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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="Lord_Blacksteel" data-source="post: 5357742" data-attributes="member: 53082">Old Basic Box had 7 character classes. New Basic has 4 + 4 races or 4 classes X 4 races so it is better there in a sense, but equipment and powers are very limited so it's not as great a change as it could be.81 Basic set had 69 counting by type where Dragon = 1 entry. If we go by individual types there are 100. They range from 1/2 hit die kobolds to 11 hit die gold dragons.The difference is that you can only go to 2nd level - then you're done. Additionally you can't pick up different equipment, you can't pick up different powers, you can't do much to advance or personalize your character within the rules. Now the old basic set was not a great example of character customization but it had more options in many ways than this set does and shouldn't we be able to do better than that nowadays?Kids used to take the basic set, make up characters and run them through B2 or B1 or B3 or B4 and some would be at 3rd but some (Elves and M-U's typically) would not be. So the kid that played a fighter this time might roll up a cleric and the group would continue into the next B-whatever adventure the DM picked up, or another kid would run things while the previous DM made up a character and ran through this new adventure with his friends, or one of them might finish out the map for the Haunted Keep and they would play through that. A lot of people did play it that way back then until someone in the group got the Expert set and then things advanced. If they're trying to draw in the younger generation, well, I don't think the younger generation is going to get a $10 a month DDI subscription when they start playing and they may not even think to look online for stuff about it. So errata, expansions behind the paywall, and DDI adventures are not anywhere near as useful as getting it right the first time and giving them a good amount of content to get a regular game started. Including 4 races/4 classes is fine but put in a real chargen system, make it go to level 3 and give them some actual power and feat choices at each level. Put in a real mutli-level adventure. Put in some we-started-it-you-finish-it dungeon maps like the skull mountain dungeon in Holmes basic or the haunted keep in Moldvay basic - those things can get someone's imagination started up.Think about this: I'm a guy who remembers this set well and I have kids old enough to start playing. If it's a retro-appeal thing then when I read the reviews it sounds terrible because it's $20 and it's not really comparable to the old set - I can just buy the book for about the same $$$ to play D&D and skip this. If it's supposed to be a strong introduction to what 4th edition is all about then I think it fails there too - 2 levels out of what is now 30? Limited powers and feats? Is that how 4E goes? If it's aimed at kids then they don't know what the old boxed set looked like anyway so who cares? If I am the target audience and think it's a miss in these major areas then who thinks it's a win?So yeah, it is a sub-par product - they could have done much better than this. It's a shame because the Essentials books I have seen are really good. This critical piece though seems rushed and badly thought out. If it ends up selling like mad then great, we have more people getting into the game and that's good for all of us but I wish they had just taken a little more time to get it right. I would like to think that some people will pick it up cold and jump in and have a good time and then get more into it, maybe even starting a group of their own - but think how much better it could have been.</blockquote>

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