D&D 5E Phandelver starting to show up in the wild. NewbieDM looks to be the first!

[Parmandur]

This book is supposed to include "dials" to make the squamous horror palatable to people playing with their young children.

Yes, and the flip yhrus are shoeing this: but most of the people eho eill play this are teens, same as every D&D product. Those dials are aimed at teens more than anything.

 

[MockingBird]

Saw a bit about this.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The weavers show up in this adventure. When was the last time weavers made an appearance?

 

[pukunui]

In case you weren't aware they did put out a free pdf

Yeah, I've got that pdf but haven't looked at it since the day it was released probably. Forgot all about it. Thanks.

 

[Reynard]

Yes, and the flip yhrus are shoeing this: but most of the people eho eill play this are teens, same as every D&D product. Those dials are aimed at teens more than anything.

That is literally not what the promo says. I don't understand the desire to rewrite what the publisher says in order to make a point.

 

[Parmandur]

That is literally not what the promo says. I don't understand the desire to rewrite what the publisher says in order to make a point.

Teens and Tweens are the majority of people who play the game.they are the audience for any comment like that....because they are the audience for everything WotC puts out.

 

[Reynard]

Teens and Tweens are the majority of people who play the game.they are the audience for any comment like that....because they are the audience for everything WotC puts out.

That is completely irrelevant to the discussion about this book including horror elements inappropriate for family friendly play, but then including dials to make that happen.

 

[Parmandur]

That is completely irrelevant to the discussion about this book including horror elements inappropriate for family friendly play, but then including dials to make that happen.

Not at all: teens are who are going to have their hands at those dials for use with their friends, they are who the granger version is selling to even if they will likely dislike it back a notch in play.

 

[Reynard]

Not at all: teens are who are going to have their hands at those dials for use with their friends, they are who the granger version is selling to even if they will likely dislike it back a notch in play.

That's not what the publisher is saying. It is directly aimed at parents. I don't understand why you are arguing with something they explicitly stated.

 

[Parmandur]

That's not what the publisher is saying. It is directly aimed at parents. I don't understand why you are arguing with something they explicitly stated.

Is it? Did they use the words "this is for parents"? Or that there is some intense, adult content (aka, cool and pseudo-forbiddrn) that can be dialled up and down if needed (say for one'sfellow 12 year olds)?? It's a multidecade long strategy of WotC to talk up how adult aspects of D&D are to appeal to teenagers, I see no reason to believe that has changed now for no discernable reason. What WotC says and does literally always make sense if you assume the intended audience is 12-24...who is the stated target audience, and this "scaling adult content" is no exception.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I agree with this. "Starting towns" need to be safe and stable -- that is the purpose they serve in play -- but they don't necessarily need to be mundane. Throw in a old grandmother treant planted in the center of town that gives out advice and apples. Make the captain of the town guard an intelligent animated armor, or maybe the inn is actually a demiplane. 5E in particular embraces gonzo high fantasy elements as "normal" such that it is sort of weird for it to present mundane towns and villages.

Agreed. I have started two longterm campaigns in Phandalin and eventually regretted it both times. So, so dull.