Solution for me was,
In Eclipse, go to Create new server
Select Google > Google App Engine
Set the Server runtime environment to Google App Engine (1.9.6)
everything else was default settings and assumes you have already updated everything to the latest versions through the help menu
From here you can use the Google Dropdown to Create a new web application project as per usual process
use specific sdk App Engine (1.9.6)
hit GWT Compile on your project
then you can Right Click on your project and Run as > Web Application
should have your starter app app and running without the use of any plugins like GWT Plugin for chrome or Super Dev Mode setup
This was tested using chrome Version 35.0.1916.114
Ubuntu 14.04 kernel 3.13.0-29-generic
Eclipse Standard/SDK
Version: Kepler Service Release 2
Build id: 20140224-0627