D&D 5E A $20 Starter Set. Cool!

[ExploderWizard]

B3 Palace of the Silver Princess
B4 The Lost City
B5 Horror on the Hill

Quite a few more, but hopefully this is a decent enough selection to contrast it against a Beginner Box that was a single-use game from a company that had no intentions of supporting it as anything but a gateway to a similar but not-quite-the-same game.

But this has taken things a bit too off-topic. What I wish to see is that the DDN Starter is actually the simple set of core rules and the hardcover books cover the optional rules that satisfy 1e, 2e, 3e, and 4e players. Even so, I would buy this theoretical hardcover to gain an additional race or class. But I would expect the game to be the same between the Starter and Hardcovers.

That sounds horrendous.

Ok, count me as officially confused. First you say that the 80's boxed sets are superior to the PFBB BECAUSE they offered more purchasable support product. Now Permeton suggests that WOTC might quite reasonably want to do the same and provide supporting product to their own starter set and it sounds "horrendous"?

How is this any different?

The best of both worlds would be a basic set much like the Moldvay one, which could support lots of additional play without further purchases but is also supported with further products & expansion material for those who like the basic game and would like to get more material for it.

The moment product is produced that is completely unplayable without an attachment to a company nipple it CEASES to be a game of the imagination and I will avoid it like spoiled milk.

 

[TwoSix]

Would such a $20 starter set be a "lost leader" for WotC?

We already have one, it's the Warlord.

 

[TwoSix]

[MENTION=6775038]frogimus[/MENTION] - my best guess (which may not be very good) is that they will want a line of ready-to-run adventures as the supplement for the starter set. My thinking is that this fits with the whole "an adventure in 1 hour" thing that Mearls has talked about.

I don't know, does WotC have any experience selling a product with a core set that is updated every year or two and is then supported by multiple themed expansions?

 

[Agamon]

I am hoping the Starter Set title was a placeholder for B&N and not the official title for the product.

There was a SKU, so it wasn't a placeholder. B&N isn't going to dream up a name to place on a SKU, that's going to come from the manufacturer. Might be a placeholder name for WotC, but I highly doubt it.

 

[fjw70]

There was a SKU, so it wasn't a placeholder. B&N isn't going to dream up a name to place on a SKU, that's going to come from the manufacturer. Might be a placeholder name for WotC, but I highly doubt it.

I can still hope.

Or maybe this product is a true pre-core release starter set and there will be another basic game boxed set down the road (maybe this Fall).

Either way I would really want the basic set Mearls talked about a while ago.

 

[frogimus]

Ok, count me as officially confused. First you say that the 80's boxed sets are superior to the PFBB BECAUSE they offered more purchasable support product. Now Permeton suggests that WOTC might quite reasonably want to do the same and provide supporting product to their own starter set and it sounds "horrendous"?

How is this any different?

The best of both worlds would be a basic set much like the Moldvay one, which could support lots of additional play without further purchases but is also supported with further products & expansion material for those who like the basic game and would like to get more material for it.

The moment product is produced that is completely unplayable without an attachment to a company nipple it CEASES to be a game of the imagination and I will avoid it like spoiled milk.

The horrendous part is the pre-gen and the general feel of it being a pick-your-adventure. It just seems like you're getting a movie script instead of a framework to kindle your group's imagination.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The horrendous part is the pre-gen and the general feel of it being a pick-your-adventure. It just seems like you're getting a movie script instead of a framework to kindle your group's imagination.

I have no objection to the inclusion of pre-gens. The lovely Morgan Ironwolf was a pre-gen after all. As long as pre-gens aren't the ONLY option. That would count as horrendous IMHO.

 

[frogimus]

The best of both worlds would be a basic set much like the Moldvay one, which could support lots of additional play without further purchases but is also supported with further products & expansion material for those who like the basic game and would like to get more material for it.

The moment product is produced that is completely unplayable without an attachment to a company nipple it CEASES to be a game of the imagination and I will avoid it like spoiled milk.

From my perspective, we want a very similar goal. I just allowed myself to fall into a 3 word reaction that could be interpreted too many ways.

 

[pemerton]

We already have one, it's the Warlord.

I don't know, does WotC have any experience selling a product with a core set that is updated every year or two and is then supported by multiple themed expansions?

Touché (x2).

 

[Manbearcat]

We already have one, it's the Warlord.

Scotty, beam him up some XP.

I cannot do it Captain! I don't have the power!