Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="GX.Sigma" data-source="post: 6058554" data-attributes="member: 6690511">I can only speak for myself:I started playing D&D in 2008 (the free Keep on the Shadowfell download), and the complexity was absolutely a barrier to me. I had played Magic: The Gathering for years, and I think I was a Rules Advisor by then (i.e., the guy who knows all the rules that nobody is expected to know because they're way too complicated and never come up in most games), and even to me 4e's complexity was a huge turn-off. It took an entire day to make a character, the book was full of rules that made no sense and I wasn't sure if I needed to remember--like Action Points. I'll just use that as an example. The concept is easy enough (well, not when you're layering it upon a complex game where you already have tons of things to remember), but it's not just a thing you can do whenever you want: using an Action Point is a free action that you can use once per encounter (even though you'll pretty much never have more than one at a time). That means you can't use it while dazed or in a surprise round. Seriously, I.. what? Why would you make it that complicated?Not only was it a struggle playing it for the first time, but explaining the rules to my friends was hopeless. One of my friends in particular was a big nerd and casual gamer (I think she was into Final Fantasy, so not afraid of complex games either) who was kinda interested in the idea of pretending to be an elf. I could see her eyes glaze over as I tried to teach her about action points and encounter powers and minor actions and healing surges and fortitude defenses. She probably thought the same thing I did: "Why do I have to learn all these stupid rules? I thought this was a game about imagination and storytelling!" I'm positive that, if the game was simpler and easier to learn, she'd be a RPG fan today.I like this as well--but they can't do it like 3e and 4e. Remember, 3e and 4e came out in 3 hardcovers, with a boxed  "Starter Set" or "Basic Game" or whatever.For D&D Next, I would like to see a little red box that just says Dungeons & Dragons: Fantasy Roleplaying Game  on it. Not "Basic Set" or "Beginner Box," just Dungeons & Dragons.  You could go to a store (Toys 'R' Us, Target) and buy Dungeons &  Dragons. Take it home, open it up, and now you own the game of Dungeons  & Dragons.Then you could have the "Advanced Player's Handbook" and the "Advanced Dungeon Master's Guide" in hardback form at hobby game stores.</blockquote>

Verification