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<blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3717663" data-attributes="member: 22882">I think it's a huge, possibly crippling, barrier to entry.There's a reason D&amp;D's largest cultural footprint and playerbase coincided with the availability of the Red Box basic set, which included everything needed to play in a single, reasonably priced package.&nbsp; The basic game was sold like essentially all non-RPG games: with everything a player needed to play clearly marked and available in a single package.&nbsp; And it was sold in a box - like Monopoly, Life, World of Warcraft, Warhammer 40k, Final Fantasy XII, Magic the Gathering (basic set) and pretty much every other game a typical non-RPGer will buy in his life.Relying on existing players to recruit new ones essentially kills the chances of bringing youth into the hobby in significant numbers.&nbsp; In other words, it's a complete dead-end from an industry health perspective.The current basic set does not achieve anything like what the original one did.&nbsp; It's at once too cumbersome (using almost the full rules of D&amp;D 3.5) and too limited - it's little, if anything, more than an add for the core books, which ends up making the total purchases MORE expensive.&nbsp; The closest thing to a decent basic game the current edition has is the D&amp;D Miniatures game.With that said, I don't think there's any reason not to HAVE three core books - there should simply be a viable, boxed alternative that looks like a GAME rather than a TEXTBOOK.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MoogleEmpMog, post: 3717663, member: 22882"] I think it's a huge, possibly crippling, barrier to entry. There's a reason D&D's largest cultural footprint and playerbase coincided with the availability of the Red Box basic set, which included everything needed to play in a single, reasonably priced package. The basic game was sold like essentially all non-RPG games: with everything a player needed to play clearly marked and available in a single package. And it was sold in a box - like Monopoly, Life, World of Warcraft, Warhammer 40k, Final Fantasy XII, Magic the Gathering (basic set) and pretty much every other game a typical non-RPGer will buy in his life. Relying on existing players to recruit new ones essentially kills the chances of bringing youth into the hobby in significant numbers. In other words, it's a complete dead-end from an industry health perspective. The current basic set does not achieve anything like what the original one did. It's at once too cumbersome (using almost the full rules of D&D 3.5) and too limited - it's little, if anything, more than an add for the core books, which ends up making the total purchases MORE expensive. The closest thing to a decent basic game the current edition has is the D&D Miniatures game. With that said, I don't think there's any reason not to HAVE three core books - there should simply be a viable, boxed alternative that looks like a GAME rather than a TEXTBOOK. [/QUOTE]

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