DM Disconnect

[Mistwell]

Think of player powers like Wizard powers from prior editions. Sure, you know what a lot of those spells did, but not all of them. I bet sometimes it came down to "wiggle fingers, mumble words, some components fizzles, blast casts forth, creatures shrivel and screams in pain, with an acrid smell in the air".

Just encourage your players to describe what they do in a theme related to their character. Knowing if it is a martial, arcane, divine, or whatever power source becomes more important than the details of the power for description.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I really like Dread style questionnaires for getting to know characters better. (if you don't know Dread, look it up - awesome game)

The way this would work is you just hand our a brief questionnaire with essay questions for the players to answer. Since they're already established, I'd just do 3-4, maybe doing more later. Make a couple of them fairly basic background type stuff, but make a couple of them provocative.

Great idea. Another option is to have one question at the start of each session. Go around the table and have everyone answer.

Give out the next session's question at the end of the evening. That way, players have time to prepare their answers.

There are some great ideas in this thread. Consider them stolen borrowed.

 

[vagabundo]

I have two main comments to make one on 4e and the other on your campaign:

• 
  Best to just chill on the system, it will take you years to get to grips with all the nuances that 4e has to offer. There are tons of small tweaks that the classes and feats have that dont make a huge difference to the game and you will eventually pick up. I'd suggest reading the players book in your spare time and creating some test characters.
  
  I've been DMing 4e with the same characters weekly for seven months now and I'm still finding out a thing here and there that my players are doing wrong. But dont sweat it, focus on the fun, make a note of your weak area and look it up during the down time.
  
  I only feel I'm getting a handle on 4e now. I remember it being the same when I was DMing 3e, it took me a year or two to fully get into the swing of it.

• 
  When you have sure an unstable group it is best to stick with episodic games. So very short story arcs, maximum of 2/3 session and have a definite goal for each session. You can have a bigger arc and some side quests, but they have to be straight forward and not some byzantine plot. Focus on the fun, story and roleplaying, the rest will fall into play eventually.

I'm using gmail to write up a little story summary after every session, it is really useful for the more casual players and it gets them hyped for the game. I also put extra plot and background into the summary that I couldn't get into the game.