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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 5505261" data-attributes="member: 11999">Warning:  This thread requires a lot of reading.  The irony of a long series of posts about the complexity of D&D being a barrier to participating is not lost on me.Mike Mearls has written two recent Legends and Lore articles regarding the increasing complexity of D&D over the years, and there have been some good discussions on this board in response to these articles.The <a href="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110308" target="_blank">first article</a> traces the complexity of the fighter class from AD&D 1st Edition through D&D 4th Edition, focusing on the number of steps required to create a character.  This is indicative of the complexity of the game growing over time, but it is a somewhat shallow analysis.  The number of steps involved in creating a character and the greater number of choices involved at each step are but one part of the growing complexity of the game.In the <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110315" target="_blank">second article</a>, he writes a bit about why the complexity has increased.D&D has also increased in what I am calling front-loaded complexity.  The earliest editions of D&D made it very easy for a new player to sit down with a group and actually be playing the game within a short period of time.  Later editions of the game require a much greater investment from a player in order to even get started playing.The issue of front-loaded complexity isn't just a barrier to new players learning the game.  It can also be a major obstacle for more casual players, or even experienced gamers who prefer a more streamlined, faster-playing game.  I want to examine how the level of front-loaded complexity has increased with each new edition of D&D over the years.  I'm not referring to the overall level of complexity of the game system; this is purely about the essential gameplay concepts and rules that a new player needs to understand in order to actively participate in a D&D game.The Classic 1st-Level FighterI am going to present a write-up of a 1st-level human fighter as he would appear in each edition of D&D.  This will take the form of an abbreviated character sheet that includes the essential gameplay information about the character.  Character appearance (height, weight, etc) and roleplaying concerns (personality, backstory, etc) are not included, nor is equipment other than weapons and armor.  This is not to say that these are not very important elements of a D&D character, but they would simply distract from the purpose of this exercise.Let's consider a "typical" human fighter, at 1st level, with the following stats:  Strength 16, Dexterity 14, Constitution 13, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12, Charisma 11.  We'll give him a longsword, short bow, shield, and affordable medium-to-heavy armor (scale or chain), and max hit points at 1st level.  I'm assuming an average amount of starting gold, which allows for the purchase of those items plus standard adventuring gear.This fighter is intended to be a straightforward, easy-to-play, effective but not optimized character.  The 3.x and later incarnations are likely to have all sorts of things that will make CharOp fanatics cringe.  Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a simple character that is easy for a new player to start having fun with right away.Each entry will also include a list of concepts that the new player is going to need to understand to be able to make any meaningful decisions in play.  The first section is The Basics; most of these concepts need to be explained to the player before the game even starts, although a few can wait until they are encountered in the game.  The second section includes all of the In Combat concepts, which the player will quickly need to come to terms with, but are probably best explained in context.If we assume the classic low-level dungeon adventure, after exploring a few rooms and engaging in 2 or 3 battles, I think that it is reasonable to expect that the new player should be comfortable enough with how the game works to not have to still be asking the other players "what should I do?" in most situations.  General AssumptionsFor the purpose of this exercise, I am going to assume that the "new player" is not completely ignorant of fantasy role-playing.  This new player has likely heard of D&D, and maybe even played it a couple of times way back in high school.  He or she has possibly played an RPG-like game on the computer or a game console.  If nothing else, he or she has read Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings -- or at the very least, seen the movies.The new player is question is being given a pre-generated character, so character creation isn't a concern here.I am assuming core rules only in each example; no splatbooks.The adventure is a classic low-level dungeon crawl, with plenty of exploration.  The rest of the party includes a cleric, a magic-user (or mage, or wizard), and a thief (or rogue), all first-level as well.If I've made mistakes on the character write-ups or if I got some of the details wrong in the concepts and procedures, please let me know and I'll fix it.  I think that I have been very fair to each edition and I have not intentionally left out essential concepts nor added extraneous concepts to make any particular edition look better or worse.A note on optional rules:  Versions of D&D prior to 3e had a different point of view on "official rules" and house-ruling was extremely common.  Comments from Gary Gygax long after the fact revealed that even he didn't use many of the official AD&D rules in his own games.  As a general rule, simple optional rules that were at least anecdotally used by a large number of players will be included (e.g. variable weapon damage in B/X).  Some of the more complicated official rules that, anecdotally, were ignored by a large number of players will be left out (e.g. initiative as per the AD&D 1e DMG).  The examples from 3.x and later will conform to the RAW.I have never played OD&D, so I'm not familiar enough with it to do it justice.  I don't think it would be very different from the Basic example, other than the ability score modifiers.I hope that this thread provides for some interesting discussion.We will start with Basic D&D (B/X and BECMI)...</blockquote>

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