You mentioned converting to 2nd, so I am going to assume you have played and DMed D&D at some point. So if you have DM experience, and just need to be brought up to speed on 4.0, it is time to hit the books and maybe run a few sessions from home as well. Having a cheat sheet in the form of the DM screen will help a lot, and I recommend picking up a 4th Edition module to run.

On the other hand, if you have never DMed and are new to 4th as well, again, hit the books hard, but see if you can shadow a DM during the DS campaign, anything for experience.

If you have registered your DCI card, I believe you can go here https://membership.wizards.com/ and sign up to be a judge. You can take exams over the 4th edition rules which will also help get you up to speed.

From the sounds of it, I might wait until chapter 3 to return to the table. I’m guessing that chapter 3 takes place in or near the city-state of Tyr. The vast majority of the Dark Sun setting revolves around the city-states, so logic would dictate that the introductory adventure would spend at least some time exploring the urban settings.

I might be interested in dming that World Game Day game, but how well does a DM need to know 4th edition to run one of these? Are there shortcuts and advice for DMs who are 4E newbies? Heck, I’d be tempted to convert it to 2nd edition!

What I do find highly disheartening is how confused everyone STILL is by the level up. Castri didn’t show up this week, so that’s the character I’ve taken on. I did a fair amount of research on Errata discussions and blatant mathematical errors made in the Dark Sun pregen characters, and I have to wonder, Wizards wouldn’t INTENTIONALLY fudge character data would they? Or was it just carelessness? I realize they’re pregens, but that just confuses new players when they learn how character creation actually works. I was at a table with several new-ish DnD players who clearly didn’t know the rules as well as I already do, and the leveling business with the tiny sheets seems to be very difficult for people to manage.

So for my new friend Castri, I found a very neat Errata’d, level 2 version of Castri, per the Wizards changes here (http://community.wizards.com/dungeonsanddragons/go/thread/view/91301/25199049/Pregen_Character_Sheets_for_Level_2). Then I painstakingly created the character from scratch manually to verify the accuracy of the Errata I’d found (the document is from a non-Wizards source). I identified several error/nerf points in the character math, and I think I’ll be able to clear up a little bit of confusion at my FLGS. The biggest point of confusion is that Castri is a Marauding fighting style, NOT a Two-Weapon Fighting Style, so he SHOULD NOT receive the Toughness feet, as someone had manually written in on my level 2 scrap. Marauding gets him Two-Weapon Defense and the bump up to 8 speed (http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/class.aspx?id=5). He does, however, have the Two-Weapon Fighting FEAT after reaching level 2.

Next week I’ll talk to my DM about using the Errata’d version of Castri in the game. I think I’ll just print out the set of Errata’d characters in case he wants to use them for the table. They’re ssssoooo much cleaner, clearer, and will decrease everyone’s pain. People seem to think Castri is gimped, but I’m up for the challenge. And really, Castri’s errata wasn’t as bad as some of the others. It just gives him the training in athletics and the 6th healing surge that he was already supposed to have. I mean c’mon, a seasoned marauding ranger gladiator with +4 STR who’s NOT trained in athletics? Now THAT’D be ridiculous.