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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3726909" data-attributes="member: 22424">I think it would be a huge mistake for WotC to try to package D&D to appeal to the mainstream. The D&D experience is strong enough to attract people on its own. It would certainly be strengthened with a good new D&D cartoon, a good movie or two, and some good computer games and/or MMORPG.However, there are a number of things in the current edition (and, it looks like, in the next edition as well) that actively turn off potential new players. The minimum buy-in is $90 dollars (for the group). Then, someone has to read through almost 1,000 pages of core rulebooks. There are huge numbers of complex and interconnecting options. To even create a character you basically have to read 100 pages of dense text.Now, this is all okay if you've got an experienced player or two on hand to walk you through it all, but for the majority of people that is not the case. Plus, let's be honest - how many gamers are dismissive or unwelcoming towards newbies?Even once you get playing, there's an awful lot in the system that appeals greatly to a particular mindset, yet doesn't really have much to do with the core experience of D&D (which I define as "go on adventures, kill things, take their stuff). The mechanics are extremely mathematical, with particular builds being more powerful than others (and obviously so), corner cases upon corner cases, and so on.Here's the thing: my extended family contains many lapsed gamers. Several of the others might be inclined to give the game a try. However, the very idea of getting a game together on family reunions is laughable - it would require me to do lots of legwork beforehand prepping characters (that they might not want to play), and then there would be a significant period of working through rules. By the time we're even ready to roll some dice, half the table will have lost interest. And these are people who by all rights should be an ideal target for the game, so surely something's wrong there?I'm starting to think that the 'ideal' form of the game would look something like the old "Rules Cyclopedia", with the whole game in a single book of about 250 pages. The rules should be re-examined with a view to deciding what adds to the core experience and what doesn't.In terms of rules, I'd probably start by dropping encumberance, multiclassing and alignment. I'd eliminate all but five races, all but six to eight classes, and a huge number of the feat, equipment, spell and magic item choices. I'd switch skills to the SWSE model, and compress monster stat-blocks to work as monsters as-is, with advancement options limited to low-level humanoid types. (I would then publish an "Advanced Rulebook" containing lots more options, for those who want them and are ready for them.)</blockquote>

Verification