Great video and channel thanks! I play 4AD solo all the time - I manipulate the encounters/4 to suit the size of the party. I usually like to keep the boss stats the same to keep the challenge high. It's super fun and so many great expansions to keep the game fresh - I cant wait for you to play this more on your channel!
The complexity fatigue you mention in the beginning of the video is in my opinion something very common in natural in gamer's life cycle. I remember your words on Wasteland Knights, how overwhelming these types of games can be in terms of finding the motivation to bring them to the table, which was very much relatable to me. After having explored rules-heavy/fiddly/complex/time-demanding games myself (which is also a natural part of a gamer's life cycle: slowly exploring higher complexity levels), I started gravitating more and more towards simpler games. Exploring more extravagant games tired me out after a while, and I was getting exhausted spending hours on hours just reading rules, then setting it up for ages and afterwards playing one game/scenario also for countless hours. It really felt like gamer's burnout. As a consequence, I really learnt to appreciate simpler games. To me, complexity never equalled more fun or better gameplay. Many gateway games blow in my opinion most kickstarter games just out of the water, as miniatures, more extras and more rules don't make a better game to me. I heard many good things about the solo RPG Thousand Year Old Vampire, do you know it ?
The balance between simplicity and variety is something important to. I like simple games (I'm not good at games, so complex games do nothing for me), but I often find that simple games don't offer up the variety I need in my adventure and DC games.
That's an interesting question: Which adventure game offers the most variety with the most simplicity ? I think for me the answer is Tales of the Arabian Nights. Many players say it's too light, so much so that they would not even call it a game by definition anymore, but more of an activity. I was always fine with that. Because of the huge amount of encounters in this game, I know that I will very unlikely ever experience all of them (and even if I would, I would have forgotten some at this point), which gives this game a very unique mystical charme to me. It's to me a bottomless well of adventure that is highly accessible and comes with a freely adjustable playing time. On top of that, the components are also great. Having said all that, I know many would strongly disagree and describe it as a frustrating, random mess. With nice components, still.
Great video! 4AD is my favorite game right now, dig in and enjoy. You have a great start with your books. There is a new supplement for AAF coming out soon, looks really good. I think Andrea has become my favorite game designer.
4AD is just outstanding. I was very much like you, it took me a little bit to warm up to it, but there are just so many expansions and the system can even be used to run a full game as a game master which I have done. OSR style at its best. It’s also so easy to write up adventures and creating interesting rules for each one because the system really allows for it. On a sidenote, I am so glad I came across this channel, fantastic stuff as always.
Great series. I am just getting into 4AD - I was aware of it for years, but only now getting back into P&P RPGs - and this is a cool series. Have a look at Four Against the Old Ones and Four Against Mars as well. I do agree that organization and editing is a huge problem for the line.
Thanks for the video. I like this game. It has a good theme during the pandemic. I can play it 10 minutes and stop when I am short of time. Somehow I still always forget the rules between my sessions. The rules are ok but could have being written a bit better, given how simple it is in the end. It's not the best game in the world but given the price and the scope, it's very good. Very happy that such an indie game exist.
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised by how poorly written the rules can be, especially since the game has been around for so long, with so many books. You would think they would be crystal clear and really well written by now.
Was making dinner listening to your video and heard you mention Fresno and Tulare ca! I’m from that area and it’s always surprising to hear people mention it! Anyways, always enjoy your videos! Have a good lne
Has any one heard if they still plan to expand the core of Four Against Darkness? I now originally they planned on including more dice for higher levels. Core 4AD is a d6 lvl 1-5, 4AA introduces d8 lvl 5-9, i suppose next would be a d10 for lvl 9-13 if each book has a 5 lvl span. I like the other supplements but I keep hoping to see the next core supplement.
Hey Daniel, have you heard about Top 10 Games You Can Play In Your Head? A supposed solo RPG you can play alone in your head without any other items required. I started reading, not yet playing, and I am not sure if it is a hoax, a joke or a real proposal. Was curious if you heard about it, tried it, and of course what you thought about it. Keep on producing content on smaller game. love it! all the best, johannes
Question for anyone: what happens in a safe house? I swear I read that you recover some life and sanity when you enter a safe house but I can't remember how much. Am I imagining this?
@@TheDungeonDive I just meant that there's one of the characters who won't ever run away and who, if they die, you lose the game. But yours is a good idea too.
you can certainly play 4AD like that, one of the characters is you and the others are 1st level characters that do not level up, or level up more rarely. It's a possible, easy variant to write. It's not in the current rulebook but it's quite simple to add. In basic 4AD, the idea was replicating early "red box" D&D but solo. Tactics in such a game is all in party composition and use of resources -- like most dungeoneering games, 4AD is a resource management game. There is one book, Buried Secrets, where you play a single Cleric, and an Arthurian variant, the Knight of Destiny, where you play one of Arthur's knights (you are alone but may pick up some help along the way).
