mentioned above in WW, but this is more of a d100 table that you can roll to really create that unique encounter you were talking about when you used that Succubus. I"m sure taking Dens and Burrows and Twisted Minions alone would create pretty fast and quick scenarios that you could just jump right into and solo play. Again this is similar to my Guildmasters suggestion above but I'm trying to offer alternative options, too.
The other suggestion would missions as portrayed in 4AA. You need to be level 5 though to enjoy those, but it is very easy to take the 6 missions provided in 4AA and create a big narrative and campaign for your heroes. A good example is Caverns of Choas (my favorite supplement). The 6 missions in that book- ranging from level 3-5- are super easy to connect together to create 4+ dungeon adventure story-line for your PCs to play-through. A bigger example of this would Digressions of the Devouring Dead's missions. DDD is like the big brother to CoC in that unlike being a chaos/Cthulu themed dungeon, it is necrotic themed dungeon. And its juicy. Whereas maybe the 6 missions in CoC or 4AA maybe take up 2 pages of space, the 6 missions in DDD take up like 6 + pages and basically intends that you would play mission 1 first to mission 6. DDD belongs to a 4ad line called the "White Title" line- this is basically considered what Gary Gygax did for D&D when he created AD&D and a nickname for the white titles is Advanced 4AD (GGG, WW, and CoCoCo also belong to the White Title line).
Honestly, my thought is that you may not benefit from the pre-written narrative games that are akin to choose your adventure books. Like Caves of the Kobold Slave Masters, Dark Waters, or Buried Secrets. I think you'd prefer something that kind of gives you that narrative set up and then lets you create something to your own liking. So those type of books exist but you may or may not find that useful in your experience, whereas like you demonstrated in the vid, you can easily take what 4ad has in the core and merge that with other solo-play experiences of other games. Hence why my recommendations were bent more towards that end.
joshua Mathews Thank you VERY MUCH for all that detail of a system you know so well. You are right in your assessment of what I’d like/want with the material and I will take your advice on those supplements that seem to offer closest to that. Much appreciated.
@@GeekGamers01 There are definitely more that could be mentioned that tick different boxes (I am currently working on one for submission myself), though those seemed like good places for you to look into as far as building your own narrative. Though there are a lot of great titles within the series (Like one of the 2020 titles: Fortress of the Warlord, which is closest thing to a Tolkienesque epic campaign in the game series). Will be interested to know what you pick up next!
I loved this. A lot. I've been an avid Four Against Darkness player for a few years now - and I loved your home-brewing of its system. Cheers on you for that. During these tough times, I've used the 4AD system to help me be a better DM to a group of rpg players via Zoom sessions. Needless to say, I have also tweaked the rules and added/modified as needed (for flavor or story). Even owning much of the 4AD library, I find inspiration in other content - either in other books, or like this video here (thx).
Jeremiah Dvorak Thanks so much especially since you are an avid player. I really enjoyed the system and would like to get more content for it as well
@@GeekGamers01 I highly recommend doing so! Also Four Against Darkness has a Facebook Group that is quite active and friendly if you want even more direction/help/reasons to deep dive into it :P
Jeremiah Dvorak Believe it or not but I’m not on Facebook!
Great stuff! Thanks for supporting solo RPG players by showing us all these wonderful games and game systems.
Thanks so much! Thanks for watching my channel so consistently; I really appreciate that.
@@GeekGamers01 Hi there, I just bought your solo GM guide on drive thru rpg, i love it. I was going back and watching some older videos, and in this one you mentioned that you call your rules mash-ups "tinkerings", I love your channel and your Solo GM guide. I was wondering if your next book should be on the subject of tinkerings- call it "Fidget the Gnome's Guide to Tinkering by Geek Gamers" maybe it should be a guide to specific rules and substitutions that is done in volumes, even if they are irregular release zines you could probably have Modiphius do physical compilations. I just really love this video, and this would be a great format for a zine... this is probably one of the most useful videos because it covers so much prep... which your Solo GM guide felt lacking (even though it's content isn't bad, it just lacks your "tinkering" elements that many viewers were expecting in a guide and other than an editing oversight with a table's labeling is my only issue with the book). :) I would buy "Fidget the Gnome's Guide to Tinkering"! Even if it starts out as an irregular zine, I would recommend having it only cover content that Fidget is featured with... if at all possible!
