Red Box discontinued......Smart Move?

[ForeverSlayer]

Apparently the beginner Red Box has been discontinued. I've heard it wasn't that great anyway but would getting rid of the introduction to the game really be a smart move?

I know Pathfinder has their beginner box that came out not to long ago and it's really nice.

What do you think?

 

[Droogie128]

It wasn't really compatible with Essentials anyway, so it doesn't surprise me.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

It wasn't really compatible with Essentials anyway, so it doesn't surprise me.

But according to everyone Essentials is just more options and isn't a separate game.

 

[Droogie128]

But according to everyone Essentials is just more options and isn't a separate game.

Well, that's not quite what I meant. The Red Box just didn't really lead into Essentials options as it should have. Since it was considered part of Essentials... you should have been able to take your Red Box character and continue advancing it using HotFK or HotFL.

As it was, the Red Box itself seemed to use its own builds. Maybe they plan on re-releasing it with some errata and/or a smoother transition into the rest of Essentials.

 

[TerraDave]

FS: it is still on their product page as "essential". Do you have a source for this?

 

[S'mon]

Hopefully they've now seen how Paizo got it right, realised they screwed up again, and will now do a proper Red Box with 5 full levels of play for Fighter/Cleric/Wizard/Rogue that blatantly copies the Pathfinder version.

I would really like having that as a portable version of low-level 4e I could carry around with me; great both for impromptu games, for introducing people to D&D, and even for running one of my current campaigns, long as it stays in that level range.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

IMO hte biggist issue with the Red Box was it pretty much had no preplay value and little or no party value.

Chargen through gameplay is a good idea but it should allow the budding players and DM to continue for a but before they need to plunk down the bucks for the rest of the rules. That was one of the great advantages of the original red box.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Given their commitment to 'evergreen Essentials,' my guess would be that they've revised the Red Box (it has a number of notable inconsistencies with the rest of Essentials) and sent it off to the printer, but they ran out of the old ones before the new ones got stocked.

 

[Derulbaskul]

I sometimes wonder if Bill Slavicsek's departure from WotC was a result of approving the Red Box... without having it link to the rest of the Essentials line.

It squandered a lot of the goodwill inherent i the Red Box name, especially with those of us of an age where the Red Box evokes good memories, and it was pretty close to being a "bait and switch" product.

I hope the Paizo product is tremendously successful and that provokes a real Red Box for 4E/4E Essentials because it will be good for our hobby.

 

[tuxgeo]

Wasn't there an issue with the art on the cover of the box?

If I recall correctly (don't have a link handy, sorry), Wizards had new art ready for the Essentials starter box, but they wanted to appeal to older gamers first for the nostalgia factor, so they used the old Elmore art to start out with; but they always had plans to release a settled version of the product with the new art they had ordered on the cover whenever the Elmore-covered product sold out.

(Does anyone else remember those discussions from months ago?)