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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6072507" data-attributes="member: 2067">You gotta think about marketing and psychology and consumer behavior to see the context in which that's not a great idea.As a lot of others in the thread have stated, &quot;Beginners,&quot; or &quot;Basic&quot; or &quot;Introductory&quot; or whatever have a lot of things that ding the value of the product, for instance:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> It implies that the product labeled in such a way is not the &quot;real&quot; experience, but one for people who can't handle the &quot;real&quot; experience.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> It implies that the &quot;real&quot; experience is significantly more complex or challenging in some way, requiring some special expertise to use.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> It implies you're not getting the full experience, but a sanitized version. </li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> It implies the game was not made to be played by people who aren't already familiar with it, and this product is to make you familiar with it, rather than to show you what the game is like.</li>
</ul>All those are massive problems with that label. And none of those are true about a game that is as simple to play up-front as OD&amp;D might be. OD&amp;D is real D&amp;D. It is actual full-fledged D&amp;D. It is short and small and has no races and only three classes, and monster entries only a paragraph long (with stats being a single line in a chart), but there are people who have never needed more than that to run 30+ years of awesome games. OD&amp;D is not &quot;beginner's&quot; D&amp;D. It is not &quot;lite&quot; D&amp;D. It is not &quot;Basic&quot; or &quot;Introductory&quot; or &quot;Special Christmas Gift Set&quot; D&amp;D. It is 100% fully real D&amp;D. It (or a NEXT book using that as an entry point to the game) doesn't need that &quot;n00b zone&quot; label, and all its negative connotations. &quot;Advanced&quot; has its own negative connotations that the design/marketing team will probably want to take into account, too, of course. But I think making the first book basic and raw and limited is a great way to not only make people more likely to pick it up (and pick up other things), but also a great way to reinforce the idea that D&amp;D is the kind of game your group makes it. Because most people will likely want more than the core book offers, it's a great way to reinforce the idea that you can add on whatever you want, and end up playing a very different game from someone two counties over.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6072507, member: 2067"] You gotta think about marketing and psychology and consumer behavior to see the context in which that's not a great idea. As a lot of others in the thread have stated, "Beginners," or "Basic" or "Introductory" or whatever have a lot of things that ding the value of the product, for instance: [LIST] [*] It implies that the product labeled in such a way is not the "real" experience, but one for people who can't handle the "real" experience. [*] It implies that the "real" experience is significantly more complex or challenging in some way, requiring some special expertise to use. [*] It implies you're not getting the full experience, but a sanitized version. [*] It implies the game was not made to be played by people who aren't already familiar with it, and this product is to make you familiar with it, rather than to show you what the game is like. [/LIST] All those are massive problems with that label. And none of those are true about a game that is as simple to play up-front as OD&D might be. OD&D is [I]real[/I] D&D. It is actual full-fledged D&D. It is short and small and has no races and only three classes, and monster entries only a paragraph long (with stats being a single line in a chart), but there are people who have never needed more than that to run 30+ years of awesome games. OD&D is not "beginner's" D&D. It is not "lite" D&D. It is not "Basic" or "Introductory" or "Special Christmas Gift Set" D&D. It is 100% fully real D&D. It (or a NEXT book using that as an entry point to the game) doesn't need that "n00b zone" label, and all its negative connotations. "Advanced" has its own negative connotations that the design/marketing team will probably want to take into account, too, of course. But I think making the first book basic and raw and limited is a great way to not only make people more likely to pick it up (and pick up other things), but also a great way to reinforce the idea that D&D is the kind of game your group makes it. Because most people will likely want more than the core book offers, it's a great way to reinforce the idea that you can add on whatever you want, and end up playing a very different game from someone two counties over. [/QUOTE]

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