Holy Carp! I'm in the WotC Dungeons & Dragons Virtual Table Top Beta

Yep!  I applied and figured there is now way I'd get in.  Seriously.  I let my D&D Insider membership lapse way back when, as I don't play 4e (tho I have the books and I'd probably give it a shot with the right group).

Anyhow, I checked my email this afternoon, and there's the invite.  Nice!  Oh, and no non-disclosure BS either, so I'm free to post away.

My early thoughts:

- When you set up your campaign as a DM, you can indicate which D&D ruleset you plan on using, all the way back to AD&D 1e.  In doesn't change the set up of the character sheet, which is 4e... but it does hold promise for the future, and an acknowledgement that earlier versions of D&D are still viable (and Wizards can still grab a piece of that pie)

- Mapping out a dungeon is a breeze with the tile system.  Fog of War seems simple enough to implement as a DM (I wish some other other VTTs would catch up to that.)

- Voice is implemented, I'll have to try that out at some point

- Quick glance at the Beta Forums showed at least 2 posters looking for groups to play in a pre-3e session.  One of those was looking to run Swords & Wizardry

- Players get one use pass codes to play in a session - New beta users start with 5.  DMs dont need a pass

- Java based, so it's cross platform, which is a HUGE plus.  I don't boot up the PC these days unless it's to do some PC gaming.

I need to do some heavy forum reading over the next few days.

If anyone reading this is in the beta, give me a shout out.  Maybe we can hook up in game, even if just to push the tokens around ;)