Annoyed with D&D Game Day Characters

[delericho]

I was looking over the characters for the D&D Game Day and I noticed something strange. At least one of the characters has a feat (Powerful Charge) that is not even in the Player's Handbook! This is just dumb to me. If the Game Day is designed to bring in new players, why would you use a feat that is not even in the Core Rulebooks?

I'm inclined to agree. When running a game for new players, and assuming your goal is to get them to buy the PHB/DMG/MM, you should take pains to make sure that not only is everything they need to know cleanly spelled out on the character sheet, but also that there's nothing on the character sheet that's not covered in the core rulebooks. Get them playing first, then get them on the supplement treadmill.

(And note that when he's reading the already lengthy and complex rules for the game, Little Johnny is probably going to use his character sheet from the game he played in as an aide. So, if the character sheet somehow doesn't match the rules in the book, he's more likely to just put the whole thing away, and no new gamer results. Saying "but he's always free to ask questions" doesn't cut it, because there's a terrible tendency for newbies to not ask questions, in any field, because they don't want to come across as sounding stupid. And let's face it - some gamers are not above ridiculing a newbie who happens to not know something they arbitrarily consider obvious; not all venues are as welcoming as ENWorld.)

 

[Thanee]

From my experience with younger players they absolutely do not care where something is written down as long as they know what it does.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Glyfair]

From my experience with younger players they absolutely do not care where something is written down as long as they know what it does.

I agree. My first D&D experience was the Holmes D&D set. It mentioned that once you pass 3rd level you will want to graduate to AD&D and try such classes as the monk & witch. I didn't quit or complain because there was no witch class in AD&D.

 

[NiTessine]

Mmh. We actually had the Worldwide D&D Game Day promotion at our local store yesterday, because today it's a local holiday and all stores are closed.

My analysis... the pregens are suboptimal, and there's really nothing wrong with that, except that I doubt if it is actually even possible to complete "The Curse of Gethin Abbey" with even a full group of them. I saw two games end in a TPK, and I heard a third party quit halfway through because there was really no way they could carry on.

But the loot is good and it was a fun game.

 

[Glyfair]

I saw two games end in a TPK, and I heard a third party quit halfway through because there was really no way they could carry on.

They do say you can run your own adventures. Maybe next year we can start well in advance and come up with an ENWorld designed adventure, and perhaps alternate characters for the standard adventure if they are as suboptimally designed (of course, we have a new content manager for the RPGA, so maybe he'll be better at designing characters).

I remember the first year they completely dropped the ball on designing characters. They said the characters would be up a few weeks before the event, and never bothered to post any. It was so bad that Keith Baker even posted characters that could be used for the non-basic adventure (which was the standard adventure in the back of the Eberron Campaign setting).

 

[Umbran]

Well then, you obviously don't understand my point.

Or, perhaps he understands your point, but simply doesn't agree with it.

Game Day is designed to introduce D&D to NEW players.

Yes. It is meant to introduce them, in general. It is meant to give them a glimpse, and a good experience. And if a feat helps wiht the latter, more power to the designers.

What it isn't meant to do is be a demonstration of the Core Rules, specifically. A few elements from outside the Core would seem to me to be a good thing - a demonstration that the game may go a long way outside the core, if you so desire, that you aren't strongly limited to three books.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Why would you just hand material out to someone knew and expect them to learn it themselves? I would think that would be just as confusing. Introducing people to the game should be helpful and not like just tossing them in the deep end.

But even so, the kid can goto his DM and inquire about it. There is nothing wrong with asking questions and not knowing things.

Assuming the DM knows where that feat is so he can show the new player.....

There's so many books and even more feats... hard to keep track of them all.

 

[TobyJohnson]

I thought the characters were fine, we got it handed to us in this adventure but that is not the point of this event for me. We had no new players in our run it has become more of a celebration for our group and an opportunity to see prospective players in action. They give away neat swag and I went home happy.

Toby J

 

[Psion]

Alright I ran the Game Day adventure today (well part of it... I got sick after the flameskull encounter).

The powerful charge feat... totally not a big deal. What it does was right on the sheet.

That said, the characters are gimpy:
[sblock]
They weren't really up to the flameskull. (And I missed that the durn thing had fast healing 2, which would have made the already lengthy fight take forever.)[/sblock]

 

[Rystil Arden]

Alright I ran the Game Day adventure today (well part of it... I got sick after the flameskull encounter).

The powerful charge feat... totally not a big deal. What it does was right on the sheet.

That said, the characters are gimpy:
[sblock]
They weren't really up to the flameskull. (And I missed that the durn thing had fast healing 2, which would have made the already lengthy fight take forever.)[/sblock]

We turned it and locked it back in--we couldn't kill it.