DMG to include a "starter town".

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would rather have something of a middle ground between a pre-fab town and straight tables.

How about a few pages that talk about the essentials that belong in a town (or city, or village)? How about something that touches on politics, economics, religion, and other social constructs and how to set those up logically? How about a bit about how adventurers and magic affect and change those constructs? How about expanding that to countries and kingdoms? Does that sound at all appealing to anyone beside myself?

After all, I am neither a sociologist/psychologist/anthropologist, or a history scholar. I don't know a whole lot about how a pseudo-medieval town would actually look, except for what I've gleaned over the years from roleplaying and reading fantasy. So I think that would be a whole lot more useful than either a prefab or tables.

I cannot urge you to pick up A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe strongly enough. You will LOVE it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

...And I want to revisit Remathilis' question: Can someone tell me where this "Threshold" town came from, what product it originally appeared in? I'm seriously blanking, because I don't remember an Iconic town named "Threshold."

It was the site of several of the later B adventures. It's semi-iconic to BD&D players, but it's no Keep on the Borderlands.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now that would be cool. Not a 4E version Return to ToEE (Expedition to the ToEE? no thanks), but a updated version of the original! 'Elemental Evil' has huge potential with the new cosmology!

Ooh, good point. Frankly, it makes more sense now than it ever did before.

 

[Hussar]

Keep on the Borderlands fits the Points of Light setting to a T. It's an absolutely perfect fit really. You have an isolated outpost, with only a single (and apparently dangerous) link to civilization that is supposedly weeks away. The Keep would fit beautifully.

My vote would be for Orlane though.

 

[The Little Raven]

IME a major majority of gamers are either DMs or players.

This statement contradicts itself. Two different segments of a single population cannot be a majority. Only one can claim that honor. And the majority of gamers are players. Out of the 30 people I have gamed with in my life, 4 of them were DMs, with myself as the fifth DM I have gamed with. It isn't an easy job to just jump into. New DMs usually have really good plot hooks, which inspire them to run the game. It's in the details, like having a fleshed out town for a base (as an example), where new DMs usually start to lose it. Having the book handle that for them until they get into the swing of things is nothing but a good thing.

It's better for a book to hold someone's hand while teaching DMing than a person, I've found. Nothing is worse for a new DM than someone else there playing backseat DM.

 

[The Little Raven]

Perhaps it is all in their (poor) choice of words.

Anything new in game design is an experiment, because you don't know how mechanics will hold up under the scrutiny of thousands of gamers until it happens. Every single edition of every single game ever made has been an experiment. Hell, Gygax obviously treated the thing as an experiment, which is why he was always coming up with new mechanics to fill in the gaps he found... and that's why the game grows and refines.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

It occurs to me to ask for clarification.
Are you rejecting my claim that most gamers are distinctly either one or the other?

I certainly reject it.

I know of literally not one D&D player in my group (which includes 15+ people, BTW) who hasn't at least run one session of some RPG, and only one or two who haven't run at least one campaign. By the same token, not one hasn't been a player in at least one campaign.

My entire gaming experience, through multiple groups and cities, is that a strict GM/player split a) is rare, b) occurs almost exclusively in cases where there's also one overarching multiyear campaign, and c) generally results in somewhat worse GMs and much worse players.

Does this anecdotal evidence mean anything to the wider gamer demographics? No.

It does, however, make me question claims of a strict GM/player split, and outright reject any that don't come with statistical backing.

 

[Hussar]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, wasn't a fair bit of criticism leveled at the 3e DMG for how it DIDN'T help new DM's? Considering they're slimming down the magic item section considerably, they have to fill the page count with something. Why not some thing like this that can be used and reused over and over again?

Let's not forget, they're not putting this in at the expense of something else, they actually HAVE more room in the book.

 

[Friadoc]

Keep on the Borderlands fits the Points of Light setting to a T. It's an absolutely perfect fit really. You have an isolated outpost, with only a single (and apparently dangerous) link to civilization that is supposedly weeks away. The Keep would fit beautifully.

My vote would be for Orlane though.

Now, I gotta admit, that one of my favorite aspects that I've heard about 4e is the "Points of Light" thing, as it just screams adventure.

Now, obviously, I love urban RPGs (heck, 3/5ths of my gaming group owns the Ptolus Big Book), but the idea of a fantasy frontier or badland that is not safe is just cool.

Is it bandits or a magical monster?

This factor is one of the things I love about Pathfinder, too, from Paizo; the rustic frontier thing just works for me.

Plus, for established settings (such as the Realms) it adds a post-apocalyptic tone to the game, as some people will remember when the world wasn't so dire.

 

[The Little Raven]

IMy entire gaming experience, through multiple groups and cities, is that a strict GM/player split a) is rare, b) occurs almost exclusively in cases where there's also one overarching multiyear campaign, and c) generally results in somewhat worse GMs and much worse players.

I've found it to be different. In my experience, most players do not want to take on the role of the DM, since it requires a lot more non-game time work. Every DM I've ever met has been a player at heart, but they take on the responsibility to keep everyone gaming. In my current group, there's only a single other person that runs games, and he usually tries to get me to run them.

It seems you've been lucky to find a lot of people that want to put on that hat, and I haven't been so lucky (but it has really stretched my creative skills, running so many games).