‘Tis the season for giving, and we’ve got stuff we want to give away, so it all works out!
We are giving away a prize pack that will give any new D&D player everything they need to get started. The pack contains:
- Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (4th Edition)
- Keep on the Shadowfell
- D&D Miniatures Game Starter Set (Revised)
Between the three of these, you’ll have dungeon tiles, maps, counters, dice, minis, adventures, and of course, some rules to get you started playing D&D 4th edition. A great gift for a new D&D player.
To win, you’ll just need to answer the following question in a comment on this post:
If you won this prize, who would you give the set to, and why?
That’s it. We’ll take entries for two weeks until 11:59 PM EST on December 15th. The staff will then select the answer they like best, and ship out the set to the winner.
Pseudo-Legal stuff: Prize awarding is at the sole discretion of Critical Hits staff, and we have the right to decide on whatever ground we choose. If there is any evidence of fraud or other problems, we reserve the right to change the terms and conditions of the contest without notice. By submitting an entry into the contest, you affirm that you are telling the truth and will give away the prize in the manner you describe and not just enter the contest to get free stuff then keep it.
All prizes have been supplied courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.
Well, if I had kids, it would be my kids, but that’s not for a few more years…
Though I could go with my brother…
We haven’t always gotten along, and have been at each others’ throats more times than I can count. He’s the social, athletic sports fan, and I’ve always been the quieter tech-focused geek. But he has recently expressed some interest in finding out more about that thing we do with friends every Sunday.
To bring him into the hobby would be expanding the common ground we have together, giving us something more to relate to each other about aside from having the same parents.
That said, it would be easy enough for me to bring him in with the books we already have, since there is an established group already here. And there are others far more deserving.
So I have to change my answer.
If I was picked as the winner of this, I would ask that you instead donate it to your local Children’s Hospital and/or orphanarium. I would then ask that you run at least one game for them.
That, Dave, would make my Christmas.
Graham´s last post: Scales of War 2 & 3 – My god, she’s actually writing!
I’d say it would have to to my workmate, Edward. He’s always wanted to play DnD but his school friends were never into it… Poor, deprived chap.
Well, golly…Graham’s answer kicks the shit out of mine…
If my curse of being-able-to-win-contests-but-not-contests-with-prizes was broken, I’d give the winnings to my little brother Justin…ever since I started back in my freshman year of high school, he’s expressed an interest in D&D, but me mum was directly affected by the anti-D&D movement in the early 80’s and really didn’t want his young mind being exposed to something with such a power to corrupt people…she didn’t like my playing either, but trusted my judgement enough to allow it…
Justin is almost the same age I was when I got my first Player’s Handbook…it’s time to pass the game on to him…when I return from winter break, I will teach him how to play and come X-mas, I will (hopefully) present him with these starter goodies…
Or, if for some miraculous reason he doesn’t want to play anymore, I’ll give it to my old friend Katie…she’s a fresh D&D convert currently playing Hilja in the SoW adventure path I’m running and has recently shown an interest in the art of DMing…this would be the perfect gift for her to cut her megolomaniacal teeth on…
Apparently, megalomaniacal isn’t a word…well…’tis now…
Reverend Mike´s last post: Not Dead, Just Sleeping…
I’d give the set to the developers over at Bethesdasoft – a futile attempt to remind them of the characteristics generally associated with “good roleplaying games”.
I would give it to my wife.
I could get my D&D fix, while she can finally begin to understand why the heck I love this hobby so much.
We could spend quality time together killing orcs and turning undead. If that is not a kick ass date, I don’t know what is.
🙂
newbiedm´s last post: Minions… Broken?
@Graham…your passive dialect makes me chuckle…
“if I was picked as the winner of this” = “if I won”…
Reverend Mike´s last post: Not Dead, Just Sleeping…
I’d give it to my friend Devin because he wants to DM, but not D&D 3.5 because he doesn’t have the painstakingly developed expertise the other DMs in our group do. Whereas I want to play, but not Shadowrun or anything like that. So if he had D&D 4.0 and an adventure to run, I could play a new character.
But unbeknownst to them, it wouldn’t be a new character. It would be the Eladrin Fighter I rolled up during GenCon who only fey stepped when he was startled and who got TPKed in our hotel room by a troll. He died too soon.
