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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1896510" data-attributes="member: 151">Well, the new basic edition may tell if that's true or not.  However, an assumption throughout the discussion is that there are vast, untapped numbers of potential gamers who would be playing D&D right now, if only WotC would step up and do X to bring them into the game.  I'm not sure that I accept that the RPG community is so massively underserved.  I do know that I started playing D&D when I was 11, and AD&D by the time I was 12 or 13.  Most of my fellow players were the same way.    I think that there are two separate phases that bring new players in: interest and accessibility.  Most of this discussion assumes the former and focuses on the latter.  I think WotC's recent advertising campaign and their 30th anniversary marketing push certainly got the name out there, and between that and the LotR movies, the interest isn't going to see a much more dramatic upswing than it has.  Therefore, the issue is more a question of making the game accessible.  I'm sure more can be done, but I think the Basic Set is a good first step.  It doesn't 'dumb down' D&D, so much as only provide the material that the players and DM actually need for a simple game.  The reason so many came into D&D through Moldvay was two-fold: it was sold in a box as a complete game (and thus could be given as a gift and purchased in places other than obscure book or hobby shops); second, it provided the right level of detail to get playing quickly, allowing players and DMs to move up to their level of sophistication when they were ready, on their own time.  The goal shouldn't be "how can I market this to kids?" but "how can I make this game more accesible to everyone?".   This should include packaging to make it clear to non-players that it's the right thing to give as a gift, in the retail channel in places like Toys'R'Us, Target and Barnes and Nobles and is attractive or different enough to garner attention.    This is a prickly pear of a problem.  You're 100% right: new DMs or inexperienced DMs are underserved.  The problem is that DMs themselves are notoriously difficult to serve.  Experienced DMs consider such material a waste of paper.  Further, many DMs prefer to brew their own, both rules and settings, making it difficult to target them with specific material.   Further, creating DM-specific material is, quite frankly, much harder.  It requires a lot more work to provide more detailed rules-centric material to DMs.  Attacking the problem by selling to the players (and thus forcing the DM to acquire material from the bottom-up) is the current proven strategy, I think.  The realities of the publishing industry mean that a solution to this problem is difficult, at best.  PDFs may certainly be a step in the right direction for this.  WotC's extensive web support is certainly an important, if underrated, component, as is Paizo's DM-centric articles in Dungeon.</blockquote>

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