The Inside Scoop on Gaming

where I'm coming from Ok, Ok, I know...some smartass right? Well, I've seen and played and sold a fair number of games -D&D among them- in my 15 years as a gamer, ex-gamer, born again gamer, and RPG salesman. I'd like to think that my opinion, while blackened as cajun fish, is fairly honest. Ok, mostly honest. Nevertheless,

I will never forget the crazy pink box with the dorky cover and the holes to hook the rulebook into your 3 ring binder. I fondly recall (and still own) my red and blue basic and expert box sets with the Larry Elmore covers which I received for my 11th birthday. That was 16 years ago. I was blown away at the time. I made dozens of characters, even though there was no one I knew to play with me. About a year later I sat down and read the red box cover to cover (I had opened and investigated the blue box, but never got to play with anyone at this point). I realized then, a much wiser 12 year old, that I should be the dungeon master and try and rope some of my friends into playing. Well, I won't waste your time with the rest of the story...

Suffice it to say I was hooked. I tried new games with new people, and so my interest in RPGs grew for many years. I got so messed up on RPGs at one point that I had to quit. I was playing in multiple games multiple times a week. I went cold turkey for a couple of years at the wise wise age of 23, only to be drawn back a few years later by -you guessed it- that crazy red box with the fighter in chain facing down one of Elmore's snarling red dragons. *wipes tear from eye*

How I met the 3e intro box set

So, now here I am selling RPGs for a living for the couple of years after that, gaming various games about once a week, if that often. I am lying on my bed reading through the 3e Players Handbook thinking, "well, it's a pretty sweet book, against all better instincts. It's for the kids, right?" Right. I am of the opinion that the book is really well done. It's obvious that a lot of respect for the original spirit of the game and attention to detail is going on in between those two covers, even if it is a little (and only a little) misguided IHMO.

Then I picked up the intro box set. I found:

-a set of opaque dice in assorted colors. cool. (no crayon, damn!)

-some funky looking, dumbed-down, fully illustrated pre-generated PCs sheets.

-a combat rules synopsis sheet, a monster identification sheet, blank character sheet for making your own heros.

-a stapled Adventure Book (all kinds of goodies in there I bet)

-a couple of pages of cardboard counters, a map

Cool. So far so good.

-A rulebook suspiciously marked don't read the rulebook before starting play *scritch scritch* huh? otay

Then I stumble across this yellow sheet (ironically at the bottom of the box)that reads in big letters at the top: READ THIS FIRST. The quickstart sheet...ah, yes.

So, as I am prone to do as a purchaser and salesman of such items, I followed the path of least resistance and delved into the world of dungeons and dragons as a young potential future repeat customer might, as I myself did on my 11th birthday.

I have two words for you: What Happened?

OK, rules smules. They changed the rules and that's fine by me, long overdue. Anyone who has played RPGs long enough knows that rules are important, but they don't make or break a game (witness the original DMG). By this point I had already read most of the 3e Player's Handbook so my squeamishness about that had dissapated somewhat. I noticed that there was a remarkable lackof rules here as well as pictures, equipment, spells, setting, choice, and pith. The whole rulebook is a tease. I'm flipping through it and realizing that the Wizards of the Coast catalog has more useful information in it than this rulebook. No wonder you do not read the rulebook before starting play. There's barely any point! There is more variety available to viewers of the flippin' D&D cartoon than within this box. At least the cartoon has a STORY. At least the characters come from somewhere and have a relationship with one another with some kind of purpose.

I'm pretending to be Lidda because her picture looks the coolest. I depart on my first solo adventure to rescue the kidnapped Unicorn Alabern that lives near my village (whose name I do not know) from evil goblins that live in the haunted dungeon. The problem is I don't even know where this place is in relation to my village (whose name I don't know), or how I got here (Bus?), or why I know that these evil goblins are probably behind this door.

I feel like I am playing that Milton Bradley game that came out about 10 years ago called Hero Quest with one exception. No cool looking plastic archways. Bah.

But seriously folks, I went to go make a character of my very own, and this is why I got up to write this review 2 and a half weeks before release; I could not even make a character from scratch. I will repeat because I still can't quite believe it myself (i keep flipping through the book, trying to make sure that two pages of charts arent stuck together facing each other or something): I COULD NOT EVEN MAKE A CHARACTER FROM SCRATCH.

wtf? I mean I hate to be crass, but in the words of Uncle Owen, what are you trying to push on us? You're kidding right? Not one drop of background information, no maps of the world, no nothing.

