D&D 5E Second guessing WOTC

[Dungeoneer]

The effective $12 price point is quite a killer here, though, I think. For some 11 year old kid spending his allowance, that price point has gotta be an attractive offer.

I think there's a bunch of assumptions being made here. First of all, do 11 year olds really buy things this way anymore? I know when we were kids you had to hoard your hard-earned allowance for months to get something like this. But these days kids are begging their parents to buy them XBoxes with games that are $60 a pop. Presumably even a fairly expensive boxed-set would seem cheap by comparison to their much-put-upon parents.

I feel like there are assumptions being made with these boxed sets that things work the same way as they used to when the people making the boxed sets, and that is dangerous. Conversely, I also feel like these starter sets are made to appeal to nostalgic grognards, perhaps more than they are to actual new players (see someone else's comment about how the art inside being the same as the cover art was a callback to the original boxed set, a reference no kid could possibly care about).

 

[Morrus]

I think there's a bunch of assumptions being made here.

One assumption; but a perfectly reasonable one. Clearly you know different kids. :shrug:

I feel like there are assumptions being made with these boxed sets that things work the same way as they used to when the people making the boxed sets, and that is dangerous.

I don't really know what that sentence means, but I'm fairly sure it ain't dangerous!

 

[BoldItalic]

There seemed to be a worry that there were no percentile dice in the 5e Starter Set.

Does the starter set adventure actually use percentile dice anywhere ?

 

[Dungeoneer]

One assumption; but a perfectly reasonable one. Clearly you know different kids. :shrug:

OK. I'm an eleven-year-old who thinks that I would really enjoy playing D&D and is dead set on getting my hands on it. I don't have much money.

Do I a) save up for the starter set in a few weeks or b) download the FREE basic PDF and a dice rolling app NOW?

Yeah, the basic PDF isn't really geared towards your average kid but it's a special kind of kid who is this interested in D&D anyway.

 

[Morrus]

OK. I'm an eleven-year-old who thinks that I would really enjoy playing D&D and is dead set on getting my hands on it. I don't have much money.

Do I a) save up for the starter set in a few weeks or b) download the FREE basic PDF and a dice rolling app NOW?

Yeah, the basic PDF isn't really geared towards your average kid but it's a special kind of kid who is this interested in D&D anyway.

I think there are a lot of assumptions being made there, and that they're really dangerous!

Seriously, I imagine you're about as able to put yourself in the head of an 11 year old child as I am. I don't really want to be seen in public getting into a contest on who can more accurately pretend to be an eleven year old child.

 

[grimslade]

I don't know. It is apples and oranges. The BB has a lot more stuff in it, but it needs all that stuff. It feels more like a board game and at its price point and has all the detritus of a board game, dice, tokens, maps and such. Lots of stuff is great, but it is its own burden too. The complexity and depth of Pathfinder is better expressed with having all the stuff.

The Starter Set is a hat tip to older editions, but it is also a pared down experience. It is a much more mobile game. You don't even need a table necessarily, just room for friends and a flat surface to roll on. It can be played on a playground during recess, in a tent camping, on a long car ride (DM can not be the driver) or at a table.

The price point is a big difference. If you are looking to try a new game, $20 vs $50 is a big difference. RPGs are different from any other game on the shelf.

I think there is room for both sets, but the systems are different. Pathfinder needs the complexity and clabber that goes with a 3.x style game. The fact that they do it well is not a surprise and greatly helps the over all experience.
The Starter set needs to give an experience, a taste of what is to come. It is inexpensive, but a solid product to lead in to the big 3.

 

[mips42]

I've re-emphasized the question in the original post to try and get a better feeling for other peoples answers.
For those that skip the OP, the question is NOT 'who did it better', nor is it 'is it a fair comparison'.
The real, actual question is 'Now that we've seen the Starter Set and the first revision of Basic, do you think that whatever the current Starter Set is or how well it does what it was supposed to do, would have been been a "better", more complete, better targeted product if it had been produced *after* Basic was complete and the main books released'?

 

[Shiroiken]

It was far better for WotC to put out the Starter Set either before at at the same time as the full game. Unlike previous attempts by WotC, they actually stuck to using the rules in the Starter Set, so that when players transition to Basic or the PHB, they don't have to unlearn things.

The Starter Set contains everything NEEDED to play. The players in this example were obvious experienced gamers (if not with D&D or PF), so they expected to be able to make their own characters. That was not the intent of the Starter Set. The Starter Set appeared geared more towards players new to PRGs in general, where pre-generated characters are a boon. The Basic Rules online is geared more towards experienced RPG players.

I don't know anything about the Beginner Box, but I don't think this is a fair comparison. The Starter Set is geared towards a different audience. A better comparison would have been the Basic Rules vs. the Pathfinder free online rules.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I've re-emphasized the question in the original post to try and get a better feeling for other peoples answers.
For those that skip the OP, the question is NOT 'who did it better', nor is it 'is it a fair comparison'.
The real, actual question is 'Now that we've seen the Starter Set and the first revision of Basic, do you think that whatever the current Starter Set is or how well it does what it was supposed to do, would have been been a "better", more complete, better targeted product if it had been produced *after* Basic was complete and the main books released'?

In response to your question - which I have marked in bold - my answer is a qualified yes.

I think it's a reasonable product - and I like any adventure by Rich Baker - but it needs more art for the monsters particularly as it is a starter set. If the rest of the product line had already been finalised, the starter set could have used that art.

I must admit, the business part of my brain wishes we all had access to hard data so these sorts of thought exercises could be backed up with some hard numbers. Now that would be fun... in a business-nerd sort of way.

 

[Umbran]

Do I a) save up for the starter set in a few weeks or b) download the FREE basic PDF and a dice rolling app NOW?

You mean that FREE basic PDF that doesn't have an adventure in it, has no monsters detailed, and has no guidance on how to build an adventure - that Basic that in and of itself isn't yet something a really new player can play with?

Sure, you can download it, but it doesn't really do the trick, now does it?