If I were chosen I would donate the set to the after-school gaming club I run: Over the past three years we’ve been introducing role-playing to 12-18 year olds, the goal of which is to teach them to work collectively as a group, solve problems creatively, and to engage other students in a face-to-face setting rather than via Facebook. Given the popularity of MMOs like WoW, 4E would be a good game to bridge the gap between CRPGs and live gaming. With an aging population of role-players and the growth of the computer game industry, introducing young adults to the challenge & enjoyment of role-playing is the key to keeping the industry, and my own chances of finding a gaming group, alive.
This is a wonderful idea. I think something similar to this will be my gift to my cousin this year regardless. I have tried to get him to play with my group through skype several times but he wasn’t very comfortable and was younger than the rest of us. Perhaps it’s time to try again. Playing with others his age and in person would be great for him. He isn’t antisocial but he definitely needs to come out of his shell a little, the curse of being an only child (I would know).
This would be perfect for the kids at my school. I am a librarian at a high school and in addition to the Warhammer Strategy Gaming Club that I run, some of the students have been interested in learning to play D&D. We’ve kind of started meeting on alternating Fridays and so far so good. The problem is that I have to bring all my stuff from home on those days (including the minis that I will be using) and some of my stuff resides at a friends house where my group plays every weekend, so needless to say it is not always readily available to bring to school.
Furthermore, one of my students has expressed a desire to learn how to DM so that he can run adventures for the group outside of school and teach his cousins to play too. Not bad to have a player get the DMing itch after only playing D&D 3 times.
Rauthik´s last post: Session 12
Well let’s see…my wife already plays with me and it’s fabulous fun. So I can’t give the set to her. My son is mildly interested in playing and has rolled a fighter on occasion. He’s got all access to materials if he wants them. So I can’t give the set to him. My daughter is curious enough to stand around and watch occasionally, but not brave enough to dive in and play. Teenage girls…I’d give them to her but that might just scare her away. Too much too soon.
Most of my extended family are convinced D&D is from the devil. So they’re out. Work friends…I don’t have any…let’s just skip that area.
I would leave it to fate. Let the magic of the game find and seduce another. Donate the set to goodwill or Toys for Tots. No question it would find a home and grow great fun and memories for another like it has me.
If I won this prize, I would give the gift to my nephew.
You see, I’m a 37 year old gamer that’s been playing and DMing for over 25 years. When my sister and I were kids we didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye about what was fun and such, and it seemed that she thought that my friends and I were a bunch of dorks. I eventually was able to get her to try D&D, but not until we were both in our early twenties. She loved it. This opened her eyes to many other wonderful types of gaming (computer games, tabletop minis, etc.) and, after a few years, she was a fully converted gamer girl. Shortly after that, she met, fell in love with, then married her own gamer guy and started her own little gamer family. Just knowing that I helped her down this path makes me very happy.
Zip to present day and now I have two wonderful nephews that are growing up in a great gamer household. Just recently, my sister tells me that my older nephew (he’s 12) has just recently started his own D&D game (using 4th ed) with some of his friends. And he’s DMing! I nearly cried I was so proud. All I could think about was that he’s near the age that I started, and what wonderful adventures he and his friends have in store for them.
But the problem is that he has to use his parents set of books and dice. And on nights when my sisters group gets together to play, he can’t run his own game, and it’s usually on a weekend when both groups (adults and kids) are available to play. I’ve had plans for getting him a book or two for Christmas, but I think a gift like this would probably blow his mind.
But either way, with or without the prize, just being able to help my sister in developing the minds and imaginations of my nephew and his friends is something that I greatly look forward too.
I would give it to my cousin Cory who just left for college. We’ve always enjoyed gaming together, and I think he’s missed that since going away. It would help him to get out of his dorm room and make some new friends.
I live in cooperative housing (http://beavercreek.coop). We have 50 families, meaning lots of kids, teens, and adults living in close quarters on 5 acres of space. We already have at least one gaming group made up of entirely adults (2nd Edition).
