This Game Demands a 200 HP Dragon

My first tabletop roleplaying game was D&D 4th edition. I would wager most folks have a dragon game as their first, but mine was one of the crunchiest, most-hated editions. In many ways, 4e is closer to a skirmish wargame than a roleplaying game. Creating characters and optimizing builds is emphasized more than actual play in the community. The main 4e Discord server has a build-chat channel that’s more popular than most other channels combined. The looking-for-game channel sits quietly, waiting for the infrequent poster who is brave enough to actually play the game. Last April, I decided to run a new campaign using 4e. I had this idea for a “Monster of the Week” dark fantasy game with both investigation and monster fighting elements. If tabletop roleplaying systems are engines, then I thought of 4e as a 16 cylinder combat engine; an appropriate fit for fighting monsters, plus everyone who signed up loves 4e or 5e and regularly begs me to run more games like them. In my mind, this all…