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I started playing D&D when I was 12 in 1985 with the Basic D&D Red Box Set. For those of you with similar stories, this should be nostalgic.
WOTC has a new "Red Box" coming out this September that is a 4E starter set.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. It's a box set, includes dice, a player guide, a DM guide, and some other goodies. Interestingly, only Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling are playable races. Only Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, & Wizard are playable classes.
I'm not a 4e fan, but this might be worth checking out (MSRP = $20, currently). My big question is, since the PG includes a solo adventure, WILL BARGLE RETURN!?!
-Skeld
I started playing D&D when I was 12 in 1985 with the Basic D&D Red Box Set. For those of you with similar stories, this should be nostalgic.
WOTC has a new "Red Box" coming out this September that is a 4E starter set.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. It's a box set, includes dice, a player guide, a DM guide, and some other goodies. Interestingly, only Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling are playable races. Only Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, & Wizard are playable classes.
I'm not a 4e fan, but this might be worth checking out (MSRP = $20, currently). My big question is, since the PG includes a solo adventure, WILL BARGLE RETURN!?!
-Skeld
Say what you like about 4e. This is cool.
oh, and it shows that WotC hasn't forgotten there's a buch of grognards out there they should cater to as well.
OK the more I see the more I'm becoming convinced that this is a great idea - not sure it will sell or not but its certainly intriguing. $20 bucks is a good price point as well. Thats the kind of money that a parent might reasonably drop on an impulse buy if the kid seems really interested...maybe it'll keep them quite and reading for 3 hours? worth the $20 right there.
I don't really play 4th edition, but this is cool. Hopefully they've boned up on their adventure writing a bit.. Keep on the Shadowfell was kinda awful imo..
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One discouraging thing I heard (I'll have to try and source it later) is that the new Red Box only covers the first 2 levels of play. If that's true, it really cuts into the usefulness of this as a product and pushes it, in my mind, closer towards being a marketing gimmick.
-Skeld
EDIT: Also, I think it's interesting that there is no mention of miniatures.
It would be much better if I could go more than 2 levels of play, but even so that could still easily be $20 worth of entertainment. I currently run a lunch time game group for a group of grade 5 students. They will move onto middle school next year, I can't see them shelling out for everything they would need to start a regular dnd game, but I could see them picking this up and continuing with it. I wish it was coming out before the end of the school year, so that I could get it for them.
I don't really play 4th edition, but this is cool. Hopefully they've boned up on their adventure writing a bit.. Keep on the Shadowfell was kinda awful imo..
Mmm...I think they need to bone down on their adventure writing. The product is aimed at the 8-14 year old crowd and the players will be trying to grasp the game and be really confused. This is not the time to have plot twists etc. The cool factor should be as high as possible but the complexity needs to be low. Hence go to place A and do task B. But they do need to make whats found at Place A really neat and they need to make Task B clear but also fun.
Well, if that is not an attempt to get all those nostalgic grognards to buy it for their kids, I don´t know what else might be.
BTW, it mentions "die-cut tokens for characters and monsters", so it has miniatures - sort of. I might even buy it, just to have a look at how they did this. For 20 bucks, this should be ok. Yes, I´m a nostalgic grognard (minus kids).
Stefan
dont forget grognards that the 1983 red box basic d&d only went to 3rd level. came with a total dungeon crawl keep on the boarderlands, had yucky dice, and no tokens sheet with the monsters and characters. it was also the 4th version of basic dungeons and dragons.
this is a great product, they need to be sold at toys-r-us, wallmarts, etc. i dont know if kb toys are still around, but they sold d&d stuff. i didnt know game stores even existed till like 1986 when i got stationed at fort carson (after playing wargames and dungeons and dragons for 7 years. i bought all my stuff at a mall department store...i think it was hennissees or something dumb like that.
regardless of what game or edition you are playing in, it is never a bad thing to have fresh blood playing role playing games. this may be what it takes to get more 7th graders playing in the hobby.
oh, and who cares if its a marketing ploy? as long as it brings the kids to the tables with thier dice.
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I dont know if kb toys are still around, but they sold d&d stuff.
KB Toys folded a few years ago with the trademarks going to Toys R Us.
A D&D beginner's set is always a good thing, but it sounds pretty weak if they limited to level 2. A beginner set in my opinion should at least go to level 4 if not 8. The Player's Handbook Bundle that was released last fall is a much better beginner's set, even though it doesn't contain a DM guide.
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Cool. However, y'all should be running tables of 3.p or 4E for your neighborhood kids. I've been doing it for two years for my boys and thier friends and it's been about the best gaming xp I've had. I started at 11 in 1979 with the first box set. It had Keep on the Borderlands. AD&D soon followed.
I do have to say, when my 8 year old said, "Bring it Daddy! I power attack for full," it was one of the best moments in my life. He critted.
They play both 4E and 3.P. Daddy runs 4E for the kids, and 3.P for the grownups and my boys know both systems.
