This past sunday I sealed the deal in my own mind about 4E's niceness...I really like the system. I ran a "court trial" for treason. The trial was treason for the lord high chancellor who was being accused of some stuff...the accuser was his assistant who was in cohorts with the bad guys.

The PCs had evidence that not only relieved the chancellor, but incriminated the accuser. I ran this is a complexity 5 skill challenge and it REALLY got the PC's to thinking about what their characters could do WHILE promoting role-playing.

One of the hardest things I've found to get players to do is to roleplay their characters not themselves. Its really hard to separate what you would do in a situation versus what your character would do. When running a skill challenge of a high complexity level for complicated roleplaying scenarios, forcing them to think of creative ways to use their trained skills (and help other players use their skills through group skill checks and aid another) REALLY got them playing their characters. i was most impressed, and with a little tweaking of the way I ran the skill challenge, I think the players really will become MUCH more attached to their characters as characters not just vessels for their own decision-making.

So DMs, if you have players that always seem to play themselves as opposed to their characters, check out 4E skill challenges in the DMG, and read the "Running Skill Challenges" articles. From Dragon 369 and the followup in Dungeon 161 (dunno why they mixed em up)...VERY helpful