I could go on and on about KotS/the published modules, about what I did different, what you should do different from me, etc. But I get the impression you'd just rather run the dang thing, and I've given you a lot of KotS specific stuff. So, I'll go with generic 4e DM stuff.
[sblock=Props for Ease of Play]
1) Demand players put their powers on notecards. You have no idea how handy having all their powers on a 3x5 card will speed up play. Encourage them to do the math on their cards ahead of time in pencil (Thus: Cleave, 1d20+8, 1d10+3 damage, adjacent enemy takes 2 damage) so they don't have to check their math every dang time.
2) Put the monster stats on notecards. I find a 4x6 is perfect for monsters (especially complex ones), but a 3x5 can work if you have nice penmanship. It's easy to shuffle through them, instead of flipping back and forth over a book. (But I have sight problems, so I don't like consulting a book in front of me.)
3) Many classes have things like "Marks" "Curses" etc. Use colorful pipe cleaners to represent marks and such, and place them on the monster mini, so people don't forget which one they're marking/cursing/etc.
4) Using something like glass beads, poker chips, etc to represent action points or other sort of things help make these tangible. Players often forget they have action points, or other little things.
5) Cheap battlemat dressing. 4e just needs minis; it's so grid focused. I like to use anything on hand (pennies, glass beads, nuts, bolts, bullet casings, bottle caps) for monster minis, and various other things for terrain: Jenga blocks for pillars and tables, large wooden Dominos for walls, [ame=http://www.amazon.com/WIKKI-STIX-Wikki-Primary-Colors/dp/B0011E2S7C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1242840476&sr=8-3]wikki sticks[/ame] for irregular walls or various barriers (or anything I need to put down), masking tape to create encounter-long permanent zones/walls/debris, etc.
6) Post-it notes. There are tons and tons of conditions in 4e. My suggestion to you? Write those conditions down ahead of time on postit notes, and hand the postit to the player when he gets it. The physical act of having the postit, say, stuck to his chest reminds him of what he's got to do about it. Thus if he has 3 postits, he may need to make 3 saves at the end of his turn, and he is less likely to forget about subtracting 5 for the ongoing damage at th ebeginning of his turn. [/sblock]
[sblock=System Turbulence]
Turbulence comes when people have expectations/assumptions built from 3e or earlie games, and suddenly they find that those assumptions just don't apply in this edition. This entry is to prepare you for possible problems your players may encounter.
1) Unless it's an exception, rules behave universally. An ooze can be knocked prone. "How can an ooze be knocked down? It doesn't stand up!" Just because it's an ooze doesn't mean it can't be knocked prone. This is an example of how the rules apply to everything, unless there's a specific exception in the statblock saying otherwise. So, you're going to have to come up with a description as to what an ooze knocked prone looks like ("It's splattered, and has to spend a move action pulling itself back together"). To some people, this is a real killer to suspension of disbelief when they first encounter it, so you need to impart the different feel.
Another aspect of this is a disconnect between mechanics and fluff. If a power's fluff says "You jump up and come down, hitting the guy hard", you don't actually jump, and you can't use that power to jump upwards into a high place, unless the power actually grants you a jump movement in the mechanics portion.
This is a paradigm shift from a 3e way of thinking. It's just how the 4e game is designed.
2) PCs are the exception. NPCs don't behave like PCs at all, they have different rules. So PCs are special. This is also reflected in the world itself; PCs are just more durable and powerful than NPCs. Considering how badass a 1st level fighter is, it almost prevents you from having a "fresh off the farm, first time he picked up a sword" feel to a fighter. Again, this can cause turbulence in adjusting to the system's implied mindset.
3) PC classes/powers emphasize teamwork and tactics. Players just can't create a self-sufficient character, and many, many powers revolve around helping your allies, or moving into positioning around the battlefield.
4) Some players can get real frustrated with some classes, if they don't fit their needs. Wizards "feel like everyone else", instead of being prepared. THe Warlord can be a frustrating class, because it's only capable of melee effects and helping adjacent allies. Rangers are the only class that can use ranged weapons and be badass (rogues can try, and the new Bard build can use bows, but the fact remains, Archer rangers are the only real bow users in the game).
