Another Look at the D&D Essentials Kit

ced1106 said:

AD&D had some "one on one" modules decades ago, then decided to not make money. While I recall D&D and AD&D being designed for group play, much fantasy fiction was nonetheless centered around a main character. Glad D&D has finally caught up. Now, if only Gloomhaven wasn't the only campaign dungeoncrawler which was designed for gamers with busy lives...!

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Thanks, didn't know about Gloomhaven. I wonder when the French version will be out, that looks a nice game to play with my daughter.

Panda-s1 said:

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.



????

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What enterprising individual. The cheaters both the module as the only game store in town, just like I did. Sh**beee I bought one new module and asked my group not to buy a copy until I ran it. Two those jerks bought the next Tuesday and shared info.
As today, you don't have to buy the module due that strange word you used. Internet. A good player will not search for that term and bail on any post that mention it.

I see what Panda is saying about Lost Mine. Namely, it's been so widely used as an introductory module at this point (because, frankly, it's very good at being just that) that it's getting harder to find all new players that haven't at least been partly exposed to it, even if it's just seeing it played in a streamed game. Having another introductory module to keep things relatively fresh is not a bad thing.

As for the inclusion of a DM screen, those do have purposes beyond hiding DM dice rolls, whether or not one considers that a valid thing (there's good arguments to be made on both sides). A DM screen also acts as a quick reference for the DM, and also helps prevent players from seeing notes, maps, or other spoiling DM materials, accidentally or intentionally. They've been around for decades and are pretty much a standard offering for every game for a reason. Even if it's the inexpensive card stick variety (as opposed to the heavyweight game-board-like one they sell separately).

I wish they'd gone with the mini-screens. The tri-fold, half-height things take up less table space and materials.

Interesting interview with Nathan Stewart here, going into the origins of and purpose for the Essentials Set, and how they are currently focusing on figuring out a better way to on board new players:

"The Essentials Kit was born out of conversations with Target asking about what players would buy next after the Starter Kit," Stewart explained, referring to the current D&D boxed set sold in Target's board game section. "Target told us that they didn't think the [D&D] books will merchandise well here because they were training people to go to the gaming section, but they wanted more D&D stuff."

"So it feels like Target is cultivating newer board gamers that we don't think are being serviced by hobby stores or even Amazon based on what we're seeing from the trends."

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https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/05/26/dungeons-and-dragons-underserved-players-essentials-kit/

Parmandur said:

Interesting interview with Nathan Stewart here, going into the origins of and purpose for the Essentials Set, and how they are currently focusing on figuring out a better way to on board new players:

https://www.forbes.com/2009/04/14/trappist-business-lessons-leadership-management-mepkin1.html

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I think you meant to think this story, not a 10 year old story about Trappist Monks.

Kurotowa said:

I think you meant to think this story, not a 10 year old story about Trappist Monks.

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He who controls the present, controls the past: but, yes.

Nothing says you have to run Phandelver as written.
For example throwing in the Falcon Hollow adventure from back when the Pathfinder setting was being developed.
Back then the area was a massive forest inhabited by a wood elf tribe however a few rogue elves conned a dwarven clan with some fake deeds to the area.
Now in truth they knew these to be fake but given the money they could obtain by mining the area they employed a small army of humans and other folk after their initial attempts to claim their property were originally laughed off by the inhabitants and then fought off when they turned nasty.
One of the elves found a way to turn the tables on the would be dwarven conquerors by offering some of their mercenaries land to build and live upon as long as they left the dwarves employ.
Only a few accepted but such was the dwarves ire their actions effectively ruined their plans for the area forcing them to flee the area or be slain whether by the surviving elves or their former employees who had enough of their harsh measures to retain command.
Most left the area and the wood elves dwindled in number such there may be only a dozen at best in the once massive forest now dwindled to its current state with Rothenel named after the elf who helped gain their freedom.
There are still ruins of both the dwarven occupation and deep in the forest portals to the Feywild where the wood elves chose to flee once they thought the forest lost.
Most of the population moved to the coast where a massive settlement home to the closest thing this area has to a capital with various farming communities clustered around it as the road leads into the valley where Rothenel dwells.
Most have forgotten the true history of the area, but with Ashari travelling the roads and talk of Dark Fae hiding in the dark depths of the forest there is talk of an ancient evil on the move.
The elves of course tend to point to the humans as evidence of that!

My point is it really doesn't matter if they have the starter set or whatever adventure you want to run, if they don't have a handle on how it works in your campaign you could have Strahd be the hopelessly doomed villain playing host to a realm set between life and death with your players seeking a way to best him so they can return to the land of the living.

Or introduce an evil sect of Ashari as your version of the Cult of the Dragon or the Princes of the Apocalypse adventure.

Ramaster said:

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.

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A computer could do both of these things. Dungeon mastery isn't just about balanced encounter design or clever narration; it's about the relationship between the players and the dungeon master. It's about knowing how your players want the campaign to develop moment to moment and letting them earn it, not enforcing an objective idea of what's "more interesting" just because a few plastic shapes landed on the table in an undesirable way.

"Failing forward" isn't an advanced technique. Not getting stuck in a pass/fail gate is a baseline dungeon master capability. The advanced technique is recognizing when the gate has disappointed your players, pass or fail, and correcting mid-session without breaking stride or immersion, dice be damned.

DMZ2112 said:

A computer could do both of these things.

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Yes. Provided it was programed with the ability to do so by a GOOD DM in the first place.

DMZ2112 said:

Dungeon mastery isn't just about balanced encounter design or clever narration;

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It's not just about that but... those are like 2 reaaally important DMing skills that not everyone bothers to pick up.

DMZ2112 said:

It's about knowing how your players want the campaign to develop moment to moment and letting them earn it, not enforcing an objective idea of what's "more interesting" just because a few plastic shapes landed on the table in an undesirable way.

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Several things here. If you fudge, your players won't earn a thing. You are the one that's choosing when they succeed and when they fail. Their characters don't have input in the resolution of your encounters. You're just playing with yourself. Let the guy who's a "super climber" (or the wizard who prepared Spider Climb or whatever) defeat the wall encounter in an objective manner if they are able. That would be an actual accomplishment. If you don't like to use dice and a player's previous choices (i.e. the character options she chose) to decide the outcome of actions within the context of your game then you might be better off playing some game other than D&D/Pathfinder.

DMZ2112 said:

"Failing forward" isn't an advanced technique. Not getting stuck in a pass/fail gate is a baseline dungeon master capability.

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Agreed. If I hadn't been fudging all these years I would have been able to develop it sooner.

DMZ2112 said:

The advanced technique is recognizing when the gate has disappointed your players, pass or fail, and correcting mid-session without breaking stride or immersion, dice be damned.

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I love pre-planning complex sessions and complex encounters. I also love improvising and coming up with things on the fly. I am, however, very forward with my players before we begin a game on the subject of what type of game I'll be running. If you are playing "Jane Climberstone, Climber Extraordinaire" and the DM fudges the resolution of the wall encounter, then why bother playing a dedicated climber? Your PC will either climb the wall or not based on the needs of the plot as perceived through the DM's eye, not by her sick climbing skillz.

tl;dr: Rule 0 has spoiled us as DMs. You don't need rule 0. It robs the players of their agency.