What would your perfect D&D Boxed Intro set look like?

[kiznit]

I love the -idea- of the boxed set - there's something magical about the idea of a box you can take anywhere and bust out at a moment's notice, with a ruleset that's quick and easy enough to run without much, if any, prep.

Of course, I suspect that everybody's got their own idea of what an ideal box would contain. I want to hear yours.

The standard seems to be something along the lines of:

• A player's pamphlet/softbound, usually with some explanation of roleplaying as well as a tutorial.
• A GM's pamphlet that serves as "continued reading" that contains more general gamemastering advice, tables, etc.
• A set of dice.
• Some character sheets.
• Some minis or tokens.
• A starting adventure.

I was pondering what I would want to add in there for my ideal set. I realized that I'm less interested in the tutorial aspect (being an experienced gamer, obviously) and more in the "drop everything and play now" part - in other words, I'd like to see not just a sample adventure (preferably written in a way that doesn't necessarily require pre-reading before play) but a book on creating adventures on the fly. A sandbox toolkit, if you will.

 

[diaglo]

artwork to inspire someone to buy it.
a sturdy box to hold it that will last.
inside it would have a full set of dice, minis, pregen characters, plus blank character sheets, drawn maps of a pregen adventure, and a pic booklet of each room of the adventure (which could be photocopied and drawn on). a crayon.
a book for the referee.
the only book for the players is their character sheet.

 

[Xyxox]

I dunno. I figure it would look something like this:

 

[RangerWickett]

I feel like these days, roleplaying isn't something you learn from a book. You get a friend to teach it to you. Then again, a boxed set has value of being 'everything you need to play, in one box.' So my set-up would be:

• A DM-oriented booklet on what the game is and how to run it, and a quick 3-encounter adventure. Basic guidelines for designing your own adventure.
  
  Note that you can purchase minis from your friendly local gaming store, or with a subscription to D&D Insider you can print tokens online, as well as find additional adventures.
• Pre-gen 1st level characters on hard-stock paper for the players, for quick-use in the adventure.
• Monster tokens, for quick-use in the adventure.
• A booklet with four full classes to 30th level, and the rules for how to play.
  
  Note that with a subscription to D&D Insider you can see more character classes and build a character online.
• Set of dice. Note that you can purchase dice from your friendly local gaming store.

And like Diaglo says, it needs great art. I think my idea would be to move the game mostly online, and use boxed sets as 'physical store' materials. (Who knows if that would be a good plan.)

 

[tuxgeo]

I love the -idea- of the boxed set - there's something magical about the idea of a box you can take anywhere and bust out at a moment's notice, with a ruleset that's quick and easy enough to run without much, if any, prep.

Of course, I suspect that everybody's got their own idea of what an ideal box would contain. I want to hear yours.

The standard seems to be something along the lines of:

• A player's pamphlet/softbound, usually with some explanation of roleplaying as well as a tutorial.
• A GM's pamphlet that serves as "continued reading" that contains more general gamemastering advice, tables, etc.
• A set of dice.
• Some character sheets.
• Some minis or tokens.
• A starting adventure.

I was pondering what I would want to add in there for my ideal set. I realized that I'm less interested in the tutorial aspect (being an experienced gamer, obviously) and more in the "drop everything and play now" part - in other words, I'd like to see not just a sample adventure (preferably written in a way that doesn't necessarily require pre-reading before play) but a book on creating adventures on the fly. A sandbox toolkit, if you will.

For a boxed set that you could bust out and play on a moment's notice, it would have to have at least one very generalized play scenario in addition to any "starter adventure" that it might also include.
My list of contents would be:

• Dice;
• Tokens for PCs, Monsters, treasures, traps, doors, furniture, and hazards, including multiples where desirable (only 1 gelatinous cube would be needed);
• Many pregenerated characters (in the range of 16 to 24 of them);
• One highly glossy, blank character sheet with a broad-faced, non-photocopy blue, warning spread across the center of each side, saying something like "Copy this to make more character sheets!" in a unmistakably large font;
• A small supply (maybe six sheets?) of plain, obviously copied character sheets showing the same character sheet as the glossy, but without the broad-faced warning -- to show how it is done;
• Rules for generating new characters, for each of 5 races, for each of 5 classes, through the first 5 levels, even if only a subset of available powers need to be included (with notes explaining that the game was kept simple for playability's sake, and that the rest of the rules are available elsewhere -- and how to find them);
• One really imaginative and immersive starter adventure (similar to "In Search of the Unknown"), complete with some evocative poster-map;
• One booklet to train GMs in their job. WotC already does this extremely well now;
• And one foldable game board. Detailed suggestions follow:

The play-board: bigger than a folding chess-board, because it folds twice, first one way and then another, and it is split halfway across along one centerline:


|¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯|
| f1 | f2 |
| ¯¯ | ¯¯ |
|¯¯¯¯¦¯¯¯¯|
| f3 ¦ f4 | (where the broken bars "¦" represent the split)
| ¯¯ ¦ ¯¯ |
`¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯

This way, two of the playing faces ("f1" and "f2) fold against each other, but the other two playing faces ("f3" and "f4") fold out to expose their playing surfaces when stowed. This gives approximately the mechanical simplicity of a folding chess board, but with a folded size to fit into a smaller box.

