Well I don't have all the encounters entered into MapTool yet, but I'm far enough along to release to the public, as it were. I had never played D&D before I joined Mike Brady's online group. Now I think I'm ready to start DMing myself. Let me try to guess your Frequently Asked Questions.
Q: What will I need? A: You will need a high-speed internet connection, Skype, and MapTool, the tabletop software. The latter is available at http://www.rptools.net/. You should also have at a minimum a copy of the PHB (the Player's Handbook). I'd recommend (but definitely not require) for you to be a D&D Insider. The Character Builder is an awesome tool, showing you every character option available.
Q: You've never DM'd before? A: Never. Everything I know I learned from the DMG, podcasts, and from watching Mike DM us. It might start out a little rough, but hopefully I won't suck too bad. :)
Q: What adventures will you be running? A: I will be following published D&D 4e adventures, from "Keep on the Shadowfell" to "Thunderspire Labyrinth" to "Pyramid of Shadows" to "King of the Trollhouse Warrens" to etc. etc. So feel free to join if you've never played those adventures (or if you can keep your player knowledge from affecting your character knowledge, which frankly seems difficult for me). I know the first Penny Arcade D&D podcast covered part of "Keep on the Shadowfell", but that was far enough back that you probably won't remember the surprises until after they've happened.
Q: What level of player can participate? A: Anyone, really. If you've never played D&D before, and would like to try it, feel free. If you're an expert whose already playing 3 games a week and want a fourth, feel free. Let's give first opportunity to people who aren't playing in Table 1, but if we don't get enough people, you can double up as well. I'm looking for between 4 and 6 players.
Q: When will we meet? A: This is the important one. I work on a Tuesday to Saturday schedule, getting finished with work sometime between 2 and 6 pm Central time depending on the day. I play in D&D Table 1 which meets on Sunday afternoons. Other than that, I'm open. Sunday and Monday are my weekend, so maybe Monday night would be the best time. But I could probably make a night on a different day work as well (probably wouldn't be able to start before 5 pm). In a 3-hour session we can probably get through 2 encounters, and in a 5 hour session we can probably get through 3 encounters.
Q: What should my character be like? A: You should set up a lvl 1 character. Any races/classes/etc. from an official Wizards of the Coast publication is allowed.
Well that's four. It sounds like people were ok with Monday evenings. If that's the case, I guess people can start figuring out what characters they want to play.
I'm not gonna be able to get a hold of a D&D Player's Manual until Christmas, gonna need some help building a character, anyone know of any sites that help with the process? Feel free to message me personally or just leave em on here.
I really hate to do this, but I can't anymore. Oh, if we started in the next week, yeah, I'd be able to play for a few sessions, but then I would never be able to make it ever afterwards. My next semester has me in a class that goes from about 5 to 8pm eastern, so I'd be busy when we'd be playing.
Again, I suck for doing this, but while I want to play D&D, I would not be able to show up at all.