Here we sit, a week away from the release of the brand new Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 core rule books. For the past month, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with some of the information they have been slowly leaking out.

For any of you that haven’t bothered to read up on it, or just now hearing about it. Through this week I plan on going over some of the different parts (That I know at least) about the new set. For today, I shall mention a little about their online integration they will have with 4.0

D&D Insider:

What is this you ask? Well to answer that one directly, we shall refer to the Wizards FAQ:

D&D Insider is a suite of online tools and editorial content created to digitally enhance the tabletop experience. This added component of D&D works along with the physical product, organized play, and community to offer robust gameplay.

D&D Insider will be a monthly fee to have access to ALL the fun little features they will offer. Probably one of the biggest is for us older players that have had to move away from our D&D group. You will be able to play the table top version of D&D online, at a DM table.

Now this brings up the controversy,

“It’s not D&D if you’re not all together in one room.”

Which I can agree. There are countless moments that I, as the DM cherish from just being able to watch my players struggle and watch as their minds work to figure out the puzzle. (It’s quite a joyous feeling :P)
But also, as mentioned, I have a few friends that have had to move away, but they still wish to play D&D, so this opens up a channel for them to be able to do so.

Getting away from the table, lets look at some of the free stuff you’ll get to play with if you sign up. Things like the dungeon builder. You’ll be able to create encounter maps, save them off as .jpgs and print them off. And probably another nice feature will be the Character Builder. Yeah it’s fun to be able to write your own character out, but this is a good way if you have… less the acceptable handwriting. *cough*

There will be tons of stuff you’ll be able to do with that $15, and they have claimed to release more content and features each month. I’ll talk a little more about those and other features 4.0 has in store the rest of the week. Tomorrow, what does everyone love? Magic Items!!