Second Suggestion: Generalize the playing route as a "railroad" path with a few deviations, such as the following, showing an outside main path around a square, but also featuring a couple of inside "sidetrack" loops and one obvious "sortcut":


._________
|\¯ ______|
| \ \__ ¯¯|
| `\… `\__|
|\ `|´ `¯¯|
| \/´ _.-^|
| _.-^ ___|
`¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯


To make it a new play experience every time, divide the playing path into squares (I know: "really original," right? ) but have several sets of cards to depict what inhabits those squares. Maybe seven sets of cards, for Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Purple-Violet; or other choices of sets as makes sense from a game-design perspective. Have the squares of corresponding colors spread out around the board, and fill in the contents of the squares by drawing afresh from the correspondingly-colored sets of cards each new time you want to play.

People could grow to love the game based solely on that, and could become desirous of actively going out to look for more material for the same game (IMHO).

 

[Herremann the Wise]

artwork to inspire someone to buy it.
a sturdy box to hold it that will last.
inside it would have a full set of dice, minis, pregen characters, plus blank character sheets, drawn maps of a pregen adventure, and a pic booklet of each room of the adventure (which could be photocopied and drawn on). a crayon.
a book for the referee.
the only book for the players is their character sheet.

There is a lot of good things to be said for the only equipment needed by a player is the character sheet and dice. Ideally in the player's mind you want their options to be unlimited; their character's actions unfettered. And this can work really well with a group that knows their fantasy well enough to fit straight into a campaign with enough knowledge to provide the momentum to feed of each other and the referee/DM/GM.

But what if you have a player or a group of absolute novices? What if their only experience with fantasy is to have "watched" the Lord of the Rings? How do you help them imagine the game? How do you give them this momentum?

I think the key to all of this is copious amounts of well-crafted illustrations, schematics and visuals. I would include a Players Handbook but it would be more illustrations than words to envisage the world, with different sketches and schematics to explain what the numbers on the character sheet represent.

To my mind, the Easley covers on the AD&D books took me directly into that world (just as the Iain McCaig illustrations in City of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon did in the fighting fantasy game books). The 3ed PHB pushed the schematics (the different sizes illustration for example) in the right direction as well as the various equipment sketches. The 4ed book however took several leaps backwards as the mathematical skeleton of the game was thrust to the forefront and the "Powers Wall" clogged the bulk of the book combined with the mystery sucking travesty of including "MIs" in the players book (do they even deserve to be called magical if there so placed?)

And so, for me it is all about the visuals. A players handbook more illustration than prose would be the key to any introductory Player's product.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[billd91]

I think I'd like a boxed set that would be supplemented by other materials (like other boxed sets) but never replaced. In other words, I don't want a boxed set to introduce me to a game that, in order to really get into it, I need to go out and buy other books or materials to replace the boxed set I just got.

 

[Stormonu]

To me, both the Moldvay/Mentzer and Dragon Age introductory sets are "done right". I'd like to open the box both to learn how to play and have a lot of "cool" toys to play with.

- Conversational tone that takes you step-by-step through introducing the game terms and building characters, but is also functional so you can just build characters without being forced through a drawn-out process.

- Covers enough material that you can play a month or two just with what's in the box (with material for players AND DMs); it's a complete enough game you don't have to move on, but it contains enough to whet your appetite to want to make you get more.

- In this day and age, an electronic link to supplemental information; tips, extra scenarios, PDF character sheets maybe even a flash demo to augment the book.

- Dice, tokens (maybe a few minis), and some sort of good-quality reusable battlemat.

 

[WheresMyD20]

I think a starter set only needs three things:

1. a short rulebook, preferably around 50 pages long
2. an adventure module
3. dice

The one thing I'd definitely leave out is any sort of minis or tokens. This is something the '83 red box got 100% right. It even made it a selling point on the box cover.

A starter set needs to keep things as simple and minimal as possible. Minis, tokens, and grids are not essential to RPGs. In fact, in a box set meant to teach the principles of RPG to beginners, they'll just get in the way.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Beyond all other considerations I'd try to lessen the dichotomy between players and game master. If you have five friends trying the game together, why do we demand that one of them takes on the mantle of DMing?

It would be better to condense the simple rules in one booklet for both players and DMs and supply a set of small adventures - perhaps on on sheet each - which describe the situations as well as the necessary DM rules. This way the players could take turns DMing.

Additionally supply one-sheet adventures which focus on roleplaying situations instead of combat. Describe the situation and the relevant NSCs, give the DM some hints and describe different possible outcomes.

All this one-sheet adventures should be interrelated so that they can be strung together in one complete adventure with a flowchart depicting the connections. Each adventure could additionally have a list of possible successors based on the outcome of the situation.

Ideally the group would take turns DMing and at least one of them is motivated enough to proceed after the basis set is "completed".

Oh, and of cause you offer additional sets of one-sheet adventures as free downloads...