Confusion on Essentials

[FireLance]

My understanding is this

The Red Box is part of the 10 Essential Products. I know of the following 8 items (more may have already been announced)

• Red Box
• PHB Heroes of the Fallen Lands - Classes: Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard
• PHB Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms - Classes: Warlock, Druid, Ranger, Paladin
• Rules Compendium
• Essential DMG Box Set
• Essential Monsters
• Essential Dungeon Tiles - Dungeons
• Essential Dungeon Tiles - Cities

The other two items are: Essential Dungeon Tiles - Wilderness and dice.

 

[pedr]

As I understand it, there are neither powers nor monsters in the Rules Compendium; those are in the two Heroes of... books (and Players' Handbooks/x Power books) for powers and the Monster Vaults and Monster Manuals for monsters.

On the interview with Mike Mearls and Rich Baker which Critical-Hits recorded at GenCon, it's said that existing players don't need the Red Box. It has two, complementary, targets I think: newcomers to the game who need a simple introduction and people who want it for nostalgia value. I think I'll buy one, but only to use as a teaching/intro tool. The core of Essentials are the two Heroes of ... books, the Rules Compendium and the Monster Vault. As more information about the Dungeon Master's Kit comes out, that might be added to the core list, but I expect that the rule-content will be repeated in the Rules Compendium and the value of the DM Kit will be in the tokens/maps/etc.

 

[Vaeron]

I was under the impression (mistaken?) that the Rules Compendium had all the rules in one easy to find place. Even if the other books have these, the fact that the Compendium has it all in one spot is still attractive to me. I would hope that WoTC wouldn't reprint the rules and just leave it all in the Compendium but stranger things have been done ...

The only Essentials product I'm planning to buy is the Rules Compendium, for the same reason. If I decide to use other components - and that's an increasingly unlikely if, the more I find out about the scope of the changes - I will get them from the CB. But Rules Compendium seems real handy. And it will probably be at least a year before it's erratad into oblivion as well.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I was planning to buy the Compendium. All the rules, with all the up-to-date errata in one package sounded great. The Essentials classes left me pretty cold, but I figured I could ignore them. However, there is a major errata deluge scheduled for October that may just about re-write the game. I'll have to wait and see what it's like before I pick up the Compendium.

Fortunately, D&D Encounters seems like the perfect venue to try out Essentials. It's free, we get to play a classic module, and see what it's like. If it sucks, oh well, editions are like busses, if you can't get on board one, just wait a while and catch the next.

 

[TerraDave]

Yes, if you want to play essentials style, but are not a new player, then I think you get a relevant heroes book and the comp. Though if you want play say a tiefling wizard, I guess you get both heroes books.

Or, as I think many will do, for everything, the comp and DDI.