4e OTE gridless narrative

[Soundchaser]

I am toying with the ton of suggestions re: gridless/no-minis combat. The thing I like the most is the narrative demands of such so that imaginative-cinematic effects arise. And, to encourage a narrative use of powers my experiment is inspired by the boring narration rule from OTE.

In my mechanic the d20 roll will lose a d6 at tier 1 for boring narrative only when a majority at my table pronounce the penalty so I avoid DM fiat.

Question: would your scale the boring narrative penalty or just keep it as is?

My plauers are quite open to this btw...

[Mock]

I believe that since the game scales difficulties and bonuses, the loss of 1d6 will have a similar impact all along the level curve.

I think. Math-type-persons will surely correct me if I'm wrong.

So no, I wouldn't scale the penalty.

[MoogleEmpMog]

The penalty will:

a) Never be employed because the players stay at full stunt every time, all the time. (The effect you're shooting for, I suppose.)

b) Never be employed because the players realize they do not like the impact it has on the game. (The effect I think most likely.)

c) Be employed and cause combats to slow down and slant in the direction of the enemy, as well as potentially causing frustration and/or bad feelings.

Scaling the penalty by tier is essentially the same as saying "if we deem your narration boring, you fail unless you roll a 20" even at Paragon. It gets progressively HARDER to hit average defenses as you go up in level, not easier.

D&D 4e has a robust stunting system (see DMG pg. 42) that allows you what amount to "free" encounter powers for as long as you can keep up interesting action choices and interface with the environment. I strongly recommend using that, or another Carrot-based rather than Stick-based solution, because the whiff factor in the system you're proposing would be extremely high.

Otherwise, consider dropping average monster HP by as much as 50%.