HOW TO PLAY PUBLISHED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ADVENTURES IN FOUR AGAINST DARKNESS!

That title's a bit misleading actually, what it should say is "how to play any RPG adventures that use a similar system to DnD in Four Against Darkness".

For those of you who don't know (for shame!) what Four Against Darkness is, I suggest you have a bit of a google. I wont explain the entire game here (Buy the book! its awesome!) but put simply, you create a party of 4 adventurers, all with some very simple stats, kit them out with shiny new gear and throw them head first into a dungeon.



Something to note here is that nowhere in the games rulebook does it state that this game is a Roleplaying Game. Not a single mention, and I think that's important to know this going into this guide. I will touch more on this later on.



The main rulebook itself contains random tables that you roll upon to determine the size and shape of the dungeons rooms, then another table to determine the contents : Treasure/Traps/Enemies/Dragons/Bosses/NPCs and so on....

It's an awesome little game that seems to be shooting up in popularity across RPG & board game forums (and so it should be!). Something I think that makes it appealing to people is how simple it actually is to play, and how much of a retro style DnD game it creates. The fact that you map out the dungeon as you go, on graph paper with a pencil just feels really old school. The maps end up looking just like the pre printed maps you'd see in AD&D and BXD&D manuals from years ago.

(Im not affiliated with this in any way)

After a few months of playing around with 4AD, I came across some modules for the game that I'd never seen before and knew nothing about and t

After a few months of playing around with 4AD, I came across some modules for the game that I'd never seen before and knew nothing about and t here's actually a load of "Expansions" for 4AD now with even more on the way. (exciting!)

My first initial thought while playing this was "I could use this book as a DnD adventure" but I'm not a DM and my group are deep into a campaign at the moment so throwing in a new mini dungeon would just upset the flow of the game. Then I thought, what about using DnD adventure supplements as 4AD expansions!

My first initial thought while playing this was "I could use this book as a DnD adventure" but I'm not a DM and my group are deep into a campaign at the moment so throwing in a new mini dungeon would just upset the flow of the game. Then I thought, what about using DnD adventure supplements as 4AD expansions!

Now this is where things started to fall into place for me, while playing Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters I came across the first pre-planned dungeon map. This was an odd concept as the bulk of the original book had been rolling random dungeons and drawing them in as you go. Each area had a number associated with it, and in the back of the books there was an entry with the same number telling you what was present in that room.

Now this is where things started to fall into place for me, while playing Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters I came across the first pre-planned dungeon map. This was an odd concept as the bulk of the original book had been rolling random dungeons and drawing them in as you go. Each area had a number associated with it, and in the back of the books there was an entry with the same number telling you what was present in that room.

I would highly suggest getting the main rulebook and Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters. And play them! Play them a lot before you start exploring this hybrid system. Get a good feel for the game and the mechanics as this is going to be the foundation of converting this DnD modules.

I would highly suggest getting the main rulebook and Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters. And play them! Play them a lot before you start exploring this hybrid system. Get a good feel for the game and the mechanics as this is going to be the foundation of converting this DnD modules.

I love Kobolds as enemies, I think they're so much cooler than goblins, but everyone seems to always fill their dungeons with goblins and orcs. (bloody LOTR tainting everyone's minds)



Now before I get into the how to side of things, I want to bring up that point again about 4AD not being an RPG as such.While it shares a lot of similarities and systems with some RPGs on the market, there's actually very little role playing involved in running a 4AD adventure and its important that you know this going into my guide.



You are not going to be playing the full DnD experience solo here, you are playing the DnD adventure inside 4AD. By all means you can tweak this as much as you like, throw in extra systems such as Mythic GME for some randomness if you want to, the choice is entirely yours as you are in control!!





THE GUIDE!

So lets dive in, to start with I want to point out that for this guide, the 4AD manual is actually the 3 core DnD rulebooks rolled into one. I know that may sound hard to believe, but everything you need out of the Dungeon Masters Guide, Player's Handbook & Monster Manual is all found within the pages of the standard Four Against Darkness rulebook.



So that's a great starting point! You dont NEED to buy these 3 huge gamebooks that cost quite a lot of money to start playing. All you need is the 4AD book that about the same price as a coffee and a sandwich! And not to mention how small it is in comparison, I take this little manual wherever I go but carrying around 3 hefty books? no thanks.



The published book I will be using as an example is the DnD 5e Adventure Compendium "Tales from the Yawning Portal" but more specifically, my personal favorite adventure that's contained within called "The Sunless Citadel"







This would be a great book to get you started as it contains 7 easy to run adventures all for low level characters in a really nicely presented hardback book that wont break the bank! So you could have everything you need to start playing from scratch, for around £30-35 which is the same price (at the moment) as the DnD 5e Monster Manual alone.



Now that you have your supplies ready we can begin.



1. Create a party just as you would in a standard 4AD game. follow all of the same rules as before, kit them out with the starting gear provided, name them and so on, get to the point where you would normally start rolling for your entrance room. Don't worry about anything you've heard about standard DnD character creation (remember we're playing 4AD not DnD!)





