IronWolf
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"The easiest way to learn how to play the Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons game."
This is the product's goal and it does it admirably. I used the product to introduce a group of non-roleplayers to the game and I was surprised how they were just eating it up. After each adventure they were begging for the next. I knew D&D was a great game but it was hard to explain to new players without having them read the handbook and because they had no interest they wouldn't read the book. I'll explain exactly how the product makes the game interesting to non-roleplayers.
It has 8 full color character sheets, 2 fighters, 2 rogues, 2 clerics, and 2 wizards. It has a graphic of the character, the characters name is in a 48 pt font with race and class right above it in 18 pt font so a new player and look at the picture and get an idea of who they might want to play. All the important words are white on black, in large letters and easy to read so when you ask "What is your initiative?" it only takes a few seconds for the player to find the information instead of a minute of squinting and searching that is typical of a new player with standard character sheets.
There are 3 sentences describing each character's history and goals, a single sentence describing the race and another sentence describing the character's place in the adventuring group. Each and every game term on the front page has a small explanation in 8 pt font of what it means so players don't constantly ask "what does this mean?"
There is a picture of each kind of die d4-d20 so that they are easy to recognize. People who have been playing for decades know all this by heart but some people have never seen anything other than a d6 and 6 kinds of dice can be intimidating. (believe it or not)
On the inside, skills are prominently features in a very large font. Only 8 skills are used (Diplomacy, disable device, hide, listen, move silently, open lock, search, spot) and their values are d20 +/- the modifier so the player knows exactly what die to roll and how much to add or subtract. In a smaller font is an explanation of what the skill is used for. Players with a little time on their hands can absorb these little snippets of information whenever they aren't actively rolling for something.
Ability scores are the smallest information on the page and a overly simple explanation of the effects of the stat is given. This downplays the importance of attributes which is probably a good thing for starting players.
The other pages of the character sheet have rules of interest to the player of that class with an explanation of armor and weapons on the fighter, skills on the rogue and spells on the cleric and wizard.
The box include rules for advancing characters to the 2nd level and under 3rd level it simply refers the player to the player's handbook which by then they are eager to read.
You get a map with rooms printed on one side and blank squares on the other. This map helps you through the 6 adventures included with the game. New players aren't really up to the task of mapping and aren't used to forming pictures of rooms in their heads from a description.
There are 2 sheets of glossy cardboard counters with 48 sq in worth of counters each which cover all the players and everything they will encounter in the 6 adventures.
There is a 32 page b/w rulebook and a 48 page adventure book along with an 8 page color "rulebook" with examples which has any rules not covered on the character sheets themselves that either the DM or players would need to know before play.
I won't go into the adventure book other than to say the adventures slowly increase in size and difficulty and gradually introduce common adventure elements. First you have combat, then you add traps, next comes undead and a puzzle, then strategy, displomacy and branching possibilities, followed by monster tactics and the possibility of defeat and a massive final adventure with wandering monsters and all the elements of the previous 5 adventures. Certain rules are simplified for new players (and DMs), such as initiative (everyone takes 10, makes the order easy because its always the same) and some monsters don't have the latest stat blocks from the MM which came out 4 months later.
Personal note: It kills me to use any modification of the real rules but I could see an actual reason why it was beneficial here. I'll have to introduce the real rules as soon as possible and let people customize their characters a little because there is only so far you can go with pre-printed full color characters. (I don't want them written all over for starters)
I am combining this product in my new campaign with Amberdale 0, which fleshes out a town and some of the people in it along with giving some non-combat elements to go with the mostly combat elements of this product. The adventures of these two products mesh nicely (similar theme) and you get quite a bit of play at a low price combined with the free offerings of other companies and see what setting you like best before you spend a lot of money on any one setting. I plan to use all the free low-level adventures (except Wizard's Amulet which is awful) to probe the style of my group and pick a setting we all like so I'm taking my own advice here.
This is the product's goal and it does it admirably. I used the product to introduce a group of non-roleplayers to the game and I was surprised how they were just eating it up. After each adventure they were begging for the next. I knew D&D was a great game but it was hard to explain to new players without having them read the handbook and because they had no interest they wouldn't read the book. I'll explain exactly how the product makes the game interesting to non-roleplayers.
It has 8 full color character sheets, 2 fighters, 2 rogues, 2 clerics, and 2 wizards. It has a graphic of the character, the characters name is in a 48 pt font with race and class right above it in 18 pt font so a new player and look at the picture and get an idea of who they might want to play. All the important words are white on black, in large letters and easy to read so when you ask "What is your initiative?" it only takes a few seconds for the player to find the information instead of a minute of squinting and searching that is typical of a new player with standard character sheets.
There are 3 sentences describing each character's history and goals, a single sentence describing the race and another sentence describing the character's place in the adventuring group. Each and every game term on the front page has a small explanation in 8 pt font of what it means so players don't constantly ask "what does this mean?"
There is a picture of each kind of die d4-d20 so that they are easy to recognize. People who have been playing for decades know all this by heart but some people have never seen anything other than a d6 and 6 kinds of dice can be intimidating. (believe it or not)
On the inside, skills are prominently features in a very large font. Only 8 skills are used (Diplomacy, disable device, hide, listen, move silently, open lock, search, spot) and their values are d20 +/- the modifier so the player knows exactly what die to roll and how much to add or subtract. In a smaller font is an explanation of what the skill is used for. Players with a little time on their hands can absorb these little snippets of information whenever they aren't actively rolling for something.
Ability scores are the smallest information on the page and a overly simple explanation of the effects of the stat is given. This downplays the importance of attributes which is probably a good thing for starting players.
The other pages of the character sheet have rules of interest to the player of that class with an explanation of armor and weapons on the fighter, skills on the rogue and spells on the cleric and wizard.
The box include rules for advancing characters to the 2nd level and under 3rd level it simply refers the player to the player's handbook which by then they are eager to read.
You get a map with rooms printed on one side and blank squares on the other. This map helps you through the 6 adventures included with the game. New players aren't really up to the task of mapping and aren't used to forming pictures of rooms in their heads from a description.
There are 2 sheets of glossy cardboard counters with 48 sq in worth of counters each which cover all the players and everything they will encounter in the 6 adventures.
There is a 32 page b/w rulebook and a 48 page adventure book along with an 8 page color "rulebook" with examples which has any rules not covered on the character sheets themselves that either the DM or players would need to know before play.
I won't go into the adventure book other than to say the adventures slowly increase in size and difficulty and gradually introduce common adventure elements. First you have combat, then you add traps, next comes undead and a puzzle, then strategy, displomacy and branching possibilities, followed by monster tactics and the possibility of defeat and a massive final adventure with wandering monsters and all the elements of the previous 5 adventures. Certain rules are simplified for new players (and DMs), such as initiative (everyone takes 10, makes the order easy because its always the same) and some monsters don't have the latest stat blocks from the MM which came out 4 months later.
Personal note: It kills me to use any modification of the real rules but I could see an actual reason why it was beneficial here. I'll have to introduce the real rules as soon as possible and let people customize their characters a little because there is only so far you can go with pre-printed full color characters. (I don't want them written all over for starters)
I am combining this product in my new campaign with Amberdale 0, which fleshes out a town and some of the people in it along with giving some non-combat elements to go with the mostly combat elements of this product. The adventures of these two products mesh nicely (similar theme) and you get quite a bit of play at a low price combined with the free offerings of other companies and see what setting you like best before you spend a lot of money on any one setting. I plan to use all the free low-level adventures (except Wizard's Amulet which is awful) to probe the style of my group and pick a setting we all like so I'm taking my own advice here.
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