The 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide will feature a ready-to-use town similar to Saltmarsh from the 3rd Edition PHBII.  The latest excerpt from Wizards reveals some details about this town.

Primarily designed as a quick-start base for busy and/or new DMs, but can also be used as a guide for those that want to create their own settings.  Fallcrest is set in the Nentir Vale which is the primary location in the H1 (Keep on the Shadowfell), H2 (Thunderspire Labyrinth), and H3 (Pyramid of Shadows) adventures.

The excerpt provides some demographic information and a few locations are outlined.  While there is nothing overly new or interesting about this setting vs. any other, it should make it easier for first time players to run a game without needing to purchase a separate campaign world.  I was hoping that Wizards would have further separated campaign information from the core rules, but I can see the positives of this direction as well.

A base town is a haven where the heroes can interact with patrons, listen for rumors, sell art objects or magic items, and buy new gear. It might be an elven tree-village that happens to be located near a dungeon the heroes are exploring, a prosperous human trade-town that interesting people pass through, an isolated dwarf stronghold in the borderlands, or a true city inhabited by thousands of people. Whatever the nature of the base town, it’s the place your player characters return to between adventures, and the place where new adventures begin.

Chapter 11 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide introduces a town called Fallcrest, which you can use as a base town for your first D&D game.