JeffB
Legend
Last night for the first time ever, my better half actually showed some interest in my D&D books. She plays a lot of adventure games with me on the Playstation and whatnot, but has NEVER expressed ANY interest in my PnP RPG’s or what I’m reading. She said to me” I would just like to see how these games are actually played, I just don’t understand them.” Currently I’m not playing any games due to family and work time consumption, and don’t plan to for the next couple of months, so I knew I could not “show” her other than to start up a game with just her. However I knew she didn’t want to actually play yet, just see how it’s done and I did not want to push too hard and possibly ruin her interest.
So I grabbed my 3E DMG off my nightstand and proceeded to read her the “example of play” therein, just to give her an inkling of how the game is run. She understood how the dice were involved in the basic sense (I explained the core mechanic) and explained what the DM did, and how he used the Dungeon map, and a map key, etc.
After reading through the example, she asked some more basic questions, and I answered them. One point she made that hit home was “three 200 page plus books of RULES?” Of course I explained that the PHB was only necessary for play, that the DMG and MM were the province of the DM, etc. I can understand totally how overwhelming the AD&D systems, and the 3E systems can be: that’s why the make the introductory boxed set. However it occurred to me that for the first 15 or so years of the game there was an alternate to the complexity of those systems: the OD&D game (B/X/C, etc). A fully functional rule system that had a large amount of support products that was also simple to learn and play without overwhelming the newcomer.
That product is missing from the current 3E game. It’s feast or famine. A player can start out with the introductory boxed set, which basically allows one to just run a few rudimentary games with pre-gen characters, learn some game terminology, learn how to roll what dice when, etc, but is far from a “fully functional” system. One has to jump right into the full-blown 3E game. Which is intimidating at times to ME, so I can only imagine how it might intimidate others far less familiar with D&D or those just starting out.
I wish now that I had pulled out an old Basic Set and showed it to her. I think this kind of “bridge product” would be much less intimidating. I know that the sheer mass of rules and the size of the books definitely (despite my explanations) put a serious damper on the spark of enthusiasm that my wife showed last night.
I know Kenzer is working on something called Hackmaster Lite, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be a similar product to a “basic set”.
Am I alone in this line of thinking? Does anyone else feel that there needs to be a bridge product of sorts? I realize we are all hard-core gamers here, but in trying to put my feet in a newcomer to RPG’s shoes, I can’t help but feel the full blown 3E core books are just “way too much” to bring in much new blood.
Thoughts?
So I grabbed my 3E DMG off my nightstand and proceeded to read her the “example of play” therein, just to give her an inkling of how the game is run. She understood how the dice were involved in the basic sense (I explained the core mechanic) and explained what the DM did, and how he used the Dungeon map, and a map key, etc.
After reading through the example, she asked some more basic questions, and I answered them. One point she made that hit home was “three 200 page plus books of RULES?” Of course I explained that the PHB was only necessary for play, that the DMG and MM were the province of the DM, etc. I can understand totally how overwhelming the AD&D systems, and the 3E systems can be: that’s why the make the introductory boxed set. However it occurred to me that for the first 15 or so years of the game there was an alternate to the complexity of those systems: the OD&D game (B/X/C, etc). A fully functional rule system that had a large amount of support products that was also simple to learn and play without overwhelming the newcomer.
That product is missing from the current 3E game. It’s feast or famine. A player can start out with the introductory boxed set, which basically allows one to just run a few rudimentary games with pre-gen characters, learn some game terminology, learn how to roll what dice when, etc, but is far from a “fully functional” system. One has to jump right into the full-blown 3E game. Which is intimidating at times to ME, so I can only imagine how it might intimidate others far less familiar with D&D or those just starting out.
I wish now that I had pulled out an old Basic Set and showed it to her. I think this kind of “bridge product” would be much less intimidating. I know that the sheer mass of rules and the size of the books definitely (despite my explanations) put a serious damper on the spark of enthusiasm that my wife showed last night.
I know Kenzer is working on something called Hackmaster Lite, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be a similar product to a “basic set”.
Am I alone in this line of thinking? Does anyone else feel that there needs to be a bridge product of sorts? I realize we are all hard-core gamers here, but in trying to put my feet in a newcomer to RPG’s shoes, I can’t help but feel the full blown 3E core books are just “way too much” to bring in much new blood.
Thoughts?
