Keep on the Shadowfell and Edition Angst

I did it: I broke down and bought Keep on the Shadowfell.

Even though the rules will be out in a week. Even after hearing about possible printing problems. Even though my group might not even want to play it; the previous plan was to do a bit of Feng Shui, and there's one guy who really wants to do that because he played a bit of KotS and didn't like it.

Partially, it's because I feel kind of bad about getting my core books off of Amazon. This way, I got something at the FLGS. It's not much, maybe, but it's not like I haven't bought things there before.

Partially, it's because I've never run a published module. I tried, with The Heart of Nightfang Spire, but I don't know what was up with that thing; there's a trap at the beginning that I just couldn't figure out, and the whole mood was off, anyway. So I figure, even if we don't end up using it before the rules come out, I can use it to kick off the campaign, take a bit of the design load off while I'm learning the rules.

And (not incidentally) find out just what an adventure is supposed to look like, anyway. I've never had a real good grasp on that. My campaigns always start off with an actual adventure, but it usually trails off into a mess of plot threads and intrigue. If I''m going to do WoAdWriMo, I want to get some idea of what I'm up against.

Mostly, though . . . I want to get some idea, personally, of what the edition actually feels like. I don't have torrent software, no need for it, and at any rate I much prefer to read books for the first time in actual copy. That's important to me, for whatever reason.

But there's an uneasy feeling I have. I hear about 4e a lot, I read about it a lot, I think about it a lot, and all in hearsay and abstract terms. I'd like to get a stronger handle on it, and something I can distract myself with until the edition comes out properly.