I am however a little disappointed in it as preview for 4th edition. yes it does contain everything you need to play. I like the character sheets except, they should have been separate, or a download of them available via dndinsider.com. that being said I am grateful they included the tiefling on the site.

I like the folder layout, as it allows you to keep everything together, and it makes it feel like some important document your holding.

The character sheets when compared to other basic introductory DND games ( Both boxed sets of the DnD Basic Game) are simple and clean, but doesnt allow room for leveling up. I think separate sheets would work better from the test encounters ive run. I have not had a chance to test or play much as I am still getting the party together.

Tokens (I do not have enough kobolds for the lair) would have been nice.

The general rule is no AoOs, and the Fighter is an exception.

Welcome to exception-based design.

Unusual actions are going to be very easy to deal with in 4e. Some of the standards, like grabbing someone, will have rules laid out. I believe for grabbing, you roll Strength vs the target’s Reflex to grab them. To escape, they roll either Athletics vs your Fortitude or Acrobatics vs your Reflex.

For other actions, you can make it up on the fly.

One example we were given from a playtest group was someone facing an enemy who was standing on a table. The PC, trying to catch the GM in something tough, decides to knock the table out from under the enemy. The GM barely even has to think, and asks for Strength vs Reflex.

Want to throw sand in someone’s eyes? Dex vs Fort.

Want to bull rush? I think this one is in there, as Strength vs Fort.

It’s an easy system for unusual actions.

Some things to add:
-This dwarven fighter build was more fun than the D&DXP one, mainly because of the “at will” power selection. Though Tide of Iron is cool, the ability to do damage on a miss or cleave was actually an interesting decision.
-We expected an ambush, but decided to go with it because of narrative flow.
-It’s great that kobolds have so many fun things to do, but at the same time, I felt like some of them had too many hit points. It became tedious beating on them after a while.
-Thanks to the Paladin’s antics, we ended up having an unplanned skill challenge that I thought went pretty well (as far as rules go, they ended up being captured by the guard.)

Phil: Our friend DrScotto was the Wizard, actually, and he started with the name Limon (I have no idea) and clearly that dictated what the other name needed to be. Dave was playing the Dwarf Fighter, so no real surprise that he was the one getting a lot of the plot stuff taken care of.

As for the tactics and shifting, it’s really easy, just think about it that whenever you look at the battle map you almost always see a different move you’d rather do, or something that would work better. Essentially, the kobolds get to shift themselves around EVERY round as these things change. It also allows them to maneuver passed characters to get to the squishier ones (except the fighter, who gets Opportunity Attacks against them).

So Dave was the Wizard I take it… WTF does he do to name stuff? Look around him and pick the first thing he reads?

Speaking of shifting, I’m a horrible tactical DM and I still don’t quite get the whole shifting thing… I’ll need to see it to experience it.