In fact, there is virtually zero guidance from this set on the subject of character development, campaigning, roleplaying, or else besides "you hit, roll damage." To me, it was always the element of creating a world that mattered. A consensual group fantasy. A vision, something that you can see in your mind, something that lets you build things within a framework. This Box set is not that. I don't know exactly what kind of game this is supposed to be, but it's not that. It seems like a complicated game of checkers or something.

As you might have picked up on by now, I was/am pretty cheesed. The whole set is a thinly veiled advertisement for the player's handbook (*voice of dr.nick riviera* When you reach third level, go out and buy the player's handbook, only 19.95!"). The worst part of it is, is that I didn't want to be confessing how disappointed I am.

I just wanted to warn anyone who thought about picking it up for their kid- do yourself a favor: dust off your old set and give up on the idea that it will be worth tons of money in mint condition one day (as if that dog-eared been through 3 moves at the bottom of a box of other RPGs you don't play anymore was worth anything anyway), and let the kid play with something that going to challenge him or her, instead of plugging them into the first plane of the abyss of some maniacal downward spiralling marketing scheme. The GURPS lite rules -that are given away for free- have more useful information for creating RPG characters and scenarios in 32 black and white pages than this entire set.

Although vaguely slickish looking (only the box and pullouts are in color), the Intro box has a sort of unenthusiastic appearance, grey and drab, earning it a grudging 'average' for style and presentation.

As far as content goes 'sparse' certainly accurately describes this set. The dumbed down rules are expected -it's an introductory product- but I think the decision to exclude character generation, however simplified, was a big mistake. I guess money isn't worth as much and more, but even at ten bucks (that's about 15 canuck bucks for any of you who care) this thing is a total rip off. In fact, the only reason I didn't rate this product 'i wasted my money' was because I didn't have to pay for it.

Gimme a copy of 'the keep on the borderlands' and that old pink book any day of the week. In fact, this headache is so bad, I think I am going to need two...

