OK, so I have been playing D&D 4th Edition for two months now with my girls, and amazingly enough, I like it. Using the online tools makes it very easy to create characters and encounters. And the "programmed encounter" format makes it much easier to create all those cool scenes I had always imagined. Did I mention Delves? The Delve is a very cool format for adventures, especially for young players and attention-deficit DMs. And third-party products, while not as numerous as for 3.x, do add some different ideas to the mix. I especially like the Scenic Encounters from our own WWG, I have written a few of my own because I like the format.

One of the ideas I liked the most from the original AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide was the rival adventuring party. But it was a real pain in the rear to genrate 4-6 mid- to high-level characters in the off chance it actually came up on the random encounter roll. Now, it can be a programmed enccounter built to perfection (read: a Dragonborn, a Halfling, and an Elf walk into a bar...)

Also, Companion characters are a lifesaver. With only two players, we really needed a little more oomph for the characters, and I was able to add a Companion character for them relatively easily (after they let the first one get eaten by a giant frog...)

Options, options, options... I love all the options. There are far too may options for my girls, but I sure enjoy reading through all of them. It gives me lots of adventure ideas. Because I'm old and brain-damaged and that fancy "creativity" stuff has left the building...

Anyways, overall I am far happier with my D&D 4th Edition experience than I expected. I figured I would share it here, because such positive vibes might get me crucified over on the WOTC forums...

I've been having lots of fun running D&D myself..the encounter structure means I'm not sacrificing prep time I'd like to spend on the story making sure the combat is balanced.

My biggest word of advice to someone reading the new Player's Handbook is to NOT read it from cover to cover. Read up until the classes start, then for each class read the description and the level 1 powers, then skip ahead to the next class. Once you've gotten past the classes you can finish normally.

Yeah me too.

Impala check out "Dead By Dawn". Its your classic Zombie nightmare Apocalypse. At least you can entertain your kids with that before they see it on the silver screen. Its also a pretty good blend of skill challenge and combat.

I had the players running around and fighting tooth an nail to the end. By dawn, they had barely survived, and 2 players were hauled out on stretchers.