After reading a bunch of RA Salvatore books I had wanted to dabble with D&D but I am a total newbie at it.

If you don't mind me being clueless for a bit, Krunchy, I wouldn't mind giving this a shot  

ok folks theres one junkie if i can get at least 3 other people in i have a campaign i can run for the group.

and Gmork do you have access to the core books?  they are kinda pricey so if you arent able to purchase them right away its no biggie.  the only one a player really needs is the PHB (players handbook, 4th edition), and it can sometimes be nabbed on ebay or maybe half.com (just realized they are the same thing now :P).  If it happens that we have more people with books than without i may just roll some "template" characters and let everyone "draft" a character from that.

Nope, don't have any of the books but I just searched amazon and there seem to be a ton of 4th edition supplements. Are these the main rule books?

Rule Book

Rule Book 2

Can I bring my character "Frank"? I'll reset him to lvl 1...but I am quite attached to him...  He's a Kobold Paladin..

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Fight on you Catamounts, Fight for purple and gold! Fight for victory, True Warriors Bold!

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     I was perfectly content with AD+D. Pretty sure that's considered 2nd edition now. And the idea of playing online makes it seem like a video game or something.

     To me, role playing is a social activity. I can't imagine doing it without the laughter and stuff. Maybe if you do it via Skype so you've got a real time element going, but if you're just talking about text messaging on the boards, I'm out.

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GirlCo: Quieter than ninja, faster than Sklorno, stronger than Ki, and more devious than the Quyth

that there really is no substitute for sitting around the dinning room table until the wee small hours of the morning with a fist full of dice and more caffine than blood in your body.  at the start i am trying to keep it "simple" because i am just now learning how to really do anything with the OpenRPG interface.  I honestly would love to set up skype or vent to play.  it would be a hell of a lot easier/quicker to explain things.  If everyone else is cool with it I will make sure to rope that in with my preperations

Oh and I'm not an assinine GM when it comes to out-of-character talking.  i have played with a guy that was all about being in character all the time, and it simply wasnt fun.  So if you decide to join us feel free to gab about whatever

**EDIT: just re-read and noticed the links.  the first one is the main one to be concerned about.  it has all the basic race/class info.  the other one is expanded selections**

the only book i highly recommend investing in at start is the Players handbook.  just make sure its 4th edition.  should have a picture of a dragonkin with a sword, and a chick with a staff.  I am fiddling with OpenRPG because apparently it doesnt have built in character sheets for 4th edition.  the upshot of which is that i can actually make it so you dont even "need" the books at all for you all to play (everything will be on the sheet and calculations done by the computer).  The basic rules can be taught well enough to get the game off the ground until PHB's are aquired.  Later on if you decide to pick up the PHB2 or other supplements then you are welcome to play that class in another adventure/campaign.

As i have said I'm fiddling about with OpenRPG in order to create a chacter sheet that fits 4th edition.  In doing so I may have over engineered it.  As it stands now most of the attacks have "send" buttons that send a post to the message section which auto rolls the D20 to hit, and the damage dice as well as displays any extra effect of the ability.  while this makes some of the mechanics easier to "explain" by not having to explain them it really kills the feel of D&D.  So for anyone new to the game that wants to start off using the character sheet i have built you are free to do so, but I am feeling that the better solution would be to have everyone use physical character sheets (these can be gotten from the wizards of the coast website for free just check the download section), and use the dice roller that is attatched to the chat, not the command macro's i was using on the sheets.

As far as players we have two deffinites (Gmork and Delhome) and one maybe (Sadock).  if i can get a solid three, but preferably 4 players signed on for this we can start anytime.  which leads to the next point: what time/day best fits your schedule.  for me anytime after 7ish eastern will usually work for me, and run in a 3 hour (+/-) session.  Oh and they dont have to be junkies, if anyone wants to invite a friend of theirs into this feel free.

    Sorry if I was unclear about that. If you do decide to make it more of a social thing, I may be interested, but the way I understand the setup at present, it's not my cup of tea.

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GirlCo: Quieter than ninja, faster than Sklorno, stronger than Ki, and more devious than the Quyth

 My best mate and I recently discussed the advantages of not having to deal with anything Adobe because of the security vulnerabilities it creates. He works in IT for a large university up here. I was highly entertained that within 3 days of our discussion, a security alert came down the wire about security holes in Adobe products that malicious programs were exploiting. 

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GirlCo: Quieter than ninja, faster than Sklorno, stronger than Ki, and more devious than the Quyth