The 2010 product seminar, for the first 3/4s of the year at least, contained almost all products we heard about at GenCon. One of the biggest surprises, aside from changes in the minis line and the announcement of a boxed set 4e Gamma World, was the line known as “Dungeons & Dragons Essentials.”
During the last quarter, WotC will roll out a product line designed for new players. The game’s core is what was being called the “4e Red Box.” The prototype image was styled after the original D&D Red Box, and contains enough for a few players to play (including some tokens and maps), but can also be played solo. What was interesting to me was the “walkthrough” approach to the rules, where the book is designed to come with you to learn the rules as you play. Also neat is that the choices your characters make during the actual game determine what class you are, instead of generating a character first.
The Red Box is supposed to be the clear, introductory, “I’ve never played D&D before and want to learn” set. An emphasis was given by the WotC staffers that the bookstores (since before 4e and well into 3e) have had trouble selling D&D books because it’s not easy to recommend what new players should buy.
In September, we’ll also see the Rules Compendium which will be just the rules portions of the game available for quick reference. Like most of the books in the D&D Essentials set, the book will be $20 and a 6″x9″ softcover format. They made it a point to say that these weren’t “dumbed down” rules, but the actual 4e rules, just laid out and presented differently, so I could see this book being useful for a “4e Core” player… especially since the book incorporates the errata.
Following that are products that are clearly separated. There is the Heroes of Fallen Lands which contains rules for the players, as well as a sampling of some of the more classic classes and races. It too is designed as more of a “Walkthrough” approach to character generation instead of just picking from lists of powers and feats. They did state that the builds for the classes would be all new, and most of the feats except for some of the very essentials would be new as well, so they are still introducing new elements to the game through these products. Released at the same time, there is the Dungeon Master’s Kit, which is a big box that contains the Rules Compendium, tokens, maps, advice on how to DM, and adventures.
Then there is Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms, which is another player book, but introduces some of the more 4e-specific stuff like Dragonborn and Warlocks as additional character options. Also included in the Essentials line are several Dungeon Tile master sets, which are sets designed to remain in-print, and will be the primary source for including maps in published adventures when they want to use dungeon tiles, so you don’t have to hunt down two of an out-of-print set to build a map they show you.
All told, the line will be 10 products this year (including the dungeon tiles), and then will be done (though I would suppose there’s always room for more depending on sales and demand.) In the Q&A afterward, it was clarified that they were not abandoning the 4e core product line/trade dress/etc. but just did not have the manpower to work on both for the end of this year. Additionally, the DDI tools (like character builder) will “work to support the analogue game line” which can easily be taken to mean there will be, at least, an “Essentials Mode.”
So that’s the big surprise product announcement from D&D XP- a small product line designed for new players. The only downside? Those of us who aren’t new players won’t get much from September to December… unless we want to go play Gamma World.
If you’d like to look back on the coverage of the seminar, you can check out Geek’s Dream Girl’s LiveBlog of D&D XP which has all the updates from the seminar in the archives.
If WoTC really wanted to attract new players who have never played D&D before, the first thing they should do is change the name 🙂 I know it sounds silly but both words in D&D elicit all sorts of negative stereotypes for most people and the two words together are almost insurmountable. I LOVE D&D but even I have a hard time mentioning the words together in public places… in fear that a colleague or acquaintance will overhear me. Its like this dirty little secret that only my closest friends know about out of fear of being shunned by the “professional” world.
And then you have games like World of Warcraft which has crossed over into mainstream – most people just call it “WOW”. I think the art direction with that game has helped it tremendously in the cross-over. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously.
This is another reason why I feel the online portion of D&D is sooooo important. It gives people an anonymous way to start trying it out and hopefully getting hooked. Once you surround yourself with like-minded people, all from the comfort of your home, it makes the transition to a live/public/social setting much more comfortable.
