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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trickster Spirit" data-source="post: 7667723" data-attributes="member: 6701829">That's an extremely important question to answer, and I'm actually pretty hopeful about the strategy Wizard's come up in response to it. Mike Mearls has talked about it before when the topic of D&D's competition came up - <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?354586-So-What-IS-Happening-to-Tabletop-Roleplaying-Games-Dancey-amp-Mearls-Let-You-Know!" target="_blank">the competition isn't Paizo, or FFG, or Evil Hat, it's instant gratification</a>. Anyone who's actually sat down and played a tabletop RPG and had fun knows what it brings to the table the video games and the like don't - but with a video game you pretty much press play and go, whereas pen and paper games have a much higher barrier to entry (familiarizing yourself with the rules, creating and balancing encounters, having everyone create characters). Even if they might have more fun playing D&D with friends, some folks might just opt to play Dragon Age instead, just because it's so much easier to pick up and play.Wizards' response has been to come up with a fast-playing edition with streamlined character creation and combat, where you can run through an entire adventure in an hour. I believe the intent was for it to have electronic tools to make things even easier for new players to make their characters, but the whole Morningstar thing collapsed - I wouldn't be surprised if someone's working on them now, and just nothing will be announced until they're ready to release.That's also what the adventure paths are for. A new player just bought the core books and talked to a group of friends about playing together - what do they do now? Sure, they could create their first adventure from scratch, but it's a lot of work and they might not want to go through with it once they realize what they've gotten themselves into. Or worse, their beginner's inexperience results in a lousy first session and turns everyone off of the game for good.Instead, Wizards' has a catalog of pre-written campaigns available for them from day one. After they've run through their first couple of APs, they're feeling a bit more confident in their abilities and can see the payoffs of putting a little more effort into creating their own custom adventures.For people who are complaining that the APs aren't what they're interested in, it's because you're not who those products are aimed at! They're aimed at exactly who they should be - new players who don't know the first thing about creating their own adventures and settings, and are looking for product that's done the heavy lifting for them.Combine that with a big AAA video game or summer blockbuster with the D&D name on it and you've got a recipe for introducing a lot of new players to the hobby.</blockquote>

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