Addressing macros: The first question I would have you ask yourself is this: Do I want to save time during prep or do I want to save time during encounters? The first route involves, generally, macros that ask for bonuses when they roll. Something like this: /emas @{selected|token_name} attacks @{target|Target|token_name} with ?{Attack?|a weapon}! /w gm Attacks AC [[1d20 + ?{Bonus to Hit?|0}]] for [[ ?{Damage Roll?|} ]] /emas only works for GMs, BTW. Something like this can be set up as a macro in your macro collection (found on the gear tab), and as long as you're willing to look up everything every time you attack the PCs, you don't need to do ANY macro prep between sessions (maps, tokens, and plot prep are a different kettle of fish and outside the scope of this post) . You don't need character journals for this, just tokens. If this sort of thing interests you, say so and I'm sure someone can come along and help you further. The above macro will also keep your rolls secret and you will have to tell PCs when they're hit and for how much damage. However, if you're willing to spend time on prep, there's a middle-ground. For this we'll be using the Attribute&Abilities tab, not a 'character sheet'. /emas @{selected|token_name} attacks @{target|Target|token_name} with @{selected|Weapon1}! /w gm Attacks AC [[1d20 + @{selected|Weapon1_Atk} +?{TempHitBonus?|0}]] for [[ @{selected|Weapon1_Dmg} +?{TempDmgBonus?|0}]] This requires you to have a character journal that the token is linked to, with attributes named 'Weapon1', 'Weapon1_Atk', and 'Weapon1_Dmg' that hold, for example, "a longsword', '4', and '1d8+3'. You could make more macros for more attacks, replacing the 1 for a 2, 3, 4, 5... you get the idea. This is probably a good starting place for beginners. A nice universal macro that covers all the bases, and keeps your rolls behind the GM Screen, which many GMs seem to favor. This is INCREDIBLY basic still, we're not covering critical successes, nor are we utilizing a character sheet. The second question I would have you ask yourself: How much do I care about players seeing my rolls and knowing the AC of the monsters? Because you have the far end of the spectrum, where I live. Granted, 4E doesn't lend itself well to the universal macro setup IMO , and 4E is what I GM. The part of my GM prep I wish to focus on is how I've laid out the macros and how I do not have any hidden rolls (in combat). Here's output from some of my macros: These first three are player macros, from one of my players. (I write all their macros because I'm nice like that and they have zero interest in putting the work into fancy macros) And now one of my monster's attacks... I don't do hidden rolls in combat, because I've chosen to expedite combat as much as possible. I don't want to look up a monster's defenses when a PC rolls attacks. I don't want to try to remember in the middle of combat what fancy extras an attack has. And this greatly speeds things up... at the price of requiring extra prep time ahead of time. I feel the price worth it. Here's how you might do the Chillborn Zombie's attack in a game without API scripts for making prettypretty macro output. /emas @{selected|token_name} attacks @{target|Player|token_name} with a **Slam Attack** (Standard Action, Melee; **Cold**) **Attack:** AC [[ 1d20+11 ?{MiscToHit|0}]] vs [[@{target|Player|AC}]] **Damage:** [[ 1d6cf0cs0 +4 +?{MiscToDamage|0} ]] **Cold** damage | Crit [[ (1*6) +4 +?{MiscToDamage} ]] -----**On Hit:**@{target|Player|token_name} is *immobilized* until the end of
@{selected|token_name}'s next turn, and takes *ongoing 5 **Cold**
damage* (save ends). yields It's really ugly. I tried /emas on all the lines and... well, it was even MORE ugly. x.x The player macros rely on my monsters all having their AC & other defenses set up ahead of time. If you have any questions about what I've written, just ask your questions and I'll try to answer them! I hope you find some/any of this helpful! (The API script generating the prettypretty output is Powercards 2.x )
