Thanks!

I do feel comfortable speaking for all of us, though, when I say that any 4e coverage we do will be done because we enjoy doing it and think a substantial portion of our readership will enjoy reading it. EN World will still be 4e central, and Gnome Stew will still be home to a wide range of posts (many of them system-neutral).

I’m a fan of 4e; I’m running a campaign starting next week. But generally speaking I don’t need GMing advice specific to a particular system. The occasional item is a nice change up, but all of the really valuable GMing advice I’ve ever gotten isn’t system specific. (It’s frequently genre specific, and that’s okay.)

In the official D&D forums, for instance, there’s already a lot of comments about using (and countering) a nasty ability of the kobolds. I’ve found this quite useful.

(I’m still not sure if I’m gonna switch)

Of course, the online client might be great too, so I’d like some hands-on impressions of that as well.

Layout?
Ease of Play?
Feel like D&D or (something unmentionable)?
-Color and tone what you’d expect from D&D?
-Combat have a heroic feel, or comic book feel?
Core mechanic flexible?
Any broken class/skill/spell/ability/feat/etc…?
Time investment for game prep?
General highlights/lowlights
Logs of testing/play sessions including highlight/lowlights of that session.

TY!

First, what is the layout like? D&D has used a nonsense layout since time immemorial – stats, then race, then class, etc. If WoTC wants to bring in new players and make sure the old players know what they’re in for, the book should begin with at least a chapter that explains the implied setting and game styles of D&D; the basic Iron Age structure with a medieval coat of paint. There shouldn’t be any rules at all for that first chapter. Following chapters should start with the core mechanic and then only gradually work up to stats, race, etc. If I were to pick up any unfamiliar game and find stat charts on page 1, I’d put it back down. This would need to be across all 3 core books – the PHB needs to be accessible to new people, and the DMG and MM should be friendly to the GM in building a game. It seems to me that for every previous edition of the game, there’s somehow been the assumption that the reader already knows how to play.

Next, I would need to know that D&D had taken a big step away from resource management. Gear and gold should not so drastically shape the course of the game. I know that players spend a lot of time agonizing over items, but as a GM, making treasure come out fairly can be tough. Hopefully the previews are right and the game’s somewhat moved away from that.

For folks who have no interest in 4e, fear not: You’ll have plenty of non-4e stuff to read in the coming weeks.

e.g., Want a more noir game? Look at Ch.2 pg. 24, only do THIS instead. Etc.

It sounds like there are a lot of possibilities, but I want to know what the Stewed Gnomes are thinking (good or bad).

Of course, I don’t know the outcome of those playtests. (I seem to recall 3E got run through the same hoops).

Certainly, one of the objectives of 4E was to run tactical combat encounters with minimal record-keeping. (The 1 hp minions being an example of that approach).

I have high expectations for the DMG, both because of its principal author (Wyatt) and when select playtesters were allowed to make public testimonials, the DMG was mentioned as being an excellent roleplaying resource.

I’d also be interested in tips on how to use the gnome write-up in the Monster Manual to run gnomes as characters. Supposedly you’ll be able to do that out of the box, but I wonder if you guys have any ideas to improve on the gnome-as-written. I hear that the WotC team hasn’t decided what to do with gnomes, so I don’t know that there’s much in the way of personality or culture in the write-up.

Actually, a whole article on incorporating gnomes into your game would be pretty awesome, no matter what the edition.

I’m also curious about how the book recommends that DMs use the new cosmology. I have a fair idea of what it involves, the new planes and whatnot, but what does the DMG tell you to do with it? Am I encouraged to modify it and given information on doing so? Told that it must be used in just this way or its not actually D&D?

And generally, what’s the tone of the DMing (and playing) advice in the books? How does it expect the reader to use the material presented?