Where in the book does it state if your character dies you can roll up a new one and continue the same campaign? Also how would your previous deceased character stats be if they become a slasher/possessed???
Thanks Daniel for reminding me of this game! I already own a lot of stuff for "Four Against Darkness" as well and really enjoyed my time with it so far. Can you say anything about the other "Four against..." titles? "Four against Mars", "Four against the Titans", "Four against Ragnarök", "Four against the Great Old Ones". Are they all just a reskin/rethemed version of the original game, or do they play differently? Seems like "Alone against Fear" has some distinctive differences in that you do not play a group of 4 but a solo survivor.
"Alone" games have some differences, but it's mostly because you are running a single character. For example I went from XP rolls to a XP point accumulation system because it's more appropriate for a single character and the book-keeping is lower anyway. Another thing, AAF is more about collecting items -- again, in a "team" game where you run multiple characters it would be a bit too much, in AAF it's not a big deal to keep track of 10-15 items. Another difference is that there is a sort of meta-plot in AAF -- some mysteries that you uncover a little at a time, like a background story -- which is not overwhelmingly important, but explains why certain things happens in the game.
@@andreasfiligoi Thank you Andrea for explaining the differences between the "Four against" and the "Alone against" games. I assume there are/will be more "Alone" games, is "Alone against Fear" the first one? What about the differences between "Four against Mars", "Four against the Titans", "Four against Ragnarök", "Four against the Great Old Ones"? Are they basically the same as "Four against Darkness" just with a different theme, or are there major differences in these books?
@@Enroth186 each game has its own differences to tailor it to the theme, I do not like "reskinning". so they do use the same core system, but they also have enough differences that the game feels different. Four Against Mars is 50's sci-fi (think Mars Attacks and black and white movies, with a bit of X-files thrown in) where scientists are very important (not good fighters but key to success against the invaders). There is a supplement coming but still far in time. In 4 Against titans, characters are Greek heroes offspring of some god and mortals, and have powers based on their lineage - the game is played over a map of ancient Greece. Four Against Ragnarok is a Norse epic which invariably ends - when the heroes at some point are killed - with them meeting again in the afterlife and coming back to battle to try and prevent the Ragnarok. Four Against the Great Old Ones is the Lovecraftian version -- you run a party of 4 investigators and their (disposable) helpers, you have 40 days to prevent some cultists from bringing an unspeakable horror into our world. You play over a point-to-point map of Lovecraft's America which has been painstakingly reconstructed , and you gather clues that will eventually reveal who is the final entity that is being summoned (there are 6 possible, and each requires different magic items and tactics to be defeated). There are two supplements being written for this.
Please tell me that you have a link to share for the character sheet and town maps. I really don't want to have to buy the book again as a pdf after I just got a physical copy.
Has any one heard if they still plan to expand the core of Four Against Darkness? I now originally they planned on including more dice for higher levels. Core 4AD is a d6 lvl 1-5, 4AA introduces d8 lvl 5-9, i suppose next would be a d10 for lvl 9-13 if each book has a 5 lvl span. I like the other supplements but I keep hoping to see the next core supplement.
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Can’t wait for more 4AD coverage. One of my favorite games! I need to dive back in this week!
I am really into this minimalist Dungeon Crawl games, im done with a tons of components!!!
I’m getting there. Or at least in a phase right now. Less stress and hassle.
Many thanks, I watched and went on ebay to find a UK seller with a hardback copy.. I should have it by the weekend. Many thanks and keep Well good sir
Hope you enjoy it!
Great video and channel thanks! I play 4AD solo all the time - I manipulate the encounters/4 to suit the size of the party. I usually like to keep the boss stats the same to keep the challenge high. It's super fun and so many great expansions to keep the game fresh - I cant wait for you to play this more on your channel!
The complexity fatigue you mention in the beginning of the video is in my opinion something very common in natural in gamer's life cycle. I remember your words on Wasteland Knights, how overwhelming these types of games can be in terms of finding the motivation to bring them to the table, which was very much relatable to me. After having explored rules-heavy/fiddly/complex/time-demanding games myself (which is also a natural part of a gamer's life cycle: slowly exploring higher complexity levels), I started gravitating more and more towards simpler games.
