no worries avengeil - its been on my thoughts lately.

I am thinking - yes- the old school "theater of the mind" is awesome - thats how i started playing and it has a million and one merits to it. HOWEVER - with programs, like gimp, can make it possible for amateurs, like me, to knock out a cool map in less time than it takes to play on said map - not to mention that this is the video game generation, if WOTC wants to keep the up and coming masses entertained - then they may need to stay up to date with technology. of course i may be biased since i play 90% on a virtual tabletop vs RL. I think maybe in the next couple years this whole "back to the golden age of RPG'ing" may lose a bit of its glamour and they'll be producing maps, tiles, and miniatures as they did with 4th. only time will tell :-D