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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sleepy Voiced" data-source="post: 2555257" data-attributes="member: 20329">I have to agree with two earlier suggestions, a cartoon and new entry level products.Once upon a time I would have thought putting a D&D cartoon on cartoon network next to Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon was blasphemous and unnecessary.  Now, I don't know if the Pokemon cartoon was popular because of the CCG, or if the CCG gained in popularity because of the cartoon (not really a CCG historian).  I have, however, seen kids get into Pokemon after watching the shows.  Kids are imagination-powered robots, they thrive on fantastic ideas and "let's pretend" type games.  Give the kids a show with lots of fantasy, kid protagonists, humor, and and the usual messages about overcoming odds and you will have kids beating a path to pick up D&D so they can get in on this world. Kids want to be heroes.  Why do so many say fireman or police officer or nurse or doctor when asked what they want to be?  These are heroes in our society, and that has great appeal to children.Secondly, while the Basic D&D box was a creditable first step, it really can't be the gateway product WotC wants it to be.  One of these reasons is cost.  Yes, the basic set is reasonably priced.  In fact, it is a steal with all the tiles and minis in there.  That is part of the problem.  If a kid plays through the boxed set's materials (about two weeks worth, really.  Remember how much time you have for things like this when you are a kid?) and wants to continue, they are pointed to the PHB.  The PHB is $30 on most store shelves, more expensive than the basic box.  And while we all know that you could play a game for awhile with just the PHB, how many kids are going to be satisfied with that?  In their introduction there were monsters, magic items, traps, minis, map cards, dice and premade characters.  It seems like a huge step between the two, and could easily put a lot of eager kids off.  (warning!  anecdotal experience ahead!)  I gave my nephew a copy of the basic set for Christmas this year, and played through most of the adventures in it over a few days with various family members joining in.  We had a blast.  My nephew subsequently took the game to his friends and they enjoyed it, for a couple of weeks, then the material petered out and they returned to Yu-Gi-Oh.  Their excitement over the game was still there, though.  My nephew asks about playing D&D when I come to visit.  And last month, while visiting, he and I sat down to play.  Admirably, he and his friends created all sorts of ideas for new things for the game.  Unfortunately, they didn't have the structure to build it on, so they resorted to Yu-gi-oh types of "attack" and "defense" and summoning, etc.  It really didn't work with the game (and damned if I didn't try to accomodate it).  I showed him my PHB, to see if that would be a likely next gift to give.  He was bewildered.  Too much rules and not enough of the exciting stuff, like monsters and adventures. The old red set had it right.  It gave the tools up front to make your own characters, provided all you needed to become a DM and create adventures.  Mostly, it was a well pared-down set of rules that gave all the fun of playing AND creating.  The new set misses the creative aspect of the game.  Sure, it gives some rudimentary rules on character creation and adventure design, but with such limited scope as to limit more than promote imaginative work.OK, long post, my apologies.  To sum up:  Cartoon=good, Robust intro product suited for younger audiences=good.</blockquote>

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