My business partner (Rich Bowman) and I have been discussing this recently. The idea would be to produce something along the lines of the old red-box Basic D&D set.
We have begun some preliminary work on this as a project and hope to do something with it in the coming year. The big thing with this one, though, is getting the funds together to get it printed...
What we want is this:
BASIC SET
-- Player's Guide (32 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- Game Master's Guide (32 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- Low-Level Sample Adventure (16-24 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- Blank Character Sheets (with light silo's of the various races/classes)
-- Set of Dice
This set should cover levels 1-5. Strip down things to the bare bones, necessary elements only. IE: Treat races as classes much like the old Basic Set did (Elves could be, for example, dedicated Sorcerer/Fighters). Ensure that this is fully, and completely compatible with the 3rd edition/d20 rules so that conversion later will be a snap.
EXPERT SET
-- Player's Guide (32-48 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- Game Master's Guide (32-48 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- Mid-Level Sample Adventure (24-32 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
This set should cover levels 6-10. This one should introduce the Prestige Class as well (with a few examples). Add some options that are a part of the d20 system, but not introduced in teh BASIC SET.
ADVANCED SET
-- Player's Guide (32-48 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- Game Master's Guide (32-48 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
-- High-Level Sample Adventure (24-32 pages; staple-bound, cardstock cover)
This set should cover levels 11-20. With this set, the entire d20 SRD should be included (for the most part). The fact that Elves are (as listed above, for example) are actually a race and multi-class combination should be revealed and explained.
This is my plan. Any comments?