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My campaign (245 AD) pre-dates the formal East/West split, so it isn't an issue. My campaign is also mostly set in the West (Gaul), though it will definitely move to Rome at some point and may visit the East (Egypt) before venturing off into extra-planar adventures at the Epic tier.

I looked at a lost of maps in academic books as I was developing the campaign. My favorite is probably the The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History, which I used to flesh out the history of the game world. During play, though, I almost never use maps. The adventures are largely event driven, so I...

The paladin in my group wants to use a lance, and low and behold I discover there is no such beast in 4E. Rather than invent a new weapon, I thought it would be easier to use the longspear and define a new feat: Lance Fighting [Feat] Prerequisite: Proficiency with longspear, Mounted Combat...

If you still allow characters to eliminate the ongoing damage with a bonus save (e.g. from a Warlord power), that seems balanced to me. Without the bonus save, though, the PCs loose a lot of tactical options.

A03 Elf Home Doom Here is adventure #3. I tried to upload it this weekend, but Enworld was running slow.

Feh. Ignore the XP charts. Figure out how quickly you want your PCs to advance, and level them up at exactly that rate. I am leveling up my PCs at a rate of 1 level per adventure because I am running a monthly game. If I were running a weekly game, I would probably level up every other...

As other's pointed out, to use the implement for your dilettante power, you should either multi-class into the class having that power or should take a power from a class that shares an implement with your class (paladin with a cleric power or warlock with a wizard power).

So long as the total is the same, I don't think it matters that you match exactly. If you do the math, on average a PC should earn the equivalent of an (Level+2) magic item for each level they advance. For example, throughout their adventures on level 5, they should earn the equivalent of a...

Reading the example from AV, it is pretty clear that the intent of the rule is to allow things like changing a generic magic weapon or armor into a specialized item or armor (e.g. +1 magic longsword to a +1 flaming longsword). It says pretty specifically: "... magic item properties and powers...

That's pretty much what I am doing, except that I don't bother handing out XP at all. After X number of adventures, everyone in the party goes up a level, whether the player was able to attend or not. I only use XP values for encounter balancing.

The bookkeeping reduction is mostly on me as a DM. I never have to stat out treasures for adventures, which saves a fair amount of time. I don't have to worry whether the players are properly accounting for all their minor expenses, because their equipment is based entirely on their level. I...

That's too far in the other direction. Dealing failed death saves to a character that is not below 0 hp is problematic. If it was just the necrotic damage, though, that would work. Then you are taking a double-whammy to save someone from death, which balances things out enough to leave it as an...

That's pretty close to what I am doing in my current game, except that I am capping the PCs at 5 items (more or less). Once they hit 7th level, whenever they get a new item, the lose their weakest item. The actual rules are a bit more complex, eliminating gold from the reward system entirely...

That would be an example of a poorly designed skill challenge, violating the golden rule of skill challenges: "If the characters fail the challenge, the story still has to move forward, but in a different direction and possibly by a longer, more dangerous route." A better challenge would have...

The big benefit of leaders is that they can easily put a downed PC back into the fight quickly with a some quick healing. If there is a leader nearby, dropping below 0 hp is not much worse than dropping prone. That makes a big difference in your group's ability to survive a fight. I would say...

The most important part of play balance is that the PCs are balanced against each other. In theory, your PCs should all have similar abilities. You can adjust the monsters so that they will provide a challenge to the group. So, if your group prefers it, stick with your current retraining rules...

I read over your house rules #1, and none of them seem especially game breaking. The only one I am concerned with is this one: Alter Fate – You halt the impending death of an ally by sacrificing a part of yourself to the Raven Queen. Circumventing any ally's death at-will at the cost of a...

I haven't found the point-buy rules in 4E to be particular broken, especially since you can only have one 8 point score. That said, I think your arrays are pretty close to what most players will pick anyway. The only exception is that a PC might want to arrange to have a 13 in a secondary stat...

I disagree. For a close attack: "A close burst uses your space as its origin square. A close blast uses a square within your space as its origin square." This means your current location determines the origin square of the blast. If your location changes, so does the origin square, but the...

Here is how I've handled similar "investigation" challenges. I make up 3 or so "leads" that the PCs can discover. First, the PCs need to use perceptual skills (Streetwise and Perception) to find likely leads. Once a lead is discovered, each player participating in the challenge can either keep...