D&D 5E The new Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set - and online tools?

[exile]

I remember as a little kid wanting the BECMI red box so badly, but it was too expensive (weird since my parents bought me a lot of pricey Star Wars toys). When I was finally able to get a copy of it, I was thrilled. It had everything I needed for hours and hours of enjoyment. Heck, it did a lot to make me the person I am today-- a person who spends a lot of money on gaming product. If I were in charge (and obviously I am not), I would have made a starter set that looked more like that starter set. Then instead of having it lead into other boxed sets, it could lead more seamlessly into the phb, dmg, and mm.

I hope this starter set turns out to be awesome in its own way, but I feel like an opportunity for long term awesome has been missed.

 

[Hussar]

When 4e came out, the character generator program let you make characters up to 3rd level for free. And it was pretty constantly updated.

I don't see why that would be a big issue here. "Here's your starter set, complete with pregens. Finished with that and want something else? Well, head over to Wizards.com and bang out your own character to print and use at your table."

It's not like Internet access or online tools are some sort of arcane secret handshake.

Heck, even the comment about being camping doesn't really ring true. In Canada, we're currently putting in wi-fi into national parks as I type this. How often are people truly without any access?

 

[Phoenix8008]

The D&D Basic red box starter set was the holy grail of starters for me. From starting it like a story, to defining terms little by little and introducing rules as needed in the example story. It still amazes me when I pull my copy out to look at it again. The more akin to that this new starter box set can be, the better!

 

[Mercurius]

Source

Now that's a breath of fresh air and very intriguing, especially this part:

I will finally close with this enigmatic statement: not everything about how the new D&D will work has been revealed to the public yet. Everything will be more clear when certain information is made public in a while. Information, I might add, that I as an advocate of the D&D game being made as accessible as possible to regular and casual gamers rather than just marketing to the hardcore fans am very excited about.

This makes me think that there's something that WotC has been brewing up that they've kept really close to the hip - perhaps some kind of relationship between the books and online tools of some kind.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[MerricB]

Here's another post from RPG Pundit: https://plus.google.com/108006304228021078063/posts/AEAWuzFiBfz

What's going to happen is neither exactly an online chargen tool or an SRD (actually, either of those may or may not be in the works, I can neither confirm nor deny that, but that's not what Mike Mearls was talking about).

Wizards is NOT "still working out the details"; I had myself been informed of the general plan for all this back around October-November of last year, and was told some of the specifics (of what is now fully planned and going ahead) back around Mid-March.

Cheers!

 

[darjr]

Yea, here is hoping the 'big secret' is fantastic.

Not having chargen in the Starter Set is a disappointment and in my book a mistake.

I wish that someone had just come out and said straight up at first that it didn't have chargen in it.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Now that's a breath of fresh air and very intriguing, especially this part:

I will finally close with this enigmatic statement: not everything about how the new D&D will work has been revealed to the public yet. Everything will be more clear when certain information is made public in a while. Information, I might add, that I as an advocate of the D&D game being made as accessible as possible to regular and casual gamers rather than just marketing to the hardcore fans am very excited about.

This makes me think that there's something that WotC has been brewing up that they've kept really close to the hip - perhaps some kind of relationship between the books and online tools of some kind.

Can't wait to hear more!

I've never been to that site before. Those are some angry forumers!

 

[howandwhy99]

I agree with Mearls here. Starter sets should be easy to read and quickly pick up, marketed to the one person who will be running the game, and include a starting campaign adventure.

Only pre-generated PCs is a stretch, but that's a problem so easily fixed in our internet age as to almost be ignored. "Check our website for additional PCs for your players to play" That's not hard for WotC to do, right?

I definitely would try and make the Starter Set a bridge, a transition product to interest buyers not ready to fully commit. Yet not nearly a full campaign hook players into wanting in another group's campaigns or purchasing the core set to continue the campaign they've already begun.

 

[Mercurius]

OK, so if it isn't online tools or SRD (yet), what could it possibly be?

The only thing I can think of is a chargen app.

 

[GravyFingerz]

While a character generator may be possible, I think the more likely answer is that WotC will release an updated version of the playtest documents; all they would need to do is adjust them to match the books, allows players to create characters, DMs to run campaigns, has magic items and monsters, and is accessible by anyone.