NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 6303812" data-attributes="member: 413">Since the advent of the play test my kids and I have been playing D&DN.  My son and I started with 4e...I liked it but he was lukewarm about it (combats were too long and options available to him were too overwhelming).  When he first tried D&DN, he was hooked.  We bought Murder in Baldur's Gate and played through that.  We enjoyed that so much that I bought the Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle PDF, expanded our group to include some of my friends and are now playing through that.  My son has said he intends to buy the starter set and start a group with his other 15 and 16 year-old buddies.  If WotC's plan was to generate new players, it seems to be working with my son.I've noticed two things through all of this:Playing D&D with a minimum of books and just occasionally purchasing adventure content is a fun, affordable and easy way to take part in the hobby.  We got the rules for free and occasionally buy an adventure.  Mike has said in the past that they want D&D to be more accessible to the casual gamer.  This is a good model for them.  If it is as he says, you can run a beginning game to level 5 with the starter set and a complete campaign with just the PHB, then I think they are on the right track.  To be unhappy if you have to use an on-line tool or a free pdf to make characters for use with the starter set seems a bit strange to me.  As Mike said...the start kit is aimed at DMs only and you can make characters without it.  This infers there is some free stuff available to players to get them started.  That seems to be a strange thing to be unhappy about as it keeps the cost down and/or leaves more room for content for the DM in the starter set.  If you prefer the more traditional D&D aimed at the dedicated hobbyist, then wait for the PHB/MM/DMG...viola...everything a hobbyist DM should need to create his own campaign world and for his players to create their own characters.  Everybody is happy.For my part, I'm in my 40s...been playing the game off and on since I was 8 or 9, mostly as a player or DM in full blown home-grown campaigns where dedicated players committed to playing a few times per week.  I don't have the time or energy (or group of friends with the dedication) to run a full blown home grown campaign any more.  What I do have time for is 3-4 hours ever week or two to get together and run a group through a pre-made adventure...GoDSC is perfect for that and if they are sticking with that model for casual gamers, they'll have us hooked.  That's a good thing, I hope.</blockquote>

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