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<blockquote data-quote="Grainger" data-source="post: 6486409" data-attributes="member: 6779234">Character creation is by far the most complicated part of the game. If the set is to show how streamlined actual play is, then it makes sense to jump players straight in, instead of making them take ages fiddling with stats; any character creation choices are also hard if you don't know what they mean during play. I realise that players of other RPGs - e.g. Pathfinder - might want to try the character creation out in 5e, but for them, they can look at the free online materials. The starter set is in bookshops - it's meant to appeal to non-gamers and lapsed gamers (who might not have played since 1e, and have no real memory of how to play).Many board games have a &quot;beginner's mode&quot;, with reduced play time and rule-set; it makes sense for a D&amp;D starter set to do this (D&amp;D is much more complicated than most board games, at least in terms of page counts). The most sensible way to do this in 5e is to skip character creation, and start playing.I suppose there could be a half-way solution; give the players a character template, and get them to make a few choices (with explanations of what these mean), but for up to four PCs, that would add a lot of page count to the set, and I presume one of the goals was to keep the page count down (for cost reasons, but also to avoid intimidating newcomers). You need pretty much everything else - rules for combat, example of play, a list of spells - what else can you cut?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grainger, post: 6486409, member: 6779234"] Character creation is by far the most complicated part of the game. If the set is to show how streamlined actual play is, then it makes sense to jump players straight in, instead of making them take ages fiddling with stats; any character creation choices are also hard if you don't know what they mean during play. I realise that players of other RPGs - e.g. Pathfinder - might want to try the character creation out in 5e, but for them, they can look at the free online materials. The starter set is in bookshops - it's meant to appeal to non-gamers and lapsed gamers (who might not have played since 1e, and have no real memory of how to play). Many board games have a "beginner's mode", with reduced play time and rule-set; it makes sense for a D&D starter set to do this (D&D is much more complicated than most board games, at least in terms of page counts). The most sensible way to do this in 5e is to skip character creation, and start playing. I suppose there could be a half-way solution; give the players a character template, and get them to make a few choices (with explanations of what these mean), but for up to four PCs, that would add a lot of page count to the set, and I presume one of the goals was to keep the page count down (for cost reasons, but also to avoid intimidating newcomers). You need pretty much everything else - rules for combat, example of play, a list of spells - what else can you cut? [/QUOTE]

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