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="Iosue" data-source="post: 6303938" data-attributes="member: 6680772">I agree with all of this, in as much as just what I think a good starter set/basic game should come with.  Me, myself, I've been playing D&D for ages, have playtest documents, and have already pre-ordered the PHB, MM, and DMG, so I'm soooo not the primary market for the starter set.I think WotC's reasoning is they want to create the quickest, easiest path to get people who have never played the game into playing the game, even without anyone with RPG experience.  And on that score, chargen is non-essential.  Yes, chargen is an integral part of the complete D&D experience.  Yes, people should have access to that without having to pay for additional material.  But, if you (general you, not Transformer in specific) are introducing a new player to an existing game, and you want to get him up-to-speed as soon as possible, generally you don't hand them the rulebook and say, "read this and make a character".  You give him a pre-gen, or maybe if you're playing an older edition, do a quick roll-up with minimal explanation, and say, "Don't worry about the rules; just tell me what you want to do."  The joy of character generation can then come afterwards, after they've experienced actually playing the game.So why not put some simple chargen in the box?  Because it's one more thing you're expecting people (or people believed they are expected) to read before they get started.  I'm not saying it's a bad idea, or that the D&D Basic Rules weren't awesome.  Only that if your goal is to take someone from "Zero" to "Playing" as fast as possible, they're extraneous.  And thus are the perfect kind of thing for someone to acquire when they want to, once they've found they enjoy playing the game.Now, some people may have a different idea of the Platonic Basic Set, or think a different strategy would be more effective.  That's fair.  Folks may even feel it's not for them, and pass it by for more detailed rules, like in the PHB.  Awesome.  But, based on what we know so far, it's not crippleware.  At least not any more so (and in fact much less so) than the standard PHB and DMG throughout D&D's history, requiring you to buy one and the other to run a game.  Or the Basic Sets, which stop at 3rd level and require you to buy the Expert Set to get wilderness adventures and higher levels.If the game requires you to buy character generation separately (be that the PHB or whatever), yes, that's crippleware.  That does not appear to be the case here.  If the game requires you to buy a PHB in order to get past 2nd level, yes, that's crippleware.  That is certainly not the case here.  If WotC requires you to register for organized play or give them personal information, sure, that's crippleware.  Not again, does not appear to be the case here.  The whole point of crippleware is that vital features of a product are unfunctioning unless you make a further purchase.  Simply having to acquire a second document for free is not crippleware.</blockquote>

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