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Intro Box set
Author: Johnathan Tweet, Jason Carl, Andy Collins, David Noonan Category: game Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Line: D&D 3e Cost: 9.95 US retail Page count: Rulebook 32 Adventures48 SKU: 11641 Capsule Review by rumblefish on 07/25/00. Genre tags: Generic	where I'm coming from Ok, Ok, I know...some smartass right? Well, I've seen and played and sold a fair number of games -D&D among them- in my 15 years as a gamer, ex-gamer, born again gamer, and RPG salesman. I'd like to think that my opinion, while blackened as cajun fish, is fairly honest. Ok, mostly honest. Nevertheless, I will never forget the crazy pink box with the dorky cover and the holes to hook the rulebook into your 3 ring binder. I fondly recall (and still own) my red and blue basic and expert box sets with the Larry Elmore covers which I received for my 11th birthday. That was 16 years ago. I was blown away at the time. I made dozens of characters, even though there was no one I knew to play with me. About a year later I sat down and read the red box cover to cover (I had opened and investigated the blue box, but never got to play with anyone at this point). I realized then, a much wiser 12 year old, that I should be the dungeon master and try and rope some of my friends into playing. Well, I won't waste your time with the rest of the story... Suffice it to say I was hooked. I tried new games with new people, and so my interest in RPGs grew for many years. I got so messed up on RPGs at one point that I had to quit. I was playing in multiple games multiple times a week. I went cold turkey for a couple of years at the wise wise age of 23, only to be drawn back a few years later by -you guessed it- that crazy red box with the fighter in chain facing down one of Elmore's snarling red dragons. wipes tear from eye How I met the 3e intro box set So, now here I am selling RPGs for a living for the couple of years after that, gaming various games about once a week, if that often. I am lying on my bed reading through the 3e Players Handbook thinking, "well, it's a pretty sweet book, against all better instincts. It's for the kids, right?" Right. I am of the opinion that the book is really well done. It's obvious that a lot of respect for the original spirit of the game and attention to detail is going on in between those two covers, even if it is a little (and only a little) misguided IHMO. Then I picked up the intro box set. I found: -a set of opaque dice in assorted colors. cool. (no crayon, damn!) -some funky looking, dumbed-down, fully illustrated pre-generated PCs sheets. -a combat rules synopsis sheet, a monster identification sheet, blank character sheet for making your own heros. -a stapled Adventure Book (all kinds of goodies in there I bet) -a couple of pages of cardboard counters, a map Cool. So far so good. -A rulebook suspiciously marked don't read the rulebook before starting play scritch scritch huh? otay Then I stumble across this yellow sheet (ironically at the bottom of the box)that reads in big letters at the top: READ THIS FIRST. The quickstart sheet...ah, yes. So, as I am prone to do as a purchaser and salesman of such items, I followed the path of least resistance and delved into the world of dungeons and dragons as a young potential future repeat customer might, as I myself did on my 11th birthday. I have two words for you: What Happened? OK, rules smules. They changed the rules and that's fine by me, long overdue. Anyone who has played RPGs long enough knows that rules are important, but they don't make or break a game (witness the original DMG). By this point I had already read most of the 3e Player's Handbook so my squeamishness about that had dissapated somewhat. I noticed that there was a remarkable lackof rules here as well as pictures, equipment, spells, setting, choice, and pith. The whole rulebook is a tease. I'm flipping through it and realizing that the Wizards of the Coast catalog has more useful information in it than this rulebook. No wonder you do not read the rulebook before starting play. There's barely any point! There is more variety available to viewers of the flippin' D&D cartoon than within this box. At least the cartoon has a STORY. At least the characters come from somewhere and have a relationship with one another with some kind of purpose. I'm pretending to be Lidda because her picture looks the coolest. I depart on my first solo adventure to rescue the kidnapped Unicorn Alabern that lives near my village (whose name I do not know) from evil goblins that live in the haunted dungeon. The problem is I don't even know where this place is in relation to my village (whose name I don't know), or how I got here (Bus?), or why I know that these evil goblins are probably behind this door. I feel like I am playing that Milton Bradley game that came out about 10 years ago called Hero Quest with one exception. No cool looking plastic archways. Bah. But seriously folks, I went to go make a character of my very own, and this is why I got up to write this review 2 and a half weeks before release; I could not even make a character from scratch. I will repeat because I still can't quite believe it myself (i keep flipping through the book, trying to make sure that two pages of charts arent stuck together facing each other or something): I COULD NOT EVEN MAKE A CHARACTER FROM SCRATCH. wtf? I mean I hate to be crass, but in the words of Uncle Owen, what are you trying to push on us? You're kidding right? Not one drop of background information, no maps of the world, no nothing. In fact, there is virtually zero guidance from this set on the subject of character development, campaigning, roleplaying, or else besides "you hit, roll damage." To me, it was always the element of creating a world that mattered. A consensual group fantasy. A vision, something that you can see in your mind, something that lets you build things within a framework. This Box set is not that. I don't know exactly what kind of game this is supposed to be, but it's not that. It seems like a complicated game of checkers or something. As you might have picked up on by now, I was/am pretty cheesed. The whole set is a thinly veiled advertisement for the player's handbook (voice of dr.nick riviera When you reach third level, go out and buy the player's handbook, only 19.95!"). The worst part of it is, is that I didn't want to be confessing how disappointed I am. I just wanted to warn anyone who thought about picking it up for their kid- do yourself a favor: dust off your old set and give up on the idea that it will be worth tons of money in mint condition one day (as if that dog-eared been through 3 moves at the bottom of a box of other RPGs you don't play anymore was worth anything anyway), and let the kid play with something that going to challenge him or her, instead of plugging them into the first plane of the abyss of some maniacal downward spiralling marketing scheme. The GURPS lite rules -that are given away for free- have more useful information for creating RPG characters and scenarios in 32 black and white pages than this entire set. Although vaguely slickish looking (only the box and pullouts are in color), the Intro box has a sort of unenthusiastic appearance, grey and drab, earning it a grudging 'average' for style and presentation. As far as content goes 'sparse' certainly accurately describes this set. The dumbed down rules are expected -it's an introductory product- but I think the decision to exclude character generation, however simplified, was a big mistake. I guess money isn't worth as much and more, but even at ten bucks (that's about 15 canuck bucks for any of you who care) this thing is a total rip off. In fact, the only reason I didn't rate this product 'i wasted my money' was because I didn't have to pay for it. Gimme a copy of 'the keep on the borderlands' and that old pink book any day of the week. In fact, this headache is so bad, I think I am going to need two... Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Intro Box set