Exploring more extravagant games tired me out after a while, and I was getting exhausted spending hours on hours just reading rules, then setting it up for ages and afterwards playing one game/scenario also for countless hours. It really felt like gamer's burnout. As a consequence, I really learnt to appreciate simpler games. To me, complexity never equalled more fun or better gameplay. Many gateway games blow in my opinion most kickstarter games just out of the water, as miniatures, more extras and more rules don't make a better game to me.
I heard many good things about the solo RPG Thousand Year Old Vampire, do you know it ?
The balance between simplicity and variety is something important to. I like simple games (I'm not good at games, so complex games do nothing for me), but I often find that simple games don't offer up the variety I need in my adventure and DC games.
That's an interesting question: Which adventure game offers the most variety with the most simplicity ? I think for me the answer is Tales of the Arabian Nights. Many players say it's too light, so much so that they would not even call it a game by definition anymore, but more of an activity. I was always fine with that. Because of the huge amount of encounters in this game, I know that I will very unlikely ever experience all of them (and even if I would, I would have forgotten some at this point), which gives this game a very unique mystical charme to me. It's to me a bottomless well of adventure that is highly accessible and comes with a freely adjustable playing time. On top of that, the components are also great. Having said all that, I know many would strongly disagree and describe it as a frustrating, random mess. With nice components, still.
For me it's probably any version of Talisman or Quest for the Lost Pixel.
Great video! 4AD is my favorite game right now, dig in and enjoy. You have a great start with your books. There is a new supplement for AAF coming out soon, looks really good. I think Andrea has become my favorite game designer.
I’m excited to jump back in to 4AD. I think I’ll like it more now. What are your favorite supplements?
Is there a new supplement for AAF?
4AD is just outstanding. I was very much like you, it took me a little bit to warm up to it, but there are just so many expansions and the system can even be used to run a full game as a game master which I have done. OSR style at its best. It’s also so easy to write up adventures and creating interesting rules for each one because the system really allows for it.
On a sidenote, I am so glad I came across this channel, fantastic stuff as always.
Thanks! 4AD really shines once you add some additional books to the core book. I think the core book makes for a mediocre impression.
@@TheDungeonDive agreed 100%
Great series. I am just getting into 4AD - I was aware of it for years, but only now getting back into P&P RPGs - and this is a cool series. Have a look at Four Against the Old Ones and Four Against Mars as well. I do agree that organization and editing is a huge problem for the line.
Thanks for the video. I like this game. It has a good theme during the pandemic. I can play it 10 minutes and stop when I am short of time. Somehow I still always forget the rules between my sessions. The rules are ok but could have being written a bit better, given how simple it is in the end. It's not the best game in the world but given the price and the scope, it's very good. Very happy that such an indie game exist.
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised by how poorly written the rules can be, especially since the game has been around for so long, with so many books. You would think they would be crystal clear and really well written by now.
Looking forward to seeing more of this. Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters kicked my butt.
Oh wow, nice Illbleed reference. Have a Dreamcast and copy of that game on my shelf. :)
Such a wild game!
Was making dinner listening to your video and heard you mention Fresno and Tulare ca! I’m from that area and it’s always surprising to hear people mention it! Anyways, always enjoy your videos! Have a good lne
Ha! Yep. Born in Fresno. :)
Has any one heard if they still plan to expand the core of Four Against Darkness? I now originally they planned on including more dice for higher levels. Core 4AD is a d6 lvl 1-5, 4AA introduces d8 lvl 5-9, i suppose next would be a d10 for lvl 9-13 if each book has a 5 lvl span. I like the other supplements but I keep hoping to see the next core supplement.
Hey Daniel, have you heard about Top 10 Games You Can Play In Your Head? A supposed solo RPG you can play alone in your head without any other items required. I started reading, not yet playing, and I am not sure if it is a hoax, a joke or a real proposal. Was curious if you heard about it, tried it, and of course what you thought about it. Keep on producing content on smaller game. love it! all the best, johannes
Thanks! I’ve heard of that book but I’ve never read it.
Question for anyone: what happens in a safe house? I swear I read that you recover some life and sanity when you enter a safe house but I can't remember how much. Am I imagining this?
I think I would like a game where there's a party of adventurers, but one of them is 'you'.
As in like a normal person, where the others were heroes? That would interesting!
@@TheDungeonDive I just meant that there's one of the characters who won't ever run away and who, if they die, you lose the game. But yours is a good idea too.
@@goodlookingcorpse I see! So it would be you and some henchmen, who were somewhat expendable.
