How can WoTC get new players buying Essentials?

[NewJeffCT]

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.

great point - I had thought it was an expansion book as well, or else a consolidation of some prior books, a la the Rules Compendium.

 

[Umbran]

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.

New players probably don't start with the sense that everything is going to change in a couple of years. It is the old crowd that have seen edition changes and revisions, while the new folks are probably largely ignorant of the history. I am not sure new players particularly care what is apt to happen in a couple of years. They don't know they'll still be playing in a couple of months, let alone years. They are not yet dedicated hobbyists making long-term plans.

And, I don't think we have a solid idea of how edition change is perceived outside the internet messageboard crowd, which probably isn't the bulk of the market.

 

[TheObserver]

I must say thank you for this lively discussion as after 20 years I'm attempting at getting back into D&D. My 2 boys always want to learn to play but at the moment I'm stuck as I started with the Red Box back in the 80's and progressed to AD&D from there. I have the 4E PH and was considering getting the new Red Box so that all 3 of us could learn the basics, but part of me just says go back to AD&D 1e.

 

[tuxgeo]

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 ).

Great name for a Thief!

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?

". . . get the newbies to buy . . ." might not be exactly the right question to ask. Instead, how about asking, "What can WotC do to get newbies to start playing 4E using Essentials-built characters?"

Once one asks that question instead of the other one, the answer becomes obvious: offer a stable of 32 different pregenerated Essentials characters for newbies to start with -- each character sheet listing source information such as, "Built using Heroes of the Fallen Lands" (or what-have-you).
(Maybe 64 different Essentials-style PCs would be better?)

If WotC made a huge stable of different pregens available for use, in the same way they make all of the Encounters material available, that could lead newbies into the newbie-friendly territory, and at the same time give each newbie an advertisement ("Keep this character sheet for later use!") for the right Essentials books for them to use in order to start inventing new PCs of their own.

Edit: This suggestion was inspired most recently by Sunderpeak Temple. That was fun; and having two different Thieves and two different Slayers among the pregens for that set was enough to give people more choice, so they could double up on classes without playing exactly the same character in the same party.

 

[rogueattorney]

...but part of me just says go back to AD&D 1e.

If that's what you want to play, just play that. If you're worried about the availability of the rules for other players, this is a very close (and free) approximation.

If you want some new 1e compatible materials, do some googling for "OSRIC." I heartily recommend the products from Expeditious Retreat.

 

[TheObserver]

Thank you for the recommendation rogueattorneny, I will indeed check Expeditious Retreat. As for availability of the rules I have 4 copies of the AD&D 1E PH. When I DM or GM I always provide a couple of copies of the PH and any other Player splat book I will allow.

 

[S'mon]

I must say thank you for this lively discussion as after 20 years I'm attempting at getting back into D&D. My 2 boys always want to learn to play but at the moment I'm stuck as I started with the Red Box back in the 80's and progressed to AD&D from there. I have the 4E PH and was considering getting the new Red Box so that all 3 of us could learn the basics, but part of me just says go back to AD&D 1e.

Those are both reasonable choices, I enjoy both games. In fact I'm running a 1e AD&D game on Sunday using the OSRIC retro-clone, which you can get here for free: OSRIC Download - then on Monday I'm playing in the 4e campaign!

If you want to try your hand at 4e, I think the Essentials products are much more accessible than the earlier releases. I'd recommend:
1. Heroes of the Fallen Lands - to create traditional Fighter/Cleric/Thief/Wizard PCs.
2. Monster Vault - for monsters. Includes great monster-tokens, a map, and an adventure too.
3. DM's Kit for DMing, though you could probably get by for awhile with just the Rules Compendium, it has the basics on encounter-building and you have your PHB for magic items.

In fact you could probably get for awhile by with just your PHB, Monster Vault, and the knowledge that encounters comprise the following monster XP totals:

Encounter Level
1 - 500 - eg 5 1st level goblins, 100 XP each
2 - 625 - eg 5 2nd level monsters, 125 XP each
3 - 750 - eg 5 lvl 3 monsters, 150 XP each
4 - 875 - eg 5 level 4 monsters, 175 XP each
5 - 1000 - eg 5 level 5 monsters, 200 XP each.
+4 levels = x2 XP.

 

[TheObserver]

Thank you for the recommends S'mon, I will drop by my FLGS and pickup what you recommend and will probably pickup the Red Box as well just for the sake of nostalgia. I must say it's good to be coming back to the game that first stirred my imagination long ago.

 

[Beginning of the End]

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?

OPTION 1

(1) Invent a time machine.

(2) Go back in time.

(3) Redesign the Essentials line so that it doesn't create needless confusion in the marketplace while being simultaneously more expensive than the three core rulebooks.

(Curtail the line so that it contains only products that are actually essential. Failing that, price the line so that the core rules don't cost more than they do in the PHB/DMG/MM triumvirate. Failing that, you could have at least made the Starter Set classes compatible with the rest of the line.)

OPTION 2

Stop publishing the PHB/DMG/MM trilogy.

OPTION 3

Radically slash prices on the Essentials line.

That's pretty much it.

A customer with no information about D&D would have a difficult time figuring out what they're supposed to buy at all and would probably end up defaulting to the pay-to-preview Starter Set (assuming they don't just give up and walk away).

A customer with the bare minimum knowledge that they need to choose between the the core trio or a combo of Essentials books will do a price comparison and pick the PHB/DMG/MM.

(PHB = $35. Rules Compendium + 1 Heroes book = $40.

PHB/DMG/MM = $105. RC/Heroes/DM Kit/Monster Vault = $110, $130 if you get both Heroes books.)

A customer who has previous familiarity with D&D will know that the PHB/DMG/MM is how you buy the game and beeline for them.

In none of these scenarios will you get a new player making the actual Essentials books their first stop.

 

[S'mon]

(PHB = $35. Rules Compendium + 1 Heroes book = $40.

The Heroes books each have what a player needs to play. Players don't need a Rules Compendium. Heroes of the Fallen Lands is $12.62 on amazon and IMO it makes a great entry point for new players - if they only knew it was the book they should get.