Steel_Wind
Legend
The recent bevvy of how to teach the game, where's the game headed and Rules Lite or not posts leads me to think:
Isn't the real issue pretty simple: we want more new gamers and just how do we go about doing that?
Radical Thought or Epiphany?
HERE is an idea. And while it's hubris to call it original... I'll throw it out there and still claim to call it "new" and wiat for someone to say "nah... been there done that".
Ok. Lets NOT dumb down the rules. Make a lite version if you care to, but yanno what? It's not really needed. The kind of people this game is supposed to appeal to? That's not necessary. It's not.
Instead, I suggest the MAIN problem is how do you sell this thing to somebody who has never played and then hope to get him hooked. Just WHO is he going to play with?
Which brings it down not so much to a matchmaking thing - but something simpler: How do you learn to play?
My 3.0 copy of the PHB had this cool and groovy piece of plastic coated aluminum in the back of it. It's called a CD. It looks an awful lot like its upstart cousin, the DVD.
The main strength of the upstarts is size.
You see where I am all going with this don't you?
Why not use the DVD to SHOW PEOPLE HOW TO PLAY.
Explain the rules. USE THE RULES IN CONTEXT during a game session. Feed it to 'em with a big wooden spoon and the temperature is just right.
Make the gamers late teens, a few younger and an older. Put a somewhat gothy cute girl in there. Whatever. CAST THE THING and make it somewhat optimistic perhaps, but not *unrealistic* in terms of the players.
Make it a cool session which is in itself, interesting to watch. Let em use cool miniatures and neat maps.
Make it look interesting and fun and demystify the game. It should be that a kid can watch this 4-6 hours of DivX stuff on a PC and not only will he have the rules explained, he'll have a damn fine idea of what a "proper" session of D&D looks like and how it should play.
Put that in every PHB. Make a DM one for the DMG. Sell em as an add-on to a basic set. Hell - stick em on magazine covers and all kinds of crap. Make em ubiquitous as a AOL disc if you can.
If someone body want to pirate that and put it on a P2P they'll be wasting their time, because WotC already put it up there.
Just use the discs to show new players and new DM how to play. Make it cool and exciting. Demonstrate the rules. Add some FX. Put in some cool and groovy post-production. Pry some dough out of Hasbro and call it MARKETING LIKE YOU MEAN IT.
Give people the tools and confidence they need so that they can learn the game on their own and attempt to teach it to their friends. Cold. From a standing start.
No mensch. No grognard. No experienced journeyman to hold a hand. Just flat out try to use the DVD so that kids can teach themselves how to play and feel confident in doing so and make it look COOL so that they want to try.
Get enough of em trying, and you'll hook enough in that the rest will take care of itself...
Isn't the real issue pretty simple: we want more new gamers and just how do we go about doing that?
Radical Thought or Epiphany?
HERE is an idea. And while it's hubris to call it original... I'll throw it out there and still claim to call it "new" and wiat for someone to say "nah... been there done that".
Ok. Lets NOT dumb down the rules. Make a lite version if you care to, but yanno what? It's not really needed. The kind of people this game is supposed to appeal to? That's not necessary. It's not.
Instead, I suggest the MAIN problem is how do you sell this thing to somebody who has never played and then hope to get him hooked. Just WHO is he going to play with?
Which brings it down not so much to a matchmaking thing - but something simpler: How do you learn to play?
My 3.0 copy of the PHB had this cool and groovy piece of plastic coated aluminum in the back of it. It's called a CD. It looks an awful lot like its upstart cousin, the DVD.
The main strength of the upstarts is size.
You see where I am all going with this don't you?
Why not use the DVD to SHOW PEOPLE HOW TO PLAY.
Explain the rules. USE THE RULES IN CONTEXT during a game session. Feed it to 'em with a big wooden spoon and the temperature is just right.
Make the gamers late teens, a few younger and an older. Put a somewhat gothy cute girl in there. Whatever. CAST THE THING and make it somewhat optimistic perhaps, but not *unrealistic* in terms of the players.
Make it a cool session which is in itself, interesting to watch. Let em use cool miniatures and neat maps.
Make it look interesting and fun and demystify the game. It should be that a kid can watch this 4-6 hours of DivX stuff on a PC and not only will he have the rules explained, he'll have a damn fine idea of what a "proper" session of D&D looks like and how it should play.
Put that in every PHB. Make a DM one for the DMG. Sell em as an add-on to a basic set. Hell - stick em on magazine covers and all kinds of crap. Make em ubiquitous as a AOL disc if you can.
If someone body want to pirate that and put it on a P2P they'll be wasting their time, because WotC already put it up there.
Just use the discs to show new players and new DM how to play. Make it cool and exciting. Demonstrate the rules. Add some FX. Put in some cool and groovy post-production. Pry some dough out of Hasbro and call it MARKETING LIKE YOU MEAN IT.
Give people the tools and confidence they need so that they can learn the game on their own and attempt to teach it to their friends. Cold. From a standing start.
No mensch. No grognard. No experienced journeyman to hold a hand. Just flat out try to use the DVD so that kids can teach themselves how to play and feel confident in doing so and make it look COOL so that they want to try.
Get enough of em trying, and you'll hook enough in that the rest will take care of itself...
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