Pramas on 4E and New Gamers

[CaptainChaos]

Chris Pramas of Green Ronin posted an interesting article on his blog talking about 4E and new players.

"When I heard that 4E was going to radically rebuild D&D, my biggest hope was that the new iteration would be good acquisition game. The hobby needs more roleplayers, plain and simple, and I hoped 4E might help deliver them.

My assessment after having the books for a few weeks: it fails."

Rest of the article here:

http://www.chrispramas.com/

I'm an experienced gamer and I know I found the classes chapter (or, as Pramas calls it, "The Great Wall") to be daunting. I can only wonder how a total noob would react.

Worth a read.

 

[Rechan]

I'm disappointed with Pramas's disappointment.

 

[JeffB]

Everything since the Moldvay& Mentzer Basic sets has pretty much failed at being a good "draw" for newbies.

2E's Basic sets (Intro to AD&D, etc) blew, and the core books were mildly easy on newbies (at best)

3E and 3.5? Ha! Again the basic products weren't very good , and the core books are laughable as newbie friendly.

I dont see why D&D with as complicated as it's become in the last 15 years would be any better with 4E. 4E may be LESS complicated than 3E, but it's still a big bloated set of 3 hardback rulebooks. Not friendly at all.

 

[Grazzt]

Pramas's article definitely makes sense. I can see what he's saying.

 

[Drkfathr1]

I think he's right though. How many new people are going to be able to pick up that book and understand it enough to play?

I've got 7 dedicated gamers, and they have tons of questions!

I like 4E, and I think its a good system, but Pramas is right about how daunting its going to be for new blood.

There aren't even any sample characters. That would have gone a long way towards helping a newbie understand what they were looking at, and give them a quick way to start playing.

4E will make tons of money, but will it bring in lots of new blood?

Honestly, that's what the hobby needs.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

I'm disappointed with Rechan's disappointment in Pramas' disappointment.

 

[mhensley]

The man speaks the troof.

I've been gaming since I was 10 years old and my eyes glazed over the first time I tried to make it though Chapter 4.

This was my experience as well.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

I'm disappointed in WisdomPenalty's disappointment in Rechan's disappointment in Pramas' disappointment. I think.

 

[Rechan]

The man speaks the troof.



This was my experience as well.

Really? I leaped into Chapter 4, got excited, and never looked back.

Where's the problem? I don't see what's causing the confusion and eye glazing.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Pramas makes solid points.

Seriously. Mechanically it is allright, but it isn't "entry level".

But if they were hoping to retain the current crop of gamers, they couldn't have dumbed it down much more than they did.