We have a large community centre and a community library within it. Should I win the prize, I would donate it to our community centre library, and set up a couple of learning sessions for interested parties, trying to encourage our teens to come out and give it a try.
RPGs are great community builders, bringing people together, and that is one of our major goals at the coop.
Jonathan´s last post: Diversity and Spaghetti Sauce
Here I was worrying we wouldn’t receive many entries… this is going to be a tough decision!
I would give it to a friend of mine who’s always willing to play d&d but never had the opportunity to get the hands on the books 😛
New Players! New Players! 😀
A friend of mine worked in construction until early 2007, when the company he worked for went under. His wife was pregnant with their fourth child and they had little to no money coming in. Due to complications with children and the pregnancy, he was needed at home to take care of her, and could not go to work.
For nearly a year, they lived in a small two bedroom apartment scraping by. Last month, shortly before they planned to move back to Georgia to stay with his parents, he found employment and was able to move into a larger apartment to accomodate his family.
His two oldest children are at the age where they are interested in the games dad plays and he uses his D&D dice to play math games and such. Both of them have their birthday in late December and early January. Their father would very much enjoy playing the game with them.
I do not know what sort of christmas they will have, with their recent move and paying off bills, but something like this would greatly improve the spirits in this holiday season.
There is a walking community down the road from me. They have a community school (sort-of like a home school), and they are playing D&D after school with just a PHB. This would be an awesome way to jump-start their gaming!
I would give this to my soon to be newest players, my best friends daughters that are VERY excited to try D&D for the first time in early January.
The youngest (Shelby – age 8) “made” me photocopy the basic race and class info so that she could read it at home before we play. The next oldest, Chloe flipped through the PHB and immediately was drawn to the Eladrin and as she read more, she was dying to to play a Wizard. We had to start her character on the spot, even though we are not playing until after New Year. The oldest (Sammi) was sick (and not at our house to look through the PHB) was ecstatic and is looking at the photocopied pages herself, leaning towards a Tiefling Warlock (the little goth-to-be she is!)
The main reason, however, is that their parents, our (My wife and I’s) best friends, just lost their house to foreclosure and have moved in with their Grandmother. Their parents are struggling to give the girls a good Christmas at this point. We are trying to do our best to help out, and I KNOW that this D&D would be truly the best gift of all, something “frivolous” that their parents would not be able to give them themselves.
Thank your for giving me this opportunity to possible spread a little extra joy to my best friends girls. The card will say “From Critical-Hits.com 🙂
Eric Downton´s last post: Sinister Siren Contest Begins Today
I would give it to my friend Rich, who first got me involved in RPGs.
I would give the set to my neightbourhood’s youth club. It’s a place where younglins (and not so younglins) go to play videogames, boardgames, draw and dance. I know some of them want to play DnD, but they cant buy all the books and the club is low on funds right now. I have GMd a couple of one-session games for them since summer, but I cant go regularly as Im busy at University.
Actually it would make me happy to come back some months later and find them playing their own game 🙂
Wow, there are some awesome entries here! Good job Dave making things super hard for yourself. 😀
I didn’t know we were going for serious stuff…
In that case, I’d give it to a young boy name Wudawudawutwalo that my wife and I started sponsoring a couple of years ago. His parents were killed by some neighboring tribal warlords when they invaded his village. He is the eldest of 3 other brothers and so it is his responsibility to take care of them to the best of his ability.
The problem is that he was only 11 at the time and lost both of his thumbs in the attack. To complicate matters, one of his siblings has AIDS, another has cancer, and the third was born with a rare medical condition where he can only bend 1 leg and the muscles in his face are uncontrollable. If you haven’t figured it out already, this particular brother tends to walk in circles all day long while drooling on himself and appearing as if he is practicing in the mirror for the most complicated movie role ever… all the other kids make fun of him constantly – its horrible. 🙁
I would send this awesome prize to Wudawudawatwalo. They could use it (esepcially the minis) to hone their strategic combat skills and begin the planning for their revenge attack on the evil warlords who attacked their village a couple of years ago. The $20 and bag of rice that my wife and I send each month only goes so far – this gift along with a set of mosquito nets would really put them over the top…. not to mention the fact that the dice could be used as slingshot ammo in the off-chance they are surrounded by rabid goats again with no rocks around (this happened to Wudawuda just last week… it was horrible).