Thanks for the support on my book. If you specify the typo you found I’d appreciate it for the reprint file.
I like your suggestion of a book title too though not sure I could limit it in the way you suggest. But I do like the idea!
@@GeekGamers01 yeah, someone mentioned it on drivethru rpg, so i didn't want to repost, so I'll look for it again. I'll post it here... and i just like the way fidget dimension hops... at this point fidget is nearly your mascot, so don't worry about the artificial limitation
@@GeekGamers01 On page 110 (116/184 in the PDF) it says roll on the D4 table: Peaceful 1A, Scary 2A, Treacherous 3A, and Rejuvenating 4A; but the tables are listed as 1A Peaceful, 1B Scary, 1C Treacherous, and 1D Rejuvenating. so the table reference goes from all having the Same Letter "A" to all having the same Number "1", even though it isn't a big deal, it is still a clerical error.
Really enjoyed this. I've had 4AD on PDF for ages and still not tried it yet 😁
Stoneaxe Tabletop Gaming Glad you enjoyed it. 4AD is really easy to get into.
Again; 4AD is a game that I've been hemming and hawing about for so long! I will absolutely take the plunge now! Your videos are awesome. New Subscriber, by the way :)
Thanks so much @max traver and welcome! I hope you enjoy this game as I did.
I hope you did not regret it. It’s much simpler and elegant to get into than how it’s shown here.
Your starting party feels like it was Dragonlance inspired ;)
I believe the quest table is used when you meet an NPC in the dungeon and they give you a quest, not for determining a quest for the dungeon itself.
An excellent video. I love 4AD but that often thought it needed more dept. I was looking at adding skills to the game. Your ideas are very intriguing. I hope that you enjoy the rest of your Mummy-hunt.
FYI: In 4AD I believe that the quests from encounters so the characters would need to return the “mummy” to the room that they had the encounter. I’m your case, I would assume that Mummy-Quest was from someone outside?
Andy Simmons Ah dunno I just rolled on the quest table but yes something didn’t quite make sense!
@@GeekGamers01 Sorry about the bad grammar in my comment, “dept” should be “depth” and I should really proof read what a write. Once again, this an excellent video.
Another excellent video. Well done. I like your usage of the two games, and I might incorporate some of those aspects in my own game. One thing of note, your rolling on the Quests table before you began was incorrect per the 4AD base game. That table is only for quests gained through playing the dungeon. The base function of the game is always to say the final boss and exit, so those quests are acquired much like side quests. You can go several playghroughs of the game and never use that table at all, if using just the base rules.
*slay
Just thought I should mention that because it looked like an initial stumbling block, regardless of your tinkering with the overall design.
Essentially it's poorly named. It should be called Side Quests. If memory serves, there's mention of acquiring those quests somewhere around the Clues portion of the rules.
Harrington Martin If you watch my channel you know I don’t play by the rules...
I don’t recall being stuck with that quest but I also don’t recall the vid so well right now. Glad you enjoyed the content and thanks for the comments
@@GeekGamers01 For sure. But you were trying to figure out why the Quests table gave you a quest that didn't make sense. It was because the game isn't designed to roll on that Quest table to find your Primary Quest. Your primary goal is always very simple in 4AD. The Quest table is just for a small aspect of the game. I realize you're playing it with your own designs, but you seemed to suggest the game was intending you to roll on that table to find your objective for the game and that's not what happens in 4AD. Just a heads-up for the base game. Because knowing the game and then modifying it makes for a stronger presentation, and that was pretty fundamental.
This is too busy for me. I'm probably going to work my way through the additional 4AD books. Enjoy that.
I still need to really dive into this and D100D.
The Dungeon Dive Think you would like them and appreciate them but perhaps want a bit more meat from both. Wonder if, like me, you’d be reminded of Warhammer Quest when playing 4 AD. I suspect 4AD needs it’s supplemental content to really shine.
