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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5249471" data-attributes="member: 52734">For the 3rd time, I'm going to be attempting a 4E campaign.  I just got my hands on the MM3 and HS1 - The Slaying Stone.  Both have piqued my interest in giving 4E another shot.  It's looking like I'll have 3 players - one being my 9-year-old son.  I'm probably looking at a group that is going to consist of a Dragonborn Fighter (or Paladin) [my son], an Elf or Eladrin Psionicist [my wife] of some sort and a Halfling Ranger (or Rogue) [my sister-in-law].However, I have found through my past two attempts I've got a real love/hate relation with this version of the game and I'm looking for ways to maximize the positive aspects of 4E in my game.  I'm basically looking for help so I don't set myself up to fail.I'm not willing (yet) to put in for a DDI account, until at least I know this is gonna fly.  Can the character generator still be used to make 1st-3rd level characters for free?  As a note, I have the PHB I-III, MM I-III and the DMG.  I'm contemplating adding Treasure Vault I, as it seems to add a lot of variety to gear choices/treasure.  I expect these will be the only books I use for this foray into the game.  I glanced at the errata and while there's a lot, it looks minor enough I should be able to not worry with using it - at the very least attempting to incorporate it all would drive me away very quickly.  Any advice on anything that I should incorporate as a requirement, errata-wise (I'm thinking like Stealth, which was added into the back of the PHB2 anyway)?  I think my two biggest barriers are my issues with the length of combats (I don't like 2-hour long combats reminiscent of DDM tournaments) and problems I had getting the players (and sometimes myself) to RP, instead of just rush from one combat to the next.  Any advice to help in either of these areas I'd appreciate (Slaying Stone looks like it has several more RP opportunities than KotS did, though, so that may help with the latter).Likewise, I love the ideas of skill challenges, but they give me headaches trying to set them up.  Short of buying DMG2, any advice here to help with this - preferably without having to resort to a third-party design (though I'll take it if the WotC ones just don't work)?Finally, after finishing HS1, any advice on what to run/do next?  I'd prefer premade adventures, as I don't have a whole lot of time to devote to 4E and making adventures for it myself.  However, I'd rather not get stuck with something like Keep on the Shadowfell.</blockquote>

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