DMing 24 hours after release! Am I nuts?

[Arnwyn]

I've told my D&D club that I'll DM a 4E game on 7th June, the day after its release. Because I'll be busy during the day on 6th June, I'll have less than 24 hours to digest the new rules. Can it be done successfully?

I don't think so (and, my personal opinion here, I think you're doing your players a huge disservice), but with that said... good luck with your experiment!

Any suggestions on how best to handle this?

Probably reading carefully every single WotC exerpt from now until June. Twice. Or more. Also, picking up those early release adventures should help a lot, I'd imagine.

 

[jasonbostwick]

I think I DM'ed my first 3.5 game within 24 hours of buying the books, and I'd never roleplayed before at all.
I'm sure your game will run smoothly, with the only problem perhaps being an occasional relapse into a 3.5ism.

 

[Patlin]

I doubt my rule book pre-order from Paizo will have even arived by then, which would be a problem if I were in your shoes. However, as long as the players have time to write up some characters, there's surely enough pre-release information to run your first game available online.

Depending on how good it is, the SRD should be up in time, too.

 

[Imban]

I've told my D&D club that I'll DM a 4E game on 7th June, the day after its release. Because I'll be busy during the day on 6th June, I'll have less than 24 hours to digest the new rules. Can it be done successfully? Any suggestions on how best to handle this?

I wasn't a playtester so I don't have any advanced knowledge of the new ed. Also, I've avoided looking too closely at the 4E Lite because I don't want to learn anything that turns out to be wrong. I have been looking at official WotC info though.

First of all, you need to be a good reader, and read the books while awake and with an open mind, with emphasis on the Player's Handbook and whichever parts of the DMG turn out to be more than just general DMing advice. Then write up an adventure, actually taking pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and jotting down the notes you need. Even if your usual policy is to just get an adventure outline in your head, actually writing down the things you need forces you to consider what it is you'll need and find it in the books ahead of time.

Then get out there and knock your players' socks off with how well you know the new edition only 24 hours after it came out.

(Alternatively, cheat, and buy and run Keep on the Shadowfell. But that's less likely to guarantee your place as club D&D guru for years to come.)

 

[Evilhalfling]

good luck -
I played a 3.0 game during GenCon as the books were released. We had a few problems.
1) minutes do not equal rounds.
2) even though it says move = 30, it can in fact move more than 30 feet in a round.(minute)
3) grappling - we gave up on this one, the PC just hit them instead.

Oh yeah If your not using pregens - locking people into characters they are disstasified with for a entire campaign is a bad idea. I would advise running it as a one-shot, involving lots of combat and rules based problems, like skill challanges, then restarting a week later once every one has had a better chance to become familiar with it.

As for buying shadowfell, im waiting for the reviews here, and waiting at least a week after it is released. Sometimes the early hype here is entirely wrong.

 

[CleverNickName]

You're a little more optimistic and enthusiastic than I am, but I wouldn't call you crazy.

 

[MindWanderer]

I don't think it'll be too bad. I'm fairly confident that I could run a reasonably correct game using what's been released and leaked, and from my experience at DDXP. The bulk of the DMG deals with tips and guidelines, and monsters are easy to implement. Just focus on the Combat section of the PHB, the encounter design and rewards bit of the DMG, and just the monsters you need from the MM, and you should be in fine shape.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Zander mate!

If I'd have known what was going to transpire at your club on April 12th I would have brought my binder with the 4E beta material printed out and DM'ed it then and there!

My suggestion would therefore be to digest as much of the beta material as possible and have the PCs use the 1st-level pregenerated characters already released.

 

[Ruined]

Good Luck!

I signed up to run one of the Game Day adventures at my FLGS the day after I get the books in hand. Should be interesting.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Oh yeah. I'd use a photocopier to make "encounter sheets." Put the stat-blocks for all the monsters you're going to use in a given encounter on just one or two sheets of paper, keyed to that encounter. This will mitigate your book-flipping time, which I expect will add up quickly over the course of your session.

I'd also brick out a LONG time for the session, like maybe eight hours. That way it's not so crushingly depressing when things go slowly, and you've got time to build up some momentum and really dig your fingers into the system.