My first D&D 3rd edition character was Aramil Amalkir, who eventually became a Fighter/Mage. Good times.
Amazing how we can remember these characters as they are so real. That's one of the gifts that RPGs give us.
adoro este juego
Indeed, it's a great one!
You draw maps like me , yayl cause I aint no artist.
I keep seeing on Robs Channel where he plays out the 4AD adventure expansion booklets and Im loving the written/scripted adventures over the randomization of the core games for D100 and 4AD.
Unfortunately I cant find any D100 playthroughs of "The Adventurers Companion" or "The Dragon Armor". Which is a shame.
Crushing It I don’t play through them either but I do talk about them in my d100 vids
@@GeekGamers01 yup. Watched those. And they seem like everything I would want in d100. But those well designed add ons don't have any playthroughs on TH-cam and even are barely discussed on BGG. Hoping these titles get more exposure from the d100 community
Crushing It Perhaps because a playthrough would essentially be one big spoiler, at least for dragon armour
Can you let me know where you got the dungeon tiles at on 4:25 please?
The whole video is about using d100 mapping game with 4AD
I have just ed playing this and I am a little confused by the rolls on the minions table.A roll of 3 gives d3 trolls, what does this mean? Is it a d6x3 roll??
d3 trolls means roll a d6 to get a number between 1 and 3 so if you roll a 1 or 2 read as 1; if you roll 3 or 4 read as 2; if you roll 5 or 6 read as 3. Thus d3trolls are 1, 2, or 3 trolls depending on the results of the d3 roll.
@@GeekGamers01
Thank you! I had that same question. I thought it was a typo.
Crazy opportunities! Wow.
Anyone here know how to “subdue” a monster. Such as in the Nest of the Manticore from Laura, Dens and Burrows adventures book?
Where do we get the enhanced edition ?!?! I want to get into 4AD now because of you !! (editing my comment because I feel you will enjoy reading more !!) // I recently got bored of HeroQuest after completing the ENTIRE FOLLOWING CAMPAIGNS : Original quest, Kellar's Keep, Return of the Witch Lord - - with 2 additional characters and extra strong monsters (We had the Paladin who was a melee fighter with 3 Holy Spells and the Priestess who was more of a support character with 5 Holy Spells). Now, it feels to me like I cannot enjoy HeroQuest anymore after 2 years of playing with my group every single week. Now I need a MASSIVE UPGRADE in my RPG Play Time, and with your demonstrations, I feel that 4 Against Darkness is my next thing to put under my teeth. I am also observing the Advanced HeroQuest system in details in order to modify it and improve it. Even if your videos are scarce and quite random, it's a real lucky time to see you doing these nice demonstrations !! Much appreciated.
Thanks for the comment and glad you enjoy my content. Interesting to hear of your plays.
i wonder what"s the sense of having different shapes of rooms and corridors ,as the room shape does not affect the game at all
I mean ,the party moves from room to room and not from square to square , so we may have 3x3 rooms only and it would be the same
Aesthetics? Theme?
Rooms may also connect a bit differently depending on shape and size.
Have you tried Tunnels and Trolls solo?
Yes, I have. I used to play that quite a bit many, many years ago. I love that the material is there but it is too scripted for my liking these days. If you haven't played any and are interested in solo RPGing, well worth checking thoseout.
@@GeekGamers01 Thanks i will. I dont mind scripted if its good.
yes, you can pool money and buy/trade with each other in 4Ad.
Alarian Darkwind Thx
Yeah, it's pretty freeform outside of actual encounters. That allows your imagination to follow the most sensible path without limitations from game mechanics.
The one thing that runs counter to that freedom is the marching order rule and how that is supposed to interact with wandering monsters. As written it doesn't actually have any effect as you're free to change marching order outside encounters without any action point economy in place. I simply add a roll to see if WMs come from the front or the back (weighted randomisation, depending on how far you've explored - at the start of the dungeon they're more likely to come from within the dungeon, so would meet you head on, later they would be more likely to come from behind...), to have a little risk involved with my decision where to place my tank.
