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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5312350" data-attributes="member: 7006">They do have a fully contained, condenses, simplified D&amp;D game.&nbsp; It's called Heroes of the Forgotten Lands.Everyone here seems to be under the impression that the Red Box is supposed to be the base game of Essentials.&nbsp; It's not.&nbsp; Heroes of the Forgotten Lands is the base game of Essentials.&nbsp; You want to play Essentials D&amp;D... you are playing Heroes of the Forgotten Lands.You want to know what the Red Box actually is?&nbsp; It's an advertisement.&nbsp; That's it.It is a way for the Wizards of the Coast to advertise in toy stores and department stores that they have this game called Dungeons &amp; Dragons that you can pick up at your local book store.&nbsp; By putting together this Red Box, it is no longer a &quot;book&quot; but is now (from the sellers pov) a &quot;board game&quot;... one that can be on the shelves right next to the Monopoly and the Hungry Hungry Hippos at Target.And guess what?&nbsp; The people who are being targeted (no pun intended) with this boxed set who will look at and ultimately decide to purchase this game while wandering the aisles in the toy department of Walmart... are the ones who most likely have never walked the one particular aisle at Barnes &amp; Noble where dozens upon dozens of D&amp;D books have been sitting there for nigh on 20 years.And thus... the Red Box doesn't have to be a so-called &quot;complete roleplaying game&quot;.&nbsp; Because the folks who buy it aren't LOOKING for a &quot;complete rolepaying game&quot;.&nbsp; If they were, they would have already seen &quot;complete roleplaying games&quot; on the shelves of Borders Books since the beginning of 3E at the very least, and already made the decision to buy or not to buy it.The Red Box (like every other &quot;starter game&quot; WotC has produced) is meant for one thing only... offer up a taste of what D&amp;D is to someone who has no clue what they are tasting.&nbsp; And if by some chance the person likes it, they tell the person &quot;this is but the tip of the iceberg... the full game is in these books here, in a format that would have been way too dense for us to put in the starter set.&quot;They don't WANT the starter game to be a &quot;complete roleplaying game&quot; because they don't want to give the impression that the Red Box IS IT.&nbsp; That that's the extent of what a &quot;roleplaying game&quot; is.&nbsp; Because from that perspective... regardless of what they could have put in the Red Box... basic, introductory roleplaying games really kinda suck.&nbsp; They are NOT things I want to play over and over.&nbsp; I sure as hell didn't just keep replaying my original OD&amp;D Red Box over and over... I went ahead and bought the Blue Box.&nbsp; And then I bought the Turquoise Box.&nbsp; And then I realized from the promos that there was a game called AD&amp;D that I could go pick up at a game store if I wanted... so I went looking for it and I did.This is the kind of forward movement that WotC is trying to inspire in their new players and why they designed these Essentials products as they did.&nbsp; To buy one and hopefully enjoy it enough to then buy the next one.&nbsp; Then the next one.&nbsp; Then the next one.&nbsp; So on and so forth.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 5312350, member: 7006"] They do have a fully contained, condenses, simplified D&D game. It's called Heroes of the Forgotten Lands. Everyone here seems to be under the impression that the Red Box is supposed to be the base game of Essentials. It's not. Heroes of the Forgotten Lands is the base game of Essentials. You want to play Essentials D&D... you are playing Heroes of the Forgotten Lands. You want to know what the Red Box actually is? It's an [I]advertisement[/I]. That's it. It is a way for the Wizards of the Coast to advertise in [I]toy stores[/I] and [I]department stores[/I] that they have this game called Dungeons & Dragons that you can pick up at your local [I]book store[/I]. By putting together this Red Box, it is no longer a "book" but is now (from the sellers pov) a "board game"... one that can be on the shelves right next to the Monopoly and the Hungry Hungry Hippos at Target. And guess what? The people who are being targeted (no pun intended) with this boxed set who will look at and ultimately decide to purchase this game while wandering the aisles in the toy department of Walmart... are the ones who most likely have never walked the one particular aisle at Barnes & Noble where [I]dozens upon dozens[/I] of D&D books have been sitting there for nigh on 20 years. And thus... the Red Box doesn't have to be a so-called "complete roleplaying game". Because the folks who buy it aren't LOOKING for a "complete rolepaying game". If they were, they would have already seen "complete roleplaying games" on the shelves of Borders Books since the beginning of 3E at the very least, and already made the decision to buy or not to buy it. The Red Box (like every other "starter game" WotC has produced) is meant for one thing only... offer up a taste of what D&D is to someone who has [I]no clue[/I] what they are tasting. And if by some chance the person likes it, they tell the person "this is but the tip of the iceberg... the full game is in these books here, in a format that would have been way too dense for us to put in the starter set." They don't WANT the starter game to be a "complete roleplaying game" because they don't want to give the impression that the Red Box IS IT. That that's the extent of what a "roleplaying game" is. Because from that perspective... regardless of what they could have put in the Red Box... basic, introductory roleplaying games [I]really kinda suck[/I]. They are NOT things I want to play over and over. I sure as hell didn't just keep replaying my original OD&D Red Box over and over... I went ahead and bought the Blue Box. And then I bought the Turquoise Box. And then I realized from the promos that there was a game called AD&D that I could go pick up at a game store if I wanted... so I went looking for it and I did. This is the kind of forward movement that WotC is trying to inspire in their new players and why they designed these Essentials products as they did. To buy one and hopefully enjoy it enough to then buy the next one. Then the next one. Then the next one. So on and so forth. [/QUOTE]

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