But yea… a name change wouldn’t hurt. Nothing that mentions dragons… almost anything else would be better.
If WotC changes D&D’s name, there’ll be riots, for sure. And I might lead one. 😉
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I’m actually pretty interested in this and I hope it manages to keep some of the 0e feel by keeping things simple and the characters uncomplicated. A lot of players like the vast array of powers we have in (soon to be) three Players Handbooks and piles of Power books but I like simplicity in the game and expansion in the story. I’ll probably buy all this stuff =
I love 4e but it is a very complicated game at this point. It could do with a simplified version and this may really hit the mark.
I also very much like the idea of a box with everything in it that you’d need to play. That has been sorely missing from anything save the recent starter box which I think was very under-rated.
No articles yet on the whole Gamma World thing? What’s all that about?
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“The only downside? Those of us who aren’t new players won’t get much from September to December… unless we want to go play Gamma World.”
I’m not sure of that. The focus may be on simpler mechanics for newer players, but at the end of the day the Player’s Essentials are books with a bunch of new class builds, powers, and feats. That looks like a “X Power” book in disguise, to me – material that advanced players can enjoy just fine. Likewise, the Monster Vault (also in the essentials line) looks like a great opportunity to update iconic monsters from MM1. Wizards has proven that they can sell good introductory material that also appeals to veterans with the Magic 2010 core set, so I actually have high expectations for this.
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A name change would be the end.
Period.
The end.
I think it’s perfect and I already know what I’m buying my nieces for Christmas this year.
The name change was more of a joke… but if they wanted to ever attract a more casual crowd, it would probably be necessary.
This is smart move by WOTC. Growing the hobby should be their focus. 4th edition is very appealing to new players and making it easier for new players to start playing is the way to go. Rather than trying to please all the veteran gamers in the market (an impossible task) WOTC should view D&D as the gateway to the hobby. This is good way to move towards that.
Since I haven’t used half the material in the books I’ve bought past the first three core (which is most of them), I’m fine taking a break between September and December 🙂
This Red Box/D&D Essentials line sounds like how 4e should have been done, or should have been out in parallel, during 4e’s introduction a couple years ago. Pity it took this long.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_World
Check that out if you want the skinny on Gamma World. It’s a pretty awesome setting and the new card mechanic sounds like it’s a whole lot of win.
If your interested in the game check out the Beyond D&D seminar from DDXP on the D&D Website. I’d drop the link but I can’t from work. Sorry.
Even as an experienced DM/player, I like the Essentials product line and will probably buy some of them to use for one-shots I run with new/inexperienced players. I will almost certainly buy the rules compendium as well. I have been hoping for a printed rules update for months, because the core rules have substantively changed since PHB1/2, and I do not always have access to DDI during game sessions. This is a nice, cheap way to keep the core rules up to date in print, and it can be reissued as necessary when things change.
I would probably buy the DM kit to get the compendium along with the extra DM’ing goodies, and perhaps the monster kit as well. I have a good collection of miniatures, but the tokens would be handy for minions or to have something to represent monsters without having to lug all of the minis.
The DMs Kit does not actually contain the rules compendium. Thats an error.
I can’t wait for the Ravenloft Board game… 🙂 Was hoping to see it at DDXP.. oh well, guess I have to wait till Gencon! 🙂
I’m a little confused about what will be considered a more simple version of 4E. 4E is already pretty simple. If anything, I think it’s actually a little too simple.
For the record, yes I do play D&D. However; I hate to say it, but 4E is pretty shallow compared to what I expect from an rpg. It’s a great beginner game for someone who hasn’t played anything like D&D, GURPS, and etc before, but I often feel as though I could add some roleplaying into a game of Descent and have pretty much the same experience as a session of 4E. I’m having a hard time grasping the concept of a more simplified 4E.
More friendly to new players (and laid out as such) does not equal simpler: it will be the same game.
Also I disagree with your other assertions, but you probably already knew that.