Gern Wind Yes the whole movement (not defined) and marching order-easily switched with no penalty, as you mention-seemed a little underdeveloped
what are your top suggestions for someone new to solo gaming?
Julie Lane That’s a very broad question: how complicated do you want the game to be? What kind of theme are you looking to play? Do you want to be able to buy a new copy right now or would you try to get something out of print? Do you like or dislike randomness in your games? Etc. Are you familiar with boardgamegeek? That is a good place to go for questions and answers.
If you give me some sense of what you are looking for I can try to offer some answers.
@@GeekGamers01 I was thinking of something pretty simple to start with that I could start playing fairly quickly from the beginning. I would prefer a new copy. I like high fantasy, as well as Horror themed RPG. That can be played solo and coop that does not require a GM. I am looking for something with a great narrative played out with random encounters/tables. I am intrigued by Basic Fantasy, D100 Dungeon, The Fantasy Trip, Ironsworn, QUERP, Open Legend, Tunnels and Trolls , White Box, The Task of Ezrok, Swords & Sixsiders, Scarlet Heroes, and Four Against Darkness. All of this seems a little overwhelming for a beginner. Out of all of these, which would you suggest for beginners trying solo?
Try the strahd d&d board game...
@@julielane3073 D100 Dungeon, Ironsworn and Scarlet Heroes are specifically designed for you to be able to play solo, with the rules providing the "Games Master (GM)" part of the game.
Martin Knight has his own TH-cam channel with helpful videos explaining the D100 gameplay: th-cam.com/channels/u_hJ4tqz6njwp7-V0OkKfA.htmlfeatured As GeekGamers mentions in this video: setting up your character in D100 does take a bit of time, but once gameplay gets going, you roll on the tables in the book and it plays out quite easily.
Ironsworn, whilst I have it I haven't played it yet, I believe relies more on YOU to tell a story from prompts in the book. The book gives you an objective (the "Ironsworn vow") to complete, it sets the atmosphere and the backstory of the world it is set in, but how the adventure / story unfolds relies on you to generate a story. Personally I find this a little harder to do myself as a beginner, but that might work for you?
Basic Fantasy isn't set-up specifically for solo play, but because the rules are, well, basic, it's a good rule set for role-playing beginners. I found Basic Fantasy a little harder to act as the GM for though.
I'm not experienced enough in any of them to really give a definitive answer as the best place for a new solo player though, sorry! Maybe D100 Dungeon?
GeekGamers has videos on D100 Dungeon, Scarlet Heroes and Ironsworn (and maybe some of the others) for you to be able to find out more?
Julie Lane Ah I see what you are asking: well those you list are great but not all solo. For a dungeon crawl, four against darkness is easy to get into and I think the modules offered are probably great though I have no experience with those. Scarlet Heroes is more of an open system with enough random tables to make it work solo and give more possibilities -overland, cities, wilderness. Not strictly a dungeon crawl. Usually I recommend that as a first solo set as it’s fairly complete yet offers a lot.
On BGG there is a nice list of all expansions with description boardgamegeek.com/filepage/193958/four-against-darkness-catalogue
Skills are in Four Against the Abyss, and in many other expansions. I highly recommend to buy them, they expand gamplay alot.
Jakub Wójtowicz Thanks, I plan on it!
rhooo no french version !!! snifff
I started playing 4AD years ago and once I got ahold of D100, I sold all of my 4AD books and never looked back. 4AD is a great game, but the simplicity becomes repetitive quickly and the bloat book-wise has made it unwieldy.
I can see that. I never got beyond the basic 4AD, having come to it late. It is simple. Aspects of d100 are repetitive too and need improvement (combat, I look at you!) but overall it is rich and rewarding in ways that 4AD is not.
4AD has advanced dramatically, lately. Just started playing Treasure Hunters of Charlemagne, and it incredible! You explore regions, towns and read various tables for extra encounters. Granted, most 4AD games bring a (frequent) random element to play.
THIS SUCKS HAHAAHAHAHAH
It’s been 2 years.. Have you grown up since then?
@@PhilGerb93 you are going to burn in hell for all of eternity for that comment