Thanks in advance.
I’d send it to Tonester for the most hilarious entry.
my nephew he loves this stuff and really picked his grades up if any one deserves it he does
I’m the second person who would donate it to a game club at my school — although, in this case, it would go double-duty. There’s a gamer’s club that’s mostly video games that’s used as part of the social curriculum for the kids with autism, and there’s a separate and independent game club that meets to do board and card games, although for several of them, their idea of a good board game is Clue or Risk 2210.
On top of that, the school is looking at doing a modified schedule for the five school days right before the juniors do their federally-required testing, leaving the frosh, sophomores, and seniors with a 2-hour block where they have to be at school but in a non-cognitive (read: fun) mini-elective. I’ve got two possibilities in the hopper, and one of them would be called “Games Unplugged.” Although I’ll have some board & card games available, I’d want to run a group through Shadowfell, or as much of it as we could get in that time (hopefully spilling into after-school play for the rest of the year). I actually started to pull together some pregens of my own based on the sketches described in the 4e Player’s Handbook while I was on hall duty yesterday so that I could be ready to go.
Well, after reading some of the entries, I’m going to change my vote to one of the other after school clubs/youth organizations. I’m fortunate enough that my school is in an affluent district and does not get much in the way of state and federal aid (thus, we are not in danger of having to stop clubs, activities, and programs when the budget cuts hit in the next few months). Also, being a total geek, I know I’ll buy almost every D&D book and just bring them on club days. Same with the minis. So, yeah, I’ll remove my entry in favor of another where they will use it for a club/organization that will hopefully bring more future players into the fold.
Though…. Tonester does have a touching entry as well. However, I’m thinking that Wudawudawutwalo and his siblings would be better served by an RPG like shadowrun or d20 Modern.
Rauthik´s last post: Session 12
I considered Shadowrun, but it was completely out of the question: while 6-sided dice make excellent slingshot ammo, they make crappy caltrops compared to 4 and 8-sided dice.
d20 Modern would work a little better – same dice and more relevant combat scenarios for their war-planning, but Dave isn’t offering D20 Modern so Wudawudawutwalo and family will take what is available.
They’ll just have to tap deeper into their characters’ roles and learn to associate Magic Missle with an AK-47…. it worked for Bethesda, didn’t it?
Wow what a great contest. First let me say Thank you for it.
If I won I would give it to my husband how is a avid gamer. Gaming is a passion of his from running campaigns with friends and family to playing more seriously on-line with internet friends. My husband can get really creative but it never hurts to have some help.
@ Tonester: You know, as a gaming community we might have to pull together and donate some d20 Modern books to Wudawudawutwalo and his family…. and some fire arms, and land mines, and maybe even some food.
Rauthik´s last post: Session 12
I would give it to my son Nico so he could start making his own story games where I and his sister could play in them!
Maybe we could even convince mom top play with us!
The Chatty DM´s last post: Bedtime Adventure: Enter Cartain!
I would give it to my brother, a former gamer who hasn’t player in years. He moved away from us to finish up his college. He’s had a real tough time since he’s been away. And we’ve been having a blast in the home town playing new school D&D. If I won it, I would give it to him and tell him to start reading the books. Then when we see each other every six to eight months, when we get togethr we can do a little gaming to give him the feeling like he’s home, even if it is just that one night. Before he has to go back and keep grinding away at school far from his family and friends.
Samuel Van Der Wall´s last post: Common Roleplaying Mistakes That Players Make – Part 2 of 2
OH, I would absolutely give it to my son! He would probably pass out from being so excited if I gave it to him.
i would give this to my girlfriends little brother.
he has recently become OBSESSED with d and d, so he’d love it
If I won this I would give it to my son.
Thank you! I would love to win this and give it to my son. He loves D&D. Thank you!
tatertot374@sbcglobal.net
I guess now is as good a time as any to announce that…
*menacing drum roll*
… Wudawudawutwalo
is
*more menacing drum roll*
MY SON!
*queue echoing and menacing super-villian Sith Lord laughter*
I’d give it to my grandson who has tried to get me interested in D&D