This is another point of contention. Classes aren't a matter of identity, but just a suite of powers and rules. Your ranger with a bow can very well be a veteran soldier and mercenary, a "Fighter" in every sense except having "Fighter" written on his character sheet. So it's, once more, a matter of separating the fluff from the mechanics.
5) On the "purely mechanical" side, 4e terms are different from 3e. Standing up from prone does not cause opportunity attacks. A saving throw isn't to resist something, it's to end the duration of an ongoing condition. Monsters with reach do not get to OAs for their reach, unless they have Threatening Reach.
6) This is actually some advice for you: fluff can sometimes replace crunch entirely. Just because there aren't rules for it, doesn't mean it can't happen. For Instance: Just because the NPC doesn't have a "Summon Monster" power, doesn't mean that he didn't summon the monsters before the fight, or just as initiative is rolled. If the PCs are going to fight a warlock and his devil allies, just saying "He summoned them" is totally acceptable. So don't feel that your options are limited by the rules themselves.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Combat from Behind the DM Screen]
1) Tell players about negative effects beforehand, because "Gotcha" abilities can really anger folks. For instance, the Bugbear Strangler has an immediate interrupt that lets him deflect an attack to someone he's strangling. Either tell them "Hey guys, he's using you as a body shield, you attack him, it might hit the ranger". Or, you describe it so that they get a hint. Same with say, dangerous terrain, etc.
2) Tell players when a monster is bloodied. There are many powers that key off "monster is bloodied". It also signals "Hey, this guy is half HP or lower." This way the PCs don't have to ask "So, how badly does he look?"
3) Minions have a habit of missing a lot, and just being free XP. Beef up their damage and to-hit a hint (this is probably what is going to happen in DMG2). Brutes also seem to be boring (to me), and they rarely hit; I give them a flat +1 to hit.
4) PCs are really sturdy. I mean, very sturdy. I can count on my hand the number of times I've brought a PC to 0 or lower. Just be aware of it.[/sblock]
[sblock=Props for Ease of Play]
1) Demand players put their powers on notecards. You have no idea how handy having all their powers on a 3x5 card will speed up play. Encourage them to do the math on their cards ahead of time in pencil (Thus: Cleave, 1d20+8, 1d10+3 damage, adjacent enemy takes 2 damage) so they don't have to check their math every dang time.
2) Put the monster stats on notecards. I find a 4x6 is perfect for monsters (especially complex ones), but a 3x5 can work if you have nice penmanship. It's easy to shuffle through them, instead of flipping back and forth over a book. (But I have sight problems, so I don't like consulting a book in front of me.)
3) Many classes have things like "Marks" "Curses" etc. Use colorful pipe cleaners to represent marks and such, and place them on the monster mini, so people don't forget which one they're marking/cursing/etc.
4) Using something like glass beads, poker chips, etc to represent action points or other sort of things help make these tangible. Players often forget they have action points, or other little things.
5) Cheap battlemat dressing. 4e just needs minis; it's so grid focused. I like to use anything on hand (pennies, glass beads, nuts, bolts, bullet casings, bottle caps) for monster minis, and various other things for terrain: Jenga blocks for pillars and tables, large wooden Dominos for walls, [ame=http://www.amazon.com/WIKKI-STIX-Wikki-Primary-Colors/dp/B0011E2S7C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1242840476&sr=8-3]wikki sticks[/ame] for irregular walls or various barriers (or anything I need to put down), masking tape to create encounter-long permanent zones/walls/debris, etc.
6) Post-it notes. There are tons and tons of conditions in 4e. My suggestion to you? Write those conditions down ahead of time on postit notes, and hand the postit to the player when he gets it. The physical act of having the postit, say, stuck to his chest reminds him of what he's got to do about it. Thus if he has 3 postits, he may need to make 3 saves at the end of his turn, and he is less likely to forget about subtracting 5 for the ongoing damage at th ebeginning of his turn. [/sblock]
[sblock=System Turbulence]
Turbulence comes when people have expectations/assumptions built from 3e or earlie games, and suddenly they find that those assumptions just don't apply in this edition. This entry is to prepare you for possible problems your players may encounter.
