Dungeons & Dragons Experience is currently going in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. It’s a gaming convention that Wizards of the Coast, publisher of D&D, uses to showcase upcoming products. During this con, WOTC announced the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials line. It’s a product line geared towards new players. Over at Critical Hits there is a good article on the details. Here is an excerpt:
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.
This is a very smart move by WOTC. One of 4th editions greatest strengths is its appeal and accessibility to new gamers. It’s pretty clear that this was a strong design consideration for 4th edition. So, explicitly creating products that help ease people into D&D is the way to go. In fact, it’s long overdue.
I actually think that this should be the primary focus WOTC has for the D&D line. Having a product that everyone can point to as the entry point for D&D (and by extension RPGs in general) really makes it easier for new folks to join hobby. And let’s face it, to most people on the outside of the hobby, D&D is the hobby. Trust me. They don’t know or understand anything about the multiple editions of D&D or all the other RPGs out there. I know when I started last year all I knew about was D&D and that was all I wanted to play. I just wanted to play THE game. The one I’ve heard about. Everything else was either confusing or uninteresting to me.
Besides, there are tons of alternative RPGs and previous editions of D&D to appeal to the veteran and hardcore gamers. Companies like Paizo and retro-clones are doing well to cater to their needs. Hardcore and veteran players are well taken care. The market is becoming increasingly fractured any way. I’m not saying they should be abandoned, but neither should they be the primary focus of D&D.
I think there is a vast untapped reserve of new gamers out there that the 4e Red Box could capitalize upon if it’s well designed. Namely, there are millions of video gamers out there who are already familiar with many pen paper mechanics. The first time I played D&D it really scratched the same itch that video gaming does for me. Furthermore, there are millions of video gamers out there that already pretend to be dwarves and elves and wizards through games like World of Warcraft and Dragon Age. People just have to fight through the stigma that D&D carries as the GEEKIEST THING YOU CAN DO. Which is funny, because honestly, what is geekier: playing a game for hours on end shut up in your house or going out and playing a game while socializing with people face to face. I think there are a lot people out there that crave that social interaction that D&D and RPGs can provide. This is especially true for us geeks. D&D is the only RPG that can really capitalize on that.
Well, I’ve rambled enough. I’m looking forward to checking out the 4e Red Box when it comes out.
