Mercule
Adventurer
Wormwood said:
It depends. For a setting-focused game like a WoD or Shadowrun, I expect it.
I don't see D&D as being setting-focused. D&D should be a toolkit that lets me run a fantasy game in a setting of my own devising or a published setting. The more true the line "D&D emulates the D&D genre" becomes, the less I want to play D&D.
That said, I'm a lazy bastard. I very much appreciate the implied setting, as I understand 4E to be including it, and I (at worst) don't mind the DMG having a sample adventure in it. Heck, the red box had a sample solo adventure as the intro to the player's book, IIRC. Talk about limited re-use, but it was a Good Thing.
Sometimes I think we grognards forget what it was like starting out. It's all well and good that I can pick up a book that reads like the dictionary and digest the rules, but that doesn't really help sustain the hobby. I find it's useful if my casual players, less rules-adept players, or *gasp* new players are willing and able to pick up a book and look something up. The dictionary approach doesn't really encourage that.
The "well put out a special 'n00bie kit'" doesn't either. It's the die-hards and grognards who are willing to shell out for additional materials, not the tyros and prospective players. I have a hard enough time getting the 15+ year gaming veterans in my group to shell out for Complete Arcane so they can knowledgeably play a warlock.
Examples and explanations are critical to the sustainability of the hobby. The best place to put (a certain amount of) them is in the basic books. I don't want to see the DMG become nothing more than a setting book with a "start here" adventure, but I can't see anything but good coming from the inclusion of some samples with a discussion of the design behind them. Even those of us who have been playing D&D since before there were hardcover rulebooks could benefit from seeing some of the edition changes in action and understanding the thoughts behind them.
