Why I chose 4th Edition D&D for my return to gaming

It's not too hard to guess why I chose to GM 4e D&D in my return to role-play gaming. First of all, it's easily the most ubiquitous RPG around, even your grandma has probably heard of Dungeons & Dragons. I mean, besides the heavy nostalgia it induces every time I see a new WOTC book published, it holds a commanding share of the tiny niche that is the RPG hobby. To that end, I'm hoping it will be that much easier for me to find and recruit new/existing gamers to my gaming group. 

It was my first choice, but it was not my only choice. My wife and older children are serving as my guinea pigs for the experiment that is my return to GMing, so in an effort to make it easier on them and not crush any desire they might have for RPGing right out of the gate, I wanted to go with an easier, more established ruleset and they are semi-familiar with previous editions (3.0 & 3.5). 

There were other games on the table for consideration. My wife and offspring have all been exposed to my huge collection of RPG titles and (under my watchful eye) have thumbed carefully  through the pages of some the titles in my collection at one time or another. Foremost among the contenders to D&D was: Shadowrun 4th Ed, Star Trek RPG (I have both the LUG or Decipher versions, but sadly not the Fasa one!), BESM, Star Wars Saga edition, Battletech and Mutants & Masterminds. I myself was strongly pushing for Star Trek in some form, but we all couldn't agree. In fact, the only one we could all agree on was D&D 4th ED, so in the end the choice was made. Still I do not want to give up the other RPGs and I have decided that once I get my GMing abilities back up to par, I will run another campaign in one of the other systems. Set your phasers for fabulous!