Another Look at the D&D Essentials Kit

DM Howard · May 23, 2019

This looks great! A little bummed about it releasing to Target early, but I can wait.

MNblockhead · May 24, 2019

DMZ2112 said:
This makes sense to me. I have been watching the Hasbro game shelves at my local Target for years waiting for first the D&D4 and then the D&D5 starter sets to show up, and they never have. Not super happy about the circumstances, but more exposure is good. Folks who shop at FLGSes are likely to wait anyway.

Fudging die rolls doesn't protect you from having to own your mistakes or design well. If anything, it makes you more accountable for your decisions. Players don't have to trust a dungeon master who doesn't fudge. Maintaining player trust while fudging is dungeon mastery hard mode.

The D&D Starter set (the original Phandelver one) was sold in my local targets.

This is important because it is priced right, and packaged attractively enough, that it will be bought by parents and relatives and also as birthday presents for your kids school friends. Target is probably the best venue in the United States today for broadening the D&D consumer base.

Paul Farquhar · May 24, 2019

There isn't really an equivalent of Target in the UK. I've seen the Phandelver boxed set in a chain of slightly up-market bookshops at pocket money-ish prices, but the Stranger Things starter set I've only seen on Amazon for an-arm-and-a-leg.

Ramaster · May 24, 2019

DMZ2112 said:
Fudging die rolls doesn't protect you from having to own your mistakes or design well. If anything, it makes you more accountable for your decisions. Players don't have to trust a dungeon master who doesn't fudge. Maintaining player trust while fudging is dungeon mastery hard mode.

If you decide that the players have to climb a very smooth wall with a high climb DC and then they all fail their checks and you fudge it so that they succeed and the adventure can continue, then that's just a badly designed encounter. You are not doing anything "on hard mode", you are just compensating on the spot for a previous mistake. DMing "on hard mode" would be to put the PCs on a situation where they thinking that climbing said wall is hard when it's actually easy or, EVEN BETTER (and what I'm trying for currently), putting them on a situation where failing to climb the wall has negative consequences but the adventure not only continues, it just gets more interesting.

Parmandur · May 24, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
There isn't really an equivalent of Target in the UK. I've seen the Phandelver boxed set in a chain of slightly up-market bookshops at pocket money-ish prices, but the Stranger Things starter set I've only seen on Amazon for an-arm-and-a-leg.

Google suggests that Tesco is fairly similar to Target?

Panda-s1 · May 24, 2019

collin said:
I disagree with your opinion that "Lost Mines of Phandelver" is being overused. I have often seen it cited on EN World for new DMs who are looking for a 1st adventure to run with new players (far better than trying to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen for the first time, imo).[...]

did I say it was a bad adventure? Lost Mine of Phandelver is a good adventure for beginners; the quality of the adventure is not the issue I brought up at all.

to use your example of Keep on the Borderlands: that adventure may not have been the best, but that's not the point. that adventure did not exist in a time when D&D was super popular and your local game store may not have been so noob friendly. D&D in the media was either the cartoon or some sort of controversy; the idea of an accurate depiction of RPGs being played on any show was fairly unlikely, let alone reveal actual info about the adventure itself. now I'm sure some enterprising individuals got a hold of their own copy of KotB to cheat at someone else's game, but otherwise it's not like someone could casually find out what happens in that adventure. that's not the case with Phandelver, and the fact that any new player can so much as sneeze at the internet and ruin the adventure for themselves is in of itself a problem.

jasper said:
Psst Psst. Your XP does not mean sand. My players must have rocks in their head because most have not played in it. What the quartz is Adventure Zone? Sounds like bad anime on the cartoon channel. Maybe you should grit your teeth, and let others suggest good adventures. Lava on.

????

Paul Farquhar · May 24, 2019

Parmandur said:
Google suggests that Tesco is fairly similar to Target?

Most Tesco's are convenience stores and supermarkets. They do have large stores with a wide range of goods, but not so wide as to stock and D&D products. I suspect that even the biggest are small compared to US stores.

Parmandur · May 24, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Most Tesco's are convenience stores and supermarkets. They do have large stores with a wide range of goods, but not so wide as to stock and D&D products. I suspect that even the biggest are small compared to US stores.

At Target, the D&D product is just with the board games. They have more produce than board games, though Target has invested in beign the go-to board game store for place without an actual hobby shop.

Paul Farquhar · May 24, 2019

Parmandur said:
At Target, the D&D product is just with the board games. They have more produce than board games, though Target has invested in beign the go-to board game store for place without an actual hobby shop.

Large Tesco's stock some board games, but only a tiny fraction of what you would find in a toy shop. And toy shops tend not to stock "adult" games either - book shops seem to be the only regular high street shops that do.

Parmandur · May 24, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Large Tesco's stock some board games, but only a tiny fraction of what you would find in a toy shop. And toy shops tend not to stock "adult" games either - book shops seem to be the only regular high street shops that do.

Toy shops are more or less extinct in the US. Indeed, Target is probably the primary toy store in my area at this point, and I am not in the boonies.

Another Look at the D&D Essentials Kit

DM Howard

Explorer

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site

Paul Farquhar

Legend

Ramaster

Adventurer

Parmandur

Book-Friend

Panda-s1

Scruffy and Determined

Paul Farquhar

Legend

Parmandur

Book-Friend

Paul Farquhar

Legend

Parmandur

Book-Friend

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