How can WoTC get new players buying Essentials?

[S'mon]

I'm in a great new 4e campaign at the London D&D Meetup, 3 sessions in now. Most of the other players are brand new to 4e, though they've often played previous editions. ALL these new players turn up to the game with freshly-purchased 4e Players' Handbooks; I'm the only one at the table using Heroes of The... (Fallen Lands, for my Thief, Larsenio Roguespierre ). They then struggle with their fiendishly complicated 4e PCs, just as I remember doing - one tried a Feypact Warlock and gave up after one session, returning with a Fighter; another is struggling with Warlord, a third who I think must have some 4e experience seems to have a reasonable handle on her Cleric.

IMO all these players, like me, would have been much better off with the Essentials builds. But when they went into the FLGS, they didn't pick up Heroes of the Fallen Lands, they made a beeline for the traditional access point to D&D, the massively errated and near-obsolete 4e Players' Handbook.

Is this a good thing for WotC? It means WoTC are still selling their big stack of PHBs. But surely they would be retaining more players if those players were actually starting with Essentials the way they're now 'supposed' to? What can WotC do to get newbies to actually buy the newbie books?

 

[Dice4Hire]

"near-obsolete" heh

Both entry points work well, if new players are taught the ropes.

Essentials classes have virtually no choices, so they are a bit easier to get into. I grant that. However, I am not really convinced they are that much easier to do in actual play. Some have fewer power, but there is still a lot of tactical positioning and a lot of things to remember.

Hopefully someone familiar with the "obsolete" PHB can help out a bit before they die of old age and start spinning in their graves for eternity.

 

[Jhaelen]

What can WotC do to get newbies to actually buy the newbie books?

Well, first and foremost: They have to get translated.

Here in Germany the only 4e books that are available in German are the three Core books: PHB1, DMG1, MM1.

D&D has never been the strongest RPG in Germany, but currently WotC seem to be doing everything they can to guarantee its decline into total obscurity (outside the US).

 

[brewdus]

Seems they might be doing the same thing here in the U.S.. At least the pen and paper tabletop version!

 

[delericho]

Is this a good thing for WotC? It means WoTC are still selling their big stack of PHBs. But surely they would be retaining more players if those players were actually starting with Essentials the way they're now 'supposed' to? What can WotC do to get newbies to actually buy the newbie books?

Remove the old PHB/DMG/MM from sale. WotC won't want to do it, but if they want new players to buy the 'correct' books, then they should try to get rid of the alternative.

Otherwise, they need to team up with stores, so that whenever anyone asks "what do I need to get started?", the answer is clear: "Red Box for total newbies, Essentials for everyone else". And perhaps even have them act as gatekeepers for the edition: when someone arrives at the till with the PHB, have them say "nah, you don't want that; you want this." But both of those are less good than just removing the 'wrong' options. (And they do nothing to deal with online sales, or sales via non-specialist stores.)

 

[kaomera]

Essentials classes have virtually no choices

Well, that's a valid opinion, although not one I really agree with. But as long as it's out there and the first things a lot of gamers are going to throw at a new player, the new players are going to continue to pick up the PHB1... I think it mainly comes down to what the new players are steered towards by whomever they ask - other gamers, store staff, etc. And that means that opinions and education about the product are going to be key. I know that I've encountered at least one player who was sold a set of power cards as "all he needed to play a Swordmage" (he did have the PHB1, but no-one at the table has the FR character book) by an under-informed salesperson.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I think they made a mistake in how they named the player books. "Heroes Of X" sounds like an expansion book. They should have called them some variant of "Basic PHB" or some such.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Perhaps the sales pitch when essentials was launched saying that it was all the same, all just 4E, fully compatible, etc wasn't the best idea.

The PHBs and Heroes books are held up as equally valid means of getting started in the game and new players are listening to that, and why shouldn't they? The company producing the products told us it is true and that is as directly from the source as it gets.

Look at what poor newbies are up against. Several hundred pages of rules no matter which option they choose along with a sense that everything is likely to change again in a couple years meaning yet another different big pile of rules to learn.

D&D needs a stable basic game badly. No more than a hundred pages total for DM and players created with simple concepts that newbies can grasp quickly and get to playing. More advanced material should build on this without changing the basic game too much.

 

[billd91]

I think they made a mistake in how they named the player books. "Heroes Of X" sounds like an expansion book. They should have called them some variant of "Basic PHB" or some such.

I'd agree with this. When I walked into my FLGS and saw the array of Essentials stuff on the shelf, I couldn't easily tell where the entry point was as a player. I had to dig in. Turns out there's more than one, I guess, depending on what I want to play. That doesn't attract the attention of the experienced D&D hand as neatly as 4e's Player's Handbook considering how the term Player's Handbook has been used over 3 preceding editions.

 

[S'mon]

Perhaps the sales pitch when essentials was launched saying that it was all the same, all just 4E, fully compatible, etc wasn't the best idea.

The PHBs and Heroes books are held up as equally valid means of getting started in the game and new players are listening to that, and why shouldn't they? The company producing the products told us it is true and that is as directly from the source as it gets.

Look at what poor newbies are up against. Several hundred pages of rules no matter which option they choose along with a sense that everything is likely to change again in a couple years meaning yet another different big pile of rules to learn.

D&D needs a stable basic game badly. No more than a hundred pages total for DM and players created with simple concepts that newbies can grasp quickly and get to playing. More advanced material should build on this without changing the basic game too much.

Agree strongly. Apparently I must spread some XP around before giving it to ExploderWizard again!