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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5351389" data-attributes="member: 7006">I'll tell you exactly why.Eseentials has a Red Box that will appear on the shelves of non-traditional locations for RPGs.  That's Number 1.  So all those adults, parents and kids who do not ordinarily walk through the sci-fi/fantasy section of Borders or Barnes & Noble (thus missing the RPG section altogether, as that's the usual place for it), or who don't stop in at select game or comic shops... will actually now SEE a Dungeons & Dragons game product to purchase.  Perhaps even for the first time.  So there's no confusion.  Unless they can't tell the difference between D&D and Connect Four... and if that's the case, then they probably shouldn't be playing games in the first place.Number 2.  Essentials has a specific color palate, a specific font style, and has the word 'Essentials' across the packaging.  That tells practically everyone that this is a specific group of products that should be taken as a whole... and anything that does not look like this or is identified as this, is not a part of it.  Thus, you can ignore those other things for the time being.  After all... nowhere on these Essentials book covers are the words 'Fourth Edition' found.  So we can't even use the excuse of "well, THESE say 4th edition, and THOSE say 4th edition... so which ones should we choose?"Did we think people were going to get confused when 4E was released when those books appeared on shelves right next to 3.5 products that had not yet been sold off?  Of course not!  Because we accepted that PEOPLE AREN'T IDIOTS.  So for any of us to think that someone will see a nice big section of softcover Essentials products right next to a set of hardcover 4E products and be afraid that they won't be able to tell that these might two separate things... is ludicrous.And let's just be completely honest here.  Of the entire amount of completely new D&D players that will be coming in to the game this fall, winter and spring... how many of these will be players that won't have an established D&D player or two right there with them helping them out?  The answer is extremely few.  We completely oversell the idea of five kids with absolutely no concept what D&D is, getting together to start a game without having at least one of them having SOME experience with RPGs in some format... whether it be tabletop, videogame, or whatever.  Most new players get into the game by joining already-established players who have already-established games, or who are starting up new games.  And for those new players... voila!  They have someone there to tell them what they might need to play.That's the reality of the situation.  And that's why Essentials does not muddy any issues with people learning D&D for the first time.  Because the idea of five kids wandering into the RPG section of Borders books and deciding to buy D&D for the very first time completely on a whim without any of them having any idea of what it is they are actually buying... is a MYTH.</blockquote>

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