Yeah, more D's

I'm gonna do some more D&D 4E plugging. No, I still don't have my books (they're still on order from Amazon), though I have taken a look at the leaked PDFs (no, I'm not telling you where to get them; I only felt alright doing so because I've purchased the books already).

Martin at Gnome Stew does have the books and has made both a first impressions post and an initial questions post. I hope he doesn't mind if I quote him, and the books, here (this if from the DMG section of the first impressions post):

Very first page: “It’s just as vital for everyone at the table to cooperate toward making the game fun for everyone as it is for the player characters to cooperate within the adventure.”

Third page: “It’s not the DM’s job to entertain the players and make sure they have fun. Every person playing the game is responsible for the fun of the game.”

Those three sentences right there are more and better GMing advice than I’ve gotten from the 2e, 3.0 and 3.5e DMGs combined.

This gives me hope. The only thing that doesn't is the now practical requirement that you use a battle-mat. However, ever since 3.0 at least (and technically at it's heart, from the wargames that the great Gygax and Arnesson derived their game from), D&D has been a tactical game and it's pretty hard to run mechanically implemented tactics without some sort of firm placement in the world around you.