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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5346111" data-attributes="member: 22424">I agree. The answer isn't to make the game as a whole simpler.What I do think needs to be done is to reduce the barriers to entry for new players - and especially new players coming to the game cold (as opposed to being taught the game by existing gamers and/or joining existing groups).Until the release of Essentials, for a new group to get into 4e, someone had to buy three core rulebooks (RRP $105 - quite an investment in a game you might like!), someone had to read those three rulebooks (832 pages!), (in pre-4e versions, someone then had to create an adventure, or buy and read one at additional cost and effort - 4e at least fixed this with Kobold Hall in the DMG), then the group had to go through character creation (which is, what, 40 minutes per character for new players?). And then get to start having fun!That's a hell of a lot of money and effort for a game that you might like! Why wouldn't I play Magic instead? Why wouldn't I play WoW, which offers a similar experience, but with better graphics and lower setup costs and effort. (If I'm in the target demographic for D&D, I almost certainly already have a PC capable of running WoW, so that's not an additional cost.) Plus, of course, with WoW I don't have to go to the trouble of scaring up five friends to play, nor am I beholden to their individual schedules!Now, I do feel that Essentials does this much better. Firstly, the Red Box itself looks promising. Secondly, the Essentials books themselves look and feel very nice, and are at a size and format that is much less intimidating than the original 4e rulebooks. And by changing the look and feel of the books, WotC have avoided the "wall of hardbacks" effect for new gamers in a game store - there's no feel that "I have to buy all these 40 hardbacks to play?"So, we'll see.What success of previous Starter Sets? There hasn't been a good one since the previous Red Box! (The jury's still out on the new Red Box, but it doesn't look good.)The major problems have been threefold, IMO.Firstly, they've insisted on using a 'dumbed down' version of the rules. So, when the player graduates to the 'real' game, they have to unlearn some or all of what they know and relearn the real rules. Changing the rules in this manner (as opposed to just adding options) is a really bad idea.Secondly, they've tended to require the use of the pregenerated characters (and, sometimes, adventures) in the box. One of the major selling points of D&D is the ability to take your own custom character through your own custom adventures; insisting on the use of pregens negates that advantage.Thirdly, they've been overly-short samples of the game designed to be used and then thrown away. That is, if I buy one of the Starter Sets, and find I don't like them game, then I throw it away and never use it again. The money is wasted... but that's no big deal, since I didn't like the game anyway. However, if I do like the game, then I'm expected to go and invest in a set of the 'real' rules ($105 - great!), and then throw away my Starter Set and never use it again. In other words, the money I've just spent on it is wasted.(This also means it's very tempting for a new gamer to skip the Starter Set, dive straight in to the 'real' game... but then fail to get through those 832 pages of rules. And so, a person who would have been a gamer is lost, probably forever. Not good.)</blockquote>

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