1) Unless it's an exception, rules behave universally. An ooze can be knocked prone. "How can an ooze be knocked down? It doesn't stand up!" Just because it's an ooze doesn't mean it can't be knocked prone. This is an example of how the rules apply to everything, unless there's a specific exception in the statblock saying otherwise. So, you're going to have to come up with a description as to what an ooze knocked prone looks like ("It's splattered, and has to spend a move action pulling itself back together"). To some people, this is a real killer to suspension of disbelief when they first encounter it, so you need to impart the different feel.
Another aspect of this is a disconnect between mechanics and fluff. If a power's fluff says "You jump up and come down, hitting the guy hard", you don't actually jump, and you can't use that power to jump upwards into a high place, unless the power actually grants you a jump movement in the mechanics portion.
This is a paradigm shift from a 3e way of thinking. It's just how the 4e game is designed.
2) PCs are the exception. NPCs don't behave like PCs at all, they have different rules. So PCs are special. This is also reflected in the world itself; PCs are just more durable and powerful than NPCs. Considering how badass a 1st level fighter is, it almost prevents you from having a "fresh off the farm, first time he picked up a sword" feel to a fighter. Again, this can cause turbulence in adjusting to the system's implied mindset.
3) PC classes/powers emphasize teamwork and tactics. Players just can't create a self-sufficient character, and many, many powers revolve around helping your allies, or moving into positioning around the battlefield.
4) Some players can get real frustrated with some classes, if they don't fit their needs. Wizards "feel like everyone else", instead of being prepared. THe Warlord can be a frustrating class, because it's only capable of melee effects and helping adjacent allies. Rangers are the only class that can use ranged weapons and be badass (rogues can try, and the new Bard build can use bows, but the fact remains, Archer rangers are the only real bow users in the game).
This is another point of contention. Classes aren't a matter of identity, but just a suite of powers and rules. Your ranger with a bow can very well be a veteran soldier and mercenary, a "Fighter" in every sense except having "Fighter" written on his character sheet. So it's, once more, a matter of separating the fluff from the mechanics.
5) On the "purely mechanical" side, 4e terms are different from 3e. Standing up from prone does not cause opportunity attacks. A saving throw isn't to resist something, it's to end the duration of an ongoing condition. Monsters with reach do not get to OAs for their reach, unless they have Threatening Reach.
6) This is actually some advice for you: fluff can sometimes replace crunch entirely. Just because there aren't rules for it, doesn't mean it can't happen. For Instance: Just because the NPC doesn't have a "Summon Monster" power, doesn't mean that he didn't summon the monsters before the fight, or just as initiative is rolled. If the PCs are going to fight a warlock and his devil allies, just saying "He summoned them" is totally acceptable. So don't feel that your options are limited by the rules themselves.
[/sblock]
[sblock=Combat from Behind the DM Screen]
1) Tell players about negative effects beforehand, because "Gotcha" abilities can really anger folks. For instance, the Bugbear Strangler has an immediate interrupt that lets him deflect an attack to someone he's strangling. Either tell them "Hey guys, he's using you as a body shield, you attack him, it might hit the ranger". Or, you describe it so that they get a hint. Same with say, dangerous terrain, etc.
2) Tell players when a monster is bloodied. There are many powers that key off "monster is bloodied". It also signals "Hey, this guy is half HP or lower." This way the PCs don't have to ask "So, how badly does he look?"
3) Minions have a habit of missing a lot, and just being free XP. Beef up their damage and to-hit a hint (this is probably what is going to happen in DMG2). Brutes also seem to be boring (to me), and they rarely hit; I give them a flat +1 to hit.
4) PCs are really sturdy. I mean, very sturdy. I can count on my hand the number of times I've brought a PC to 0 or lower. Just be aware of it.[/sblock]
