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From M20 to D&D4e

We didn't get to play as much Microlite20 as we wanted during our little camping trip -- bad weather and a very small tent conspired against us -- but it did get us thinking about pen-and-paper hobbies and what we want to get out of them.

As there's only the two of us, we play without a DM, which is both weird and difficult. With no-one taking the lead, we rely on randomness to shape our dungeons and control our monsters. It's not as satisfying from a role-playing perspective as a DM-led campaign, so we tailor our games to downplay the disadvantages of not having a DM. This means we're light on roleplay, NPCs and surprises, and heavy on combat and dungeon crawling. Essentially we play pen-and-paper Diablo, with some collaborative storytelling in-between dungeons.

We've been restoring rules from the d20 SRD to Microlite20, and adding more and more house rules, and it's reached a point where it's not really very "lite" anymore. So, we've decided to take the plunge and start using Dungeons and Dragons 4e, instead. D&D 4e is heavy on combat, and has been compared to an MMO, so hopefully we'll be right in our comfort zone.

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