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After several difficult attempts to find a group of likeminded nerds, much less try to schedule them for a game, I think we're closer than ever to getting our game together. That's over a year late to my initial prenouncement that we'd be starting our first 4E adventure.

Fingers crossed this time... 

After an aborted foray into 4E, I'm back to try again...the crew's assembled, we're ready to rock.

Thanks to supercyberprincess Claudia, I'm now listening to the "Penny Arcade PVP Podcast" at www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4pod/2... . Gabe and Tycho, joined by Wil Wheaton, take on pro-DM Chris Perkins from WoTC for a romp through 4th Edition.

And it is excellent! It's nice to listen in on a 'noob experience' in 4E and a seasoned pro DM. I compare  this with the sporadic D&D sessions you can view on YouTube, and it's a breath of fresh air. They have a nice, focused (yet lighthearted) game. The games on YouTube drive me nuts, as very little play gets depicted compared with an almost constant barrage of horrendously dull in-group banter.

Anyhow give it a listen. And a learning experience for new 4E players like myself.

Love it. You will likely love it, too!

www.engadget.com/2009/10/20/surfacescape...

I'm actually building something like this with the Nintendo wiimote project, using an IR pen for players to move their tokens around. This will be implemented with a projector and a laptop client against a RPTools map server. I expect it to be  up and running for our first game when my IR pen arrives in the mail!

johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

I was picqued by this book in the store, the general tone and content seemed worthy of a detailed examination so I bought it. And I'm certainly glad I did!

Firstly, as a new DM I was briefly worried that buying all of this stuff all at once would run the risk of my overloading myself. I'm consoled in the knowledge that this is OK, because as a DM I get the power to use or discard whatever I want. It's the *players* that will get overloaded because most of them have never played before. And they don't get the choice on what they must know. This is a big reason why I bought the DMG2 and the *not* the PHB2. They don't need to know about the extra classes, powers, races... they'll have enough to worry about with what's in front of them.

As for me, the DMG2 has a lot of value in it. I Know that some complain about the cash-grab that this release appears to be (or all of 4E is, blah blah), however I have to say that what's in DMG2 is really great. For one, it's enjoyably well-written. And the topics and tone seem completely geared towards new DMs like myself. Story hooks, roleplaying, cooperative story... this stuff sounds like an advanced literature course, but with you writing the literature! Love it.

My orginal appraisal on skill challenges seems to be fading as well. The ideas from some of the other people here on DDI, together with another chapter on this mechanic have opened some possibilities that I hadn't thought of in terms of this mechanic. I look forward to devising mini-challenges in my first game just to say I did.

All in all, cashgrab or not, the DMG2 is well worth the extra purchase. And I recommend it as well for new DMs. Just my .02 galactic credits.

Hacing completed reading the PHB, there is one thing that struck me about 4E. Note, this isn't a review as I have not played yet. I don't really like the "chain of skill checks" mechanic at all. The idea of making 6 checks for one possibly challenging action sounds a bit extreme for my liking. Thankfully, as a DM, I get to make a judgement about this and I doubt I'll use it in my game. I much prefer the player skill of attempting a role-play coupled with 1 roll, or 1 opposed roll to affect an outcome. I'll just leave it at that.

The other thing that gripes me a bit is the lamentable magic item list. The reason this list is even in PHB at all is questionable, though I'm guessing it's put there to incentivize gear for the players. This mechanic emphasizes a gear-is-advancement arc, and is somewhat "Warcraftian". That's acceptable, but the list is woefully unimaginative and gives magic-imbued items a commodity aspect to them. I'd love to see some more, and I'm sure this is another reason why the list basically sucks -- it will help sell addiitional books. I don't see a problem with that, particularly. I don't mind spending money for a company that makes cool products.

Yesterday I bought the 4E books. I've signed up for DNDInsider, downloaded a few things and joined a few groups. I've already gotten a few questions answered.

I think the most hysterical thing is the discovery of the "DM Hotline". The idea that you can get your technical questions answered during a play session is beyond my comprehension, it's one of those "way out there" ideas. Having said that, I think it's hysterically cool. I live in Sydney, so I doubt that I'll be partaking, however I'm keen to hear if anyone has actually used it.

Now I'm going to embark on a campaign selection for a noob group that I'll be running (I include myself in the noob category). The group is not yet fully formed, but there are a few artsy types and creatives, so the bar for me as DM is quite high to make it creative fun and interesting. I'm not sure the sample dungeon will cut the mustard, I'll have to do some thinking around that.

This is a test post in the D&D community beta. Interesting so far, but as a DDI subscriber I'm expecting "more". Still exploring though...

An interesting tack WoTC is taking with all of this.