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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 4304011" data-attributes="member: 22424">I have long been convinced that for D&D to attract new players (and, more to the point, new groups where an existing DM is not readily available), the 3-book core rules paradigm has got to go.The current core rules have an RRP of $105, clock in at 832 pages of text, and are very big, heavy and intimidating. Put them in front of a typical 14-year-old, and you have roughly 0% chance of getting a new gamer out of it.D&D also has a long history of failure with the "Basic Set" (ever since the Red Box was retired, really), probably because the box has "Basic Set" on it, and then the next step up is those same expensive and intimidating core rules. (Plus, the current Basic Sets aren't good value for money - if you don't like the game, you've wasted your $40. If you do like the game, you get to spend a further $105, and retire the previous set, effectively wasting that $40.)What I think they need to do:1) Compress the core rules into a single book, no more than 250 pages in length. This will require taking a very ruthless view to which options are presented. I recommend four races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling), four classes (Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard), and only covering levels 1-10.2) Shortly after the "Core Rulebook" is released, publish a set of books pthat build on top of that book to give 'us' the 'rest of the game'. There might be as many as five of these - "Advanced Players Handbook", "Advanced Dungeon Mastery", "Monster Manual", "Tome of Treasures" and "Grimoire". However many books there are, between them they should cover the rest of the races, classes, powers, levels, and so forth.3) Produce a boxed set version of the game, in the vein of those Warhammer starter sets. Include the Core Rulebook (the same book as in #1 above), several quick-start guides, an adventure book, pregenerated characters, adventure maps and/or tiles, miniatures (perhaps just for the PCs, with "Carboard Heroes"-esque tokens for the rest), spell templates, blank character sheets (and/or a CD containing some nice electronic resources), and all manner of other nice things. The price point they need to aim for is equivalent to that of one of the Warhammer boxes.4) Each year, replase the boxed set with a new version containing the same Core Rulebook, but updating everything else.5) With other supplements to the game (beyond those in #2), they need a modular rather than serial approach. Rather than having "PHB2", "PHB3" and so on, giving the impression that you need them all in order to play (or get up to speed with the experts), they should give each year a code-name (or somesuch), so that you get "PHB: Legends", "PHB: Antiquities" and "PHB: Ice Age". These can all expand the game, but they do so in a manner that doesn't intimidate new players into thinking they have to spend thousands of dollars on their game. (They should also 'retire' books from the line as time goes on - dropping them out of print, stopping referencing them in adventures and other support venues, and so forth.) Indeed, a little power creep here might not be a bad thing - "get the core set and the latest 'set' of upgrades, and you're good to go".The other thing they badly need to do is get new players playing right away. I don't know how things are in the States, but in the UK Games Workshop draw in a massive number of new gamers through their stores - the stores are almost all dominated by big game tables where the staff are more than willing to show you how the game works, play a few rounds, and so on. Unless the store is busy, in which case there are loads of people there playing games, painting miniatures, and basically having fun. (Of course, the GW games also lose players at a very high rate, but by that time they've generally bought their 2,000 point army they'll never use, so GW don't care.)I have no idea how Wizards might emulate any of that. Perhaps if they made WWDDGD a quarterly, rather than annual, event?</blockquote>

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