Got the D&D 4e Starter Set...So whatcha wanna know?

[Scott_Rouse]

I think the problem is aiming the starter set at 10-12 year olds. In this country they are not even allowed to have jobs to earn their money, and this means it comes form the parents and they should not just let kids buy anything sight unseen and need to spend time with the children of this adolescent stage and help them with the things they do for leisure activities.

Sorry I can't follow the formatting in your post but I will comment on this.

Kids 10-12 have literally billions of dollars of discretionary spending money. Grandma money, allowances, birthday money, etc.

And some of those 10-12 year olds are much smarter than given credit for as many learn in schools how to make javascript/XML enabled websites. A little D&D character creation would be...child's play for them.

Fair enough and if they want to play bad enough they'll DM and recruit some friends as PCs.

 

[Windjammer]

Another problem is that the adventure presented is almost 100% combat

I was THIS close to buying it. Thanks for saving me $12.

What's wrong with WotC? How come EVERY 4th edition starters adventure module they've issued leans so heavily on the combat side? I mean, we're all fine here with D&D being combat-centric - but combat-exclusive? Honestly, after a very, very long list of disappointments in that regard (Shadowfell, Shadowhaunt, Skyfire Waste, Beneath Haunted Halls, ... the list continues) this is really the final straw for me.

I won't buy adventure modules from WotC anymore unless I hear from someone reliable that they actually CARE about people playing plots and not just levels. Talking about people picking up the hobby from this one. Honestly.

 

[Relique du Madde]

I have several questions which I'm pretty sure is not going to be answered (since it can be disastrous if not confidential):

Since several of the responses seem to be about 10 - 12 year old children being smarter then most people give them credit for being, were there any 10 - 12 year olds in a marketing test group that helped decide the direction of the basic set? If so, which approach to starting 4e did they prefer: the "basic set" or the "core rules" approach?

 

[justanobody]

Fair enough and if they want to play bad enough they'll DM and recruit some friends as PCs.

If they have that much disposable money, and want to play bad enough, then why would they bother with the starter set to DM, and not just buy the core books?

The two ideas seem to contradict each other.

The point of them being smarter than given credit for is that these MMOs people flock to may have little int he way of creating the character, but look at the amount of accounting that even kids do on these quicker access and play games.

Plan out this quest to need these locations, and these places, and this time the mob will drop X item, etc....

They aren't that much more difficult than creating a D&D character. Hell, creating a D&D character for me in any edition has ben easier than a lot of these MMO and other video game quests figuring out what in the world is going on and who I need to find where, and at what time of the day real world vs game time, etc.

With 4th it is even easier since there is so little difference between the classes in terms of creation, just different sets of thing to choose from, but basically the same process for each unlike wizards c. fighters of older editions.

That is one of 4th's selling points that could be given away in the starter as how much easier it is to make a character your own than ever before in ANY non-video game.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'd like to thank you, Scott, for chiming in on the thread, adding needed perspective from the source.

Our approach was to save this step for later. Focus on the DM and get them all playing sooner.

Is this bolded portion above a harbinger of something to come?

 

[Fifth Element]

If they have that much disposable money, and want to play bad enough, then why would they bother with the starter set to DM, and not just buy the core books?

The two ideas seem to contradict each other.

That's ridiculous. Kids of that age as a whole have significant disposable income. Each individual kid does not. Laying out $100 is significant to many adults, and would be more so to most kids.

 

[justanobody]

That's ridiculous. Kids of that age as a whole have significant disposable income. Each individual kid does not. Laying out $100 is significant to many adults, and would be more so to most kids.

If one kid can afford $20 then 6 can afford the core books as a group.

 

[Fifth Element]

If one kid can afford $20 then 6 can afford the core books as a group.

Okay...have you ever tried to get five of your friends to pitch money in for something new? For you all to share? Not so easy, especially when you're 10.

 

[drothgery]

I do really think it comes down to the fact that the primary "selling points" of D&D are that you can make your own character and come up with novel solutions to problems. There's pretty much nothing else that D&D does that some other game doesn't do... playing a role, designing an adventure (you can do that for Descent), tactical combat, etc. Where D&D really shines are the open-ended dimensions of character designation and problem-solving. I can choose (even if within limits) what I want my guy to be, and I can choose how he approaches the world.

The thing is that just heroic teir for four races and four classes sucks up a huge amount of pagecount in 4e, so making a starter set with chargen is kind of difficult.

 

[garyh]

Okay...have you ever tried to get five of your friends to pitch money in for something new? For you all to share? Not so easy, especially when you're 10.

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