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Message: <blockquote data-quote="italianranma" data-source="post: 5703219" data-attributes="member: 15788">I've been writing up a guide for my little brother who's a new DM and starting with 4th ed; it's a work in progress, but if you want it PM me and I'll send it to you the file.  I've been playing since 2nd ed AD&D, and like 4th edition a lot.  That being said as others have pointed out there is quite a wealth of options, and there have been some subtle design changes from when it first appeared:  Feat/Power bloat at first seems astronomical, but overall I've found it very manageable with a little help from the Character Builder and the WOTC forums CharOp section.The biggest change IMO from previous editions to 4th is how the characters and NPCs/monsters all interact with each other.  Everything is very codified: Defenders all mark and have a punishment mechanic, Brutes have greater HP but lower Will Defense, movement and positioning are incredibly important, even more so than in 3.5.  I think 4th edition is a lot easier to run because of this codifying; it gives me all the structure of a video game without limiting my choices in any way.  The expectations for players and DMs are very well laid out in the opening pages of the DMG, and honestly even experienced DMs can get a lot out of reading or rereading it from time to time.  The only downside to the system is that there are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but with some good technique it becomes a non-issue.The Essentials line attempts to take the feel of previous edition classes and fit them into 4th edition, and overall does a good job of it, but I wouldn't say that you should limit yourself or your players to the Essentials line.  Having Essentials and (what do we call non-essentials?  Original? Classic?) non-Essentials classes in your party isn't a problem: just look at it as additional options for your players.RandomThoughts I think brings up a lot of good points, so I'd like to expand a little on how I handle them:Condition Tracking - I do this in a variety of ways: first off I use monster tokens that I print out and then paste to poster board instead of minis.  Then I stick a toothpick in the center.  I give my PCs those little colored circle stickers and have them write class abilities that come up fairly often on them; for example the Paladin in our group marks with blue stickers with either DC (for Divine Challenge) or DS (for Divine Sanction).  Slowed or movement related penalties are yellow, dazed/stunned red etc.  The stickers go on the toothpick to so we can easily see what each monster is suffering from.Behind the screen I use character/monster cards.  They're things I designed myself in Excel.  I print them off and then put them in little plastic sleeves and use wet erase markers to help track things like HP, delaying, etc.Encounter Design - You can really see how 4th Edition has changed if you compare the MM1 with the Monster Vault or MM3: Monster damage has gone up (way way up), defenses have decreased, and fewer monsters use debilitating effects on the players.  This has all been done to speed up encounters and make them 'heroic.' if you're only going to buy one book about monsters, get the Monster Vault; it's the pinnacle of 4th ed design, and has plenty of stuff to choose from.  Some people have mentioned it, and I second it as well your first few sessions are going to take longer as players figure out what their powers do, and everyone has trouble keeping track of conditions etc.  You can alleviate that in two ways: first by building your encounters primarily with brutes, skirmishers, and artillery and then introducing the other monster types later. Second, by doing my favorite DM trick; ending encounters early.  Similar to the Morale Check of earlier editions my monsters tend to break and run, or surrender, or play dead after they get past the half-way point.  What you may find (especially at lower levels) is that the first few rounds of combat are really hectic and intense with action points and encounter powers being thrown around, PC health dipping dangerously low, and monsters using all their own cool abilities.  But combat kinda tapers off with everyone falling back to at will abilities and the danger being over once the first few monsters drop.  Then the last few just take forever to bring down, but don't really threaten anyone.  If the excitement has faded and it's a forgone conclusion, there's nothing wrong with ending the encounter early, I think that the DMG 2 even mentions this technique (suggesting that you make the PCs pay a healing surge cost).Looking back I realize I've used a lot of terms you may not be familiar with; brutes and healing surges etc.  This is 4th edition codifying and defining concepts from previous editions that we all knew about instinctively after playing for a while.  Brutes are those monsters who have high HP, low AC, and deal high damage.  Healing surges is a mechanic that represents the total healing available to any one character, though in 4th edition healing is very different (in a very good way) from earlier games.  This is why it appeals so much to me; it's easy for me to wrap my head around discrete information chunks, even if the volume of them does take a while to digest.</blockquote>

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