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There's a lot to do, for sure! I think the model will have to make some simplifying assumptions, but I've made good progress so far. I'm definitely hoping this will attract a lot of collaboration--it's too much work to continue if nobody else is interested. :)

There's been a lot of criticism of the 4e "math" lately. No biggie, really, but one thing has been bugging me. The analysis is incredibly shallow--nothing more than comparing one number (of dozens!) to another--and it's combined with this bellicose attitude and slapping down of anyone that dares...

Your first post described a business plan, even if it wasn't a formal write-up. ("$1 per three characters per level.") And Kzach is right, it's completely unsustainable. You'd wouldn't even make enough money to buy coffee in the morning each day. I'm a moderately popular, published author (in...

I use small ziplock bags (just over 3x5 inches). I write the types of monsters on a 3x5 card and slip that inside the bag so that it's readable from the outside. Works well. I personally organize my monsters by type (animal, goblinoid, etc), but any organizing scheme could work.

The disparity between player bonuses and monster bonuses is blindingly obvious and clearly intentional. People talk about this 'glitch' as if they've discovered a secret, but I think what they've actually discovered is that there's more to the game's math than basic arithmetic. WoTC had a staff...

By the way, there's another Tact-Tile-like product out there being produced for a fairly reasonable price -- Longtooth Studio's Battleboards. I haven't tried it yet but it's gotten decent reviews. I seem to recall that Longtooth bought the Tact-Tile designs (or something) but not the name. I'm...

Okay, I think I get it. I hadn't considered the OAs. (My party is ranged focused and can't OA to save its lives.) Assuming 5 PCs total each attacking the target, and a melee heavy party that gets 3 OAs, Deadly Lure gets you 50% * 7 vuln * 3 OAs = 10.5 vulnerability damage from OAs, plus 50% * 7...

I usually trust that WoTC's done a pretty good job of balancing the game. Even when something appears to be unbalanced, I figure there's some hidden factor that makes it more balanced that it looks. But I can't figure out the Cleric Attack 13 powers Remorse and Deadly Lure at all. Deadly Lure...

Two words: Willie Walsh. More than two words: The problem isn't the content, it's the way it's executed. It seems like everybody's interested in being "old school," except than when old school was the only school, being new, innovative, or simply awesome was what was interesting. Nowadays it...

Not sure where you're getting "similar in style" from. The requests I'm seeing (including from me) are for adventures that are NOT similar in style to WoTC's. I've had quite enough beat-em-up dungeon-crawls, thank you very much.

WoTC's adventures are lackluster, but Dungeon has included some great set-piece encounters that are pretty darn close to drag-and-drop, thanks to the Delve format. Just add adventure-appropriate monsters, and done. (Actually, an rated index of Dungeon encounters would be an awesome resource...

Another call for really great adventures or encounters, particularly those that are more sophisticated than WoTC's. I'm currently running Scales of War, which is fine as far as it goes, but I'm starting to get an urge for something with more there there. (The recent Epic level adventure by David...

This.

I think of this sort of thing as being level of the chandelier, not level of the party. Then making it work is just picking the right fluff for the level.

My table never uses rulebooks at the table in the close to one year since we started playing. It's evolved into a nice "make a ruling and move on" approach, although we've never made it explicit. It works very well for us and keeps things moving quickly. Here's what makes it work for us: 1...

Two deaths so far, in a party of 6 players. 6th level. We played KotS and then started SoW #2. Now we're on SoW #4. Death has come close several times, and every time it's been very clear that the party's tactics were to blame. When they're playing well they steamroll level+3 encounters. When...

The Heroic tier of Scales of War is very nicely contained and would make a good AP on its own. (Well, depending on how much you like the SoW style.) You'd have to change the fluff a bit to tie up the dangling ends, but that wouldn't be hard at all. So far, the Paragon tier has had a notably...

Huh? DDI Dungeon uses the delve format and has all monsters/stats/map/everything on the two-page spread for the encounter... even if this means heavy repetition from the previous page. As a DM, I love it. No flipping at all during an encounter. In the recent issues, they've started to expand...

It's a drive-by Rousing!

For my group, I've been constantly emphasizing that "every situation can be overcome; not all can be overcome by fighting." I used to remind them of this every few games, while slowly taking the gloves off... doing things like allowing one encounter to bleed into another, having the baddies...