Should I get the Red Box?

[GreyLord]

The cheapest way?

Heroes of the Fallen Lands, and the DM kit.

Red Box is totally unnecessary.

Take away DM kit and add in either Monster Vault or Red Box (purely for the DM guide with monsters in the bax which will supply enough w/ hofl to get to ~lvl 5 as opposed to the MV which would take you all the way to lvl 30 but cost more money)

 

[OnlineDM]

If cheapness + completeness is the goal, I agree with the Heroes of the Fallen Lands + Monster Vault approach. If those are a hit, the next purchases should be the DM Kit and Rules Compendium. However, I think you can get by without those for a while (though you might have to wing it on some rulings). Without a DM guide, you'll pretty much have to stick close to the adventure as written in the Monster Vault, but that's okay if you want to just try this out.

 

[Mercurius]

I'd avoid the Red Box as it loses its value after you play through it, unlike the other books. In other words, once you play through it you might as well pass it along to someone else as you will never need to use it again and it has no further reference value.

This thread points out that D&D still doesn't have a good, easy entrance product. Why can't WotC simply produce a single product that includes the basic rules, character creation, some monsters, an adventure or two, and the first 1-5 levels? How hard would that be?

 

[The Human Target]

Take away DM kit and add in either Monster Vault or Red Box (purely for the DM guide with monsters in the bax which will supply enough w/ hofl to get to ~lvl 5 as opposed to the MV which would take you all the way to lvl 30 but cost more money)

Red Box is pretty useless IMO. It doesn't have a good value for your money, especially if you've played an RPG of any kind before and know the basic concept.

DM Kit has a great full adventure, tokens, a screen, and a rulebook.

 

[GreyLord]

In my defense, the Red box has an EXCELLENT DM GUIDE WITH monsters or a mini monster guide, a grid, and monster tokens for half the price of Monster Vault.

It will ONLY get you up to around level 5, even with Heroes of the Fallen Lands however, with you making up adventures and adding in monsters. For the DM Guide in it, and the monsters however, it's actually not a bad value.

Monster Vault is a better source overall, and you get up to level 30. However if someone is only wanting to try it out, it's two times the cost of the Red Box. Red Box is merely the cheaper option for someone just trying it out, and has some DM stuff the Monster Vault doesn't have. Monster Vault is better, but some may feel wronged by it if they spend the extra $20 only to find they don't like the system.

Which is to say, $40 investment of HofL + Red Box
vs. HoFL + Monster Vault = $60

In which case I'd probably start looking at getting a core rule book set from Amazon which is $66.

Just my two cents and why I put in the Red Box as one of the options.

 

[Walking Dad]

Reb Box includes 3 wizard transmutation powers printed nowhere else.

 

[ShadesOfGrey]

The Red Box is brilliant in teaching people with no or very few rpg savyness just enough to start actually learning how to play, and also includes some handy stuff like tokens & d's that you need anyway.

It's pretty limited outside of that first jumping point, contrary to what WotC salespeople want you to believe, doesnt provide material for more than enough for one (maybe two?) sessions and doesnt smoothly transition into the 'advanced' product it's supposed to be an intro to.
It's not the worst pricepoint though, and you do get a bunch of usable stuff and something to introduce new people with..

But yeah, if you guys have some rpg savy-ness, wether pen&paper or computer/MMO and the likes, just go straight to the 4e core books or maybe the essentials line. I'd personally favour the 'classic' 4e, but essentials is a bit more old-skool D&D, has better pricepoint, is in print right now and looks like it'll be (better) suported by WotC.

If you want to give the quentessential / iconic D&D experience without going into out of print editions, go for essentials. If you are looking for a more tactical / game experience, 4e is great.

 

[DonAdam]

I'll join the chorus of anti-Red Box people. I wanted to like it, but here's the problem:

The characters you build in the Red Box can't be carried forward into future games. They don't match the rules for any other part of the game.

And the adventure inside (which we're almost done running) is terrible. Out of the box it's got 1 decent encounter and no flow/continuity/story. Just a series of mostly unlinked combat encounters. People might defend that saying it's "for beginners," but I fail to see how an adventure with no real-world coherence is a good entry point for players more familiar with the real world than game tropes.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

I bought the Red Box on a lark, and I think it's a good product. It's just not for anybody who visits EN World regularly. The target audience is either completely new to tabletop roleplaying or wants a particularly gentle introduction to 21st-century D&D. (You know, where higher AC is better, and post-THAC0.) These people might appreciate a mere $20 option (cheaper on Amazon) to determine whether they even enjoy gaming before shelling out for the full game.

Although if I were WotC, I would consider releasing the entire Red Box as a free PDF. Then it would be a direct analog to the free trials of some MMORPGs. Some people might even still pay for the hard copies, the tokens, the color poster maps, and the dice. Although to their credit, I believe Keep on the Shadowfell is currently available for free, and in theory it also contains a complete introduction to 4E D&D. I just wish it covered today's 4E D&D.

 

[CiH]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I swung by the game store today and picked up Heroes of the Fallen Lands.