That is Rangers of Shadow Deep!
you can certainly play 4AD like that, one of the characters is you and the others are 1st level characters that do not level up, or level up more rarely. It's a possible, easy variant to write. It's not in the current rulebook but it's quite simple to add. In basic 4AD, the idea was replicating early "red box" D&D but solo. Tactics in such a game is all in party composition and use of resources -- like most dungeoneering games, 4AD is a resource management game.
There is one book, Buried Secrets, where you play a single Cleric, and an Arthurian variant, the Knight of Destiny, where you play one of Arthur's knights (you are alone but may pick up some help along the way).
These games are awesome!
Yes they are!
Love this game..but...it is MEGA hard lol.
Where in the book does it state if your character dies you can roll up a new one and continue the same campaign? Also how would your previous deceased character stats be if they become a slasher/possessed???
Horror, weirdness and charm?!?
Yeah... what he said 🤔
Just play it... you'll know what he means.
It’s great, right?
I wasn't talking about it and I know my friend Dave wasn't talking about it either lol 😂
Thanks Daniel for reminding me of this game! I already own a lot of stuff for "Four Against Darkness" as well and really enjoyed my time with it so far. Can you say anything about the other "Four against..." titles? "Four against Mars", "Four against the Titans", "Four against Ragnarök", "Four against the Great Old Ones". Are they all just a reskin/rethemed version of the original game, or do they play differently? Seems like "Alone against Fear" has some distinctive differences in that you do not play a group of 4 but a solo survivor.
"Alone" games have some differences, but it's mostly because you are running a single character. For example I went from XP rolls to a XP point accumulation system because it's more appropriate for a single character and the book-keeping is lower anyway. Another thing, AAF is more about collecting items -- again, in a "team" game where you run multiple characters it would be a bit too much, in AAF it's not a big deal to keep track of 10-15 items.
Another difference is that there is a sort of meta-plot in AAF -- some mysteries that you uncover a little at a time, like a background story -- which is not overwhelmingly important, but explains why certain things happens in the game.
@@andreasfiligoi Thank you Andrea for explaining the differences between the "Four against" and the "Alone against" games. I assume there are/will be more "Alone" games, is "Alone against Fear" the first one?
What about the differences between "Four against Mars", "Four against the Titans", "Four against Ragnarök", "Four against the Great Old Ones"? Are they basically the same as "Four against Darkness" just with a different theme, or are there major differences in these books?
I have not played any of the other games.
@@Enroth186 We have Alone Against the Death Planet coming up in the future, although I do not known when.
@@Enroth186 each game has its own differences to tailor it to the theme, I do not like "reskinning". so they do use the same core system, but they also have enough differences that the game feels different. Four Against Mars is 50's sci-fi (think Mars Attacks and black and white movies, with a bit of X-files thrown in) where scientists are very important (not good fighters but key to success against the invaders). There is a supplement coming but still far in time.
In 4 Against titans, characters are Greek heroes offspring of some god and mortals, and have powers based on their lineage - the game is played over a map of ancient Greece.
Four Against Ragnarok is a Norse epic which invariably ends - when the heroes at some point are killed - with them meeting again in the afterlife and coming back to battle to try and prevent the Ragnarok.
Four Against the Great Old Ones is the Lovecraftian version -- you run a party of 4 investigators and their (disposable) helpers, you have 40 days to prevent some cultists from bringing an unspeakable horror into our world. You play over a point-to-point map of Lovecraft's America which has been painstakingly reconstructed , and you gather clues that will eventually reveal who is the final entity that is being summoned (there are 6 possible, and each requires different magic items and tactics to be defeated). There are two supplements being written for this.
It's pronounced on-DRAY-uh SFILL-uh-goy
Andrea is a mans name in Italy
I hate the Xp roll to level up in 4AD.
Could you please tell us what "errors/mistakes" exist in the rulebook? Is there an (official) errata somewhere?
Mainly just little inconsistencies in terms. Nothing major.
Please tell me that you have a link to share for the character sheet and town maps. I really don't want to have to buy the book again as a pdf after I just got a physical copy.
I got everything from BGG and Facebook.
@@TheDungeonDive Ok, the version from BGG I assume gave you a pdf so you could make the printouts?
yes!
@@TheDungeonDive Ok, thanks a lot. Great vid btw, I got the book because of it!
Great! It's really fun.
Has any one heard if they still plan to expand the core of Four Against Darkness? I now originally they planned on including more dice for higher levels. Core 4AD is a d6 lvl 1-5, 4AA introduces d8 lvl 5-9, i suppose next would be a d10 for lvl 9-13 if each book has a 5 lvl span. I like the other supplements but I keep hoping to see the next core supplement.