D&D Essentials - What they are and who they're for

[Thornir Alekeg]

I am really looking forward to this. In all honesty, I bought the 4e core books in the boxed set when it first came out. I started going through the books, but found it difficult, despite my almost 30 years of playing D&D. The fact that I didn't have an active group to play with probably didn't help my motivation to plow through the books.

Now I would really like to try out 4e and entice some of my old gaming buddies to give it a try, but they all left D&D with a sour taste in their mouths after the 3.5 release. I figure that if I can purchase the starter set, learn the basic rules well enough to explain the newest changes to them, and get them to give it a try with minimal investment in time and money, I will have a chance at getting them hooked again. If it doesn't work and we don't like 4e, I will not have made a large financial investment myself.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Interesting. The starter set is two books: 32 & 64 pages. That sounds reasonable for newbies, but I'm surprised that it only covers levels 1-3 in that 96 pages. So, starting at level 4, players are expected to buy/read two more 300+ page books (over 650 pages total)? DMs would require even more than that?

Remember what happened with Holmes Basic D&D? It only covered levels 1-3, then players were expected to make the jump to full AD&D 1e. Funny thing is, many of the players never made the jump. Quite a few liked having a simplified version of the game. Eventually, TSR produced an entire separate, simplified line of D&D (B/X, BECMI, RC) for those players. Any chance of something like that happening with Essentials?

If it is using the same rules, just in a simplified format with somewhat limited choices, it should be fully compatible with the "full" version of the games.

Also, the other books in the line all cover levels 1-30, so you don't have to keep buying sets to keep advancing your PC. You only need to spend on other material if what you have isn't satisfying your desire for more classes, races, options etc.

 

[Festivus]

I suspect that the Essentials starter is going to be a big seller at holiday time, particularly if this product lands in big box toy stores.

 

[Obryn]

More in-depth explanations of details and concepts that people who play RPGs are familiar with and understand, but that new people would not.

I think we'll see that, but that wouldn't take up that much more room. I mean, I wouldn't guess that this would account for more than a few pages, total.

I don't think that's it. It is my understanding that the books will be 'trade paperback' size and so the layout will be simpler with a much lower word count per page. That will increase page count quite a bit.

Trade paperback makes a whole lot of sense. Kind of weird - but yeah, that would greatly increase the page count, and likely cut down on production costs with the whole softcover deal.

4e books are already pretty heavily whitespaced, though, with a very clean and open layout. I dunno how much simpler they can get, layout-wise!

-O

 

[WheresMyD20]

If it is using the same rules, just in a simplified format with somewhat limited choices, it should be fully compatible with the "full" version of the games.

The simplified format and limited choices only exist for levels 1-3. After that, you need to dive into the full Rules Compendium if you want to play levels 4-30. There might be a contingent of players that want to stick with the simplified format and limited choices over the whole 30 levels. That's what happened with the Holmes-era Basic set. TSR expected that all Basic players would want to transition into the "full" AD&D ruleset (which Basic was ~95% compatible with), but many didn't want to.

 

[doctorhook]

The simplified format and limited choices only exist for levels 1-3. After that, you need to dive into the full Rules Compendium if you want to play levels 4-30. There might be a contingent of players that want to stick with the simplified format and limited choices over the whole 30 levels. That's what happened with the Holmes-era Basic set. TSR expected that all Basic players would want to transition into the "full" AD&D ruleset (which Basic was ~95% compatible with), but many didn't want to.

My understanding is that Basic and 1e AD&D weren't very compatible at all. D&D Essentials is 4E, and therefore 100% compatible with PH1. On this basis, I expect the "transition" rate to be much higher this time around.

*Especially because there's no transition. They're the same game this time around, and it's a damn sight easier to learn than it was back in 1981, too.

 

[Obryn]

My understanding is that Basic and 1e AD&D weren't very compatible at all.

Oh, that never stopped us from doing it anyway!

-O

 

[Eridanis]

I am really looking forward to this. In all honesty, I bought the 4e core books in the boxed set when it first came out. I started going through the books, but found it difficult, despite my almost 30 years of playing D&D. The fact that I didn't have an active group to play with probably didn't help my motivation to plow through the books.

This applies to me, as well. I wanted to try 4E when it was released, but after looking through the box set, I just didn't have the heart or the time to learn the entirely new system well enough to DM it (which is what I would have had to do). I might have to sample one or two of these new books and give it a go.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

I gotta say, I am definately the audience for this line of products. I love quick references, I love easy access books, I love being able to bring new people into the game without scaring them away with mass amounts of books and far too many options.

Also, soft cover books are the best! I still want that soft cover PHB for 3.5 that I've seen some people have, but never found myself. Soft cover books make for easy flip through.

I hope this line does well enough that Wizards can hire back some of their lay offs and keep making awesome books.

 

[Chainsaw]

.. and it's a damn sight easier to learn than it was back in 1981, too.

Come on.. why'd you have to go there?