If I may make a suggestion...
Since we are starting a fresh campaign with new characters, and investing them with personalities and roles. It would be a great if everyone would think about a few things and submit them in this thread for discussion or meet in a chat room to discuss them.
First, we need a leader. Not in the D&D "I'm a cleric" leader, but in the player/character combo who is willing to grow into the leadership position fulfilled by such famous characters as Gandalf, Aragorn, Tanis Half Elven, and the like. It would be an great start if a player purposely set up their character to be a leader with a fairly high CHA and either WIS or INT. That person could have the friendship and loyalty of at least a few other players right off the bat written into their back stories. This is not to say we need a drill sergeant, but someone with the skills and the expectation to be followed. This character would speak for us during peaceful encounters and direct traffic in battle (or at least, set general battle orders). Deciding this now makes for smoother play later. I submit now, that my character is NOT the leader as he is a big dumb fighter who everyone likes but noone expects much brain work from.
I also suggest we come up with a treasure splitting policy upfront for use thru the campaign. This eliminates the mad rush to loot bodies and the inevitable anger over splits.
My last suggestion is that we, the players meet in voice chat before we have a session two times. The first to go over character creation to make sure our characters are molded to interact with overlapping and synergistic skills. This really makes role playing easier and combats much quicker and deadlier (to the monsters!!!). The second session is to work out the first three rounds of combat actions from every player and to get the leader used to directing traffic in a battle.
I know many of you may be new to 4e and thats perfectly ok with me. The system is relatively simple to use for newbies but have really amazing features once you realize you are meant ot work together more than the older editions.
Looking forward to meeting and playing with you all. I hope I didnt step on any toes here. Please remember that no matter what we discuss as players, the DM is the FINAL word on everything and should be kept informed of any and all decisions to make sure they dont jack up his game.
My name is Jim and I can be reached at
lendinghm@yahoo.com
Thanks