And yes, Red Box = COOL!
the origininal basic, 1977 was meant to be a starter, to get a kid interested in playing, then move on to ad&d after 3rd level.
i think 2 levels are good. catch the fever, play through a couple of iconic race/class combininations, then go get the the phb.
the bundle is a great resource, but it doesnt give you all that you need to run a game.
Game components:
•32-page book for players, with rules for character creation and a solo adventure
•64-page book for Dungeon Masters, with the rules of the game, advice on how to run the game, and adventure content
•2 sheets of die-cut tokens for characters and monsters
•Cardstock character sheets and power cards
•Double-sided dungeon map
•6 polyhedral dice
all of these items are almost essential for a game. you only get the players information. now, if you are just a player, then just the phb is all you need, but with this kit, all you need is people willing to get together, role dice, etc.
so, a kid buys this thing, he gets his buddies together, maybe at a birthday party, the decide roles, have dice, and are ready to play. just like in 1977, you were unlikely to pick up the advanced dungeons and dragons books, and then play if you were 12. you bought the basic game. then graduated to advanced.
players handbook doesnt explain how to dungeon master. you would have to buy all the core books. a 20 dollar expenditure, rather than a 60 dollar expenditure. a 20 dollar birthday present for your nephew isnt weird.
i think its a great product.
i dont have any kids of my own, so it would be creepy for me to be running games here for neighborhood kids. the rule set is a very light 4e rule set, and i think it would be for kids that dont have somebody in their life already playing, to teach it to them. i grew up in rural montana, there were no game stores within the area, like 500 miles out side the area. and there were no older kids playing. we taught ourselves, after geting into avalon hill games first.
1979 start, 12 years old.
The new Red Box reportedly goes through 3rd level, rather than 2nd, according to a developer forum post on the WotC boards.
The new Red Box reportedly goes through 3rd level, rather than 2nd, according to a developer forum post on the WotC boards.
So they would be very traditional indeed. Just as a side note, the German red box did not contain the Keep on the Borderlands module. Just like the later prints of the US version also did not include it.
Stefan
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i dont have any kids of my own, so it would be creepy for me to be running games here for neighborhood kids. the rule set is a very light 4e rule set, and i think it would be for kids that dont have somebody in their life already playing, to teach it to them. i grew up in rural montana, there were no game stores within the area, like 500 miles out side the area. and there were no older kids playing. we taught ourselves, after geting into avalon hill games first.
1979 start, 12 years old.
Yeah, that's got some stalker to it, no doubt. However, you might offer to run game days at yor comic shop too. DMing kids is not for everyone though. I always made certain I had the tables of newbies and kids back when I was running cons. Wanted to make certain they had a GREAT time.
I didn't get a red box. It had a dragon on it with a fighter and a wizard. It retrospect the art was kind of , well, icky, but I thought it was brillaint at the time. The book was greenish blue and I didn't get dice with it. I got chits you had to cut out and throw in a cup. I talked my 6th grade Math teacher out of a set of horrible polyhedral dice and shared them with my players.
The kids looks at D&D and shrug and don't make time for it. Free Realms, etc. are cooler to them. Takes a story teller to get them hooked. Of course, your mileage may vary.
I didn't get a red box. It had a dragon on it with a fighter and a wizard. It retrospect the art was kind of , well, icky, but I thought it was brillaint at the time. The book was greenish blue and I didn't get dice with it. I got chits you had to cut out and throw in a cup. I talked my 6th grade Math teacher out of a set of horrible polyhedral dice and shared them with my players.
Was it one of those? link to the acaeum. Just curious.
Stefan
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Speaking of box starter sets, I just got this one the other day for review. It's Green Ronin's Dragon Age RPG, Set 1. It includes a player's guide, GM's guide, 6-panel poster map, and 3d6 (the only dice you need to play). So far, I've only read the 1st chapter of the PG, but it looks to be Old School Renaissance-style game that is relatively simple and doesn't require minis or tokens. Also, Set 1 covers levels 1-5. Further sets are planned that take players through level 20. The MSRP for Set 1 is $29.95.
This is just a "peer" example for the everyone to compare/contrast the D&D Box Set against.
-Skeld
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I didn't get a red box. It had a dragon on it with a fighter and a wizard. It retrospect the art was kind of , well, icky, but I thought it was brillaint at the time. The book was greenish blue and I didn't get dice with it. I got chits you had to cut out and throw in a cup. I talked my 6th grade Math teacher out of a set of horrible polyhedral dice and shared them with my players.Was it one of those? link to the acaeum. Just curious.
Stefan
Must have been the sixth edition cause I got Keep on the Borderlands and chits, but I do not remember a dice coupon.
Wow! Blast from the past.
It is confirmed that it does have a Solo Adventure just like the original. From what I understand the Solo Adventure will teach both the general basics of the system as well as create a character right in play as you do the Solo Adventure.