Here's a really quick party I conjured up over the weekend.



2. Select a start time for your adventure. Sometime's the book will tell you its dawn or dusk, maybe even midnight at the start of your adventure but if it doesn't, make a best guess or just pick a time you think your adventurers would get up ready to leave for an adventure. You'll want to make a note of the time before every entry that you undertake.



In the 4AD Manual, it states that it takes 10 minutes for you to enter a room, resolve combat, search, activate any traps, converse with NPCs etc. so make sure you update your current time before each numbered entry you wish to proceed with. I would also use the 10 minute rule when referencing any random wandering monster encounters too.



If the adventure references a long distance that needs to be travelled, most of the time it will say "its half a days walk from here" etc. If it doesnt state a length of time, use your best judgement. For my party as we have a dwarf with stumpy legs, I always say it takes a little longer than normal to get to where we need to go. Most importantly, note the time down!







In this example I'm going to say that my party are up at 07:00 AM, ready to head out on an adventure.



3. Start reading. Open up your chosen Adventure Module and read away. Don't be worried about reading things the book tells you is only for the DM's eyes. Read all the way up until the point where the adventure actually begins. More often than not you will start in a tavern or town somewhere learning about rumors of a dungeon, missing person or a haunted keep etc. Its fine to read all of this info, even if it mentions you need to roll for a persuasion check or an investigation/intuition check just IGNORE them. Forget any DC checks when its related to information the players should know.



You and your party are in town and you've been told all of this info by the locals over some ale and it could be true, or it could all be rubbish. It doesn't matter as its all just more content to flesh out the story.



4. Make a quest log. Start picking out the rumors you have just read and sort them all out into a simple quest list that you can refer to when you are in the dungeon. Could be that someone lost an old sword in there and you may come across a special blade that could be the one. Make a note of any rewards for these tasks too if they state that in the book. This quest log will change throughout the adventure, you may even come across NPC's in the dungeon that can offer you tasks so make sure you leave some room for changes.







keep reading and noting down potential quests until you get to a point where the book instructs you as a DM to read out the first adventure passage to the party members. In the Sunless Citadel, its a few pages in and is located in its own colored text box as shown here:











4. Choose your marching order. As the adventure is about to begin, its a good idea to get your marching order ready. Bear in mind you can change this between encounters, but you need to be ready for that first encounter (whatever it may be?). Once you have decided, keep reading on until you reach the numbered entries section



5. Start at entry 1. Nearly every DnD adventure I have seen comes with a map and some numbered entries that inform the reader of whats in the room/area and what actions are available for the players to take.







Here is the map we will be using for the fist part of the adventure, don't worry about what you can see on here, try not to focus too much on whats coming up in the future, just focus on the number you are on and read its description



In the Sunless Citadel entry #1 tells us about the "Ledge"







6. Encounters! As you can see by reading entry #1 we are about to witness our first encounter. Here's where things take a much simpler turn that you might think. We first need to establish what type of encounter this is and what type of creature we are encountering. In this example it's 3 Giant Rats. If you'd played 4AD previously you'd know that rats are part of the Vermin family of creatures.



What we then need to do is look up the rats on the vermin table in the 4AD rulebook:



Even in DnD rats aren't considered a might foe so its perfectly acceptable to substitute the 3x DnD Giant Rats for 3 Level 1 4AD Rats. I would also look at the encounter description for context about who gets to attack first.



In my example the rats are ready to pounce on the first party member to enter the area. That would be my #1 in the marching order, meaning my Barbarian will take 3 attacks before the rest of the party join in and it becomes a normal round of combat. If we had entered a room and the rats were just in there, then we would start it as a standard combat encounter.



If the guide doesn't tell you who has "advantage" then just assume its a standard encounter and we go first! Simple right!



Now these rats have no treasure according to 4AD and in the DnD adventure book it doesn't tell us about there being any treasure drops from these guys so we would proceed as normal onto the next area. Also make note of the extra wound damage modifier, make sure you use any of those if they are listed under a creature type.





Make sure you make a note of the time too! Now proceed onto the next section. At this moment in time and due to our location, the only possible options we have are to move onto entry #2 or go back to the entrance.



7. Keep Going! We've done great so far, already taken on our first encounter in a DnD adventure and its not been any different to a normal 4AD encounter. That's the beauty of this system. It's similar enough that you can work out pretty much what you should be doing using the 4AD rules without much trouble.



As we move on to entry #2, its just an empty area with a description of the ruins we are about to enter. Now is this area actually empty? that's upto you to decide. You could roll upon the Room search table in the 4AD manual if you wish?



My only amendments to this rule would be that if you roll a 5-6 and decide to take a secret door as the reward, it isnt going to be much use using the door to go into a room that doesn't exist in the pre-gen adventure is it? I would suggest that you always assume that a secret door on a room search roll can lead you straight out of the dungeon in an emergency.



Any other roll you make, sure take some treasure or roll for a wandering monster.