I have to say, I think WotC got it right with Essentials, or at least pretty close. Give me one book with the rules for character creation and advancement with all the races, classes, themes, and backgrounds with the sort of items a character can actually buy or get hold of without adventuring (Heroes of... series). Give me a second book that has all the monsters, traps, and magic items I need as DM to populate the dungeons (sort of a combo Monster Vault and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium). Give me a third book that has the sort of guidance that new DMs will need (DM's Kit). And give me a fifth book that has all the rules for actually running the game (Rules Compendium). Price each one at around $20 retail.
Why do I like this format? Because I hate having to flip through a 500+ page book that weighs damn near 5 lbs to look up one spell, skill, or item like I do with Pathfinder. I, as DM, need a completely different set of information than my players need. With a $50 price tag, there's almost no chance my players are going to buy the book for themselves (I've been running my game since January and we're still passing my book around every session). The person playing the sorcerer is looking up a spell description for his turn when I have to take the book away from him and possibly lose his spot so I can look up the DC for a skill the rogue is trying to use. Drives me insane.
Breaking the books down into Player/DM/Dungeon/Rules will also increase the likelihood of multiple copies of the books being at my gaming table and will prevent the need to shuffle books around. I keep my monster book and rules book behind the DM screen and let the players pass around the player's books so when I need to reference something, it's at my fingertips. Smaller books also mean it's easier to find the specific information you're looking for since there's less to scan through.
I'm also a Shadowrun player as well as D&D and Pathfinder. If you're not familiar with the game, it has a "core rulebook" which has all the basic rules for both playing and running the game in a single 300-400 page book. It also has several other "core" books which expand on rules for the various character types you can play with "optional" and "expanded" rules. In practice, these additional rules are pretty much necessary for the characters to be efficient so you have to have them all around, which defeats the entire purpose of having a single core rulebook. It's a lot like AD&D 2nd Edition if you remember that, only moreso. Imagine for a moment you combined the PHB, DMG, and MM all into one book that was about 350 pages long, but only had the most basic of basic rules for the different classes. If you wanted to use feats or any combat maneuvers for your Fighter, you had to have the Fighter Handbook. If you wanted to use rituals or have a decent selection of spells, you had to have the Wizard Handbook. If you wanted to be able to use backstab/sneak attack or make use of all your skills, you had to have the Rogue Handbook. So instead of bringing three books with me when I want to run a game, I have to bring 6-8 books to make sure I have all the rules I need. Very annoying.
Yes, I know the PRD is online and I can reference that on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. But I hate that option for several reasons. First, it encourages players too pull out said devices which can distract them from the game (I already have enough problems with the Fighter/Rogue playing Words with Friends during combat). Second, I can flip through a book I'm even roughly familiar with and find what I'm looking for far faster than I can search online. Maybe it's because I'm more used to running out of books than off websites or PDFs, maybe it's just how my memory is wired. But I can remember what a page looks like or where on a page information is far faster than I can figure out the proper search terms to enter and then scroll through a list of results to find the specific information I'm looking for. Finally, it just feels wrong. D&D is a game about medieval-inspired fantasy. Fiddling around with my Android phone really breaks me out of the mindset of the game world, while thumbing through a book actually adds to it (especially if the art design is good).
You say "essentials got it right," then describe a book that never existed in essentials. I could see two books, 40-50 pages eachmaybe, one with basic character creation, equipment and spell lists, the other covering basic combat/skills challenges, maybe two dozen iconic monsters, and treasure.
Make them digest-sized for the love of all that is holy and unholy i cannot stress this enough, they are portable that way and there is no call to make them all giant hardcovers
Make a starter book that has DMG/PHB/MM à la the original Redbox, and sell a box of dice and some maps next to it, that way we can get our noob friends willing to invest without having to buy 11 books to play. You had the right idea at Essentials, albeit missed the train a little.
do. not. make. sexist. art. inside. Boobies are not visible in armor, mages would reasonably be covered by their clothing, women tend not to stand with their **** facing the combat just so they viewer can be tittilated. Have you ever seen plate mail? You can't tell if someone in it is a man or a woman, and unless it's an illustration of the fantasy-Gaul women AND men naked but for woad, let's keep the pictures that make my friends refuse to play out of the game. And they're not prudes - our games have sex in it, and adult themes, and some of the players are voluntary sex workers! - but that's not the same as trashy illos of boobies.
The boxed set I imagine is a delux boxed set similar to but more robust than the 1st ed, 3.5, or Pathfinder boxed sets: A player's guide with all the necessary bits in it (that could also be sold as a seperate product for those who just want to play) a DM Guide with all of the rules to run the game and plenty of sound advice, a chocked-full Bestiary, some really nice dice, some table handouts to help familiarize players and GM's with the rules, as well as remind people quickly of their spells, conditions, Advantage/Disatvantage options, some blank character sheets with plenty of room to write and that are well laid out, and some form of media that had pdfs so you could print out replacements as needed.
I think such a thing could be produced fairly cheeply, and I would even sttle for the dice to be out to keep the cost down, as long as that fact was on the box for those new to the hobby. I don't see any reason for it to be anywhere near the cost of the WFRP3 boxed set, nor do I think it needs to be anywhere near the $90+ it took to get invested in 4th, but could see it hiting near the $60 mark (+/- $10) it took to buy into (early) 3rd edition, as long as it was a delux boxed set (harcover books, sturdy hardcover-type box, dice at that price-point, full-color hand outs and character sheets, etc.
You say "essentials got it right," then describe a book that never existed in essentials.
I also added a qualifier of "pretty much". I'd rather have four books at $20 than three books at $30.
Players: Main races (Human, Elf, Half-elf, Dwarf, Halfling, maybe Gnome and Half-orc), main classes (Fighter, Wizard, Rogue, Cleric, maybe others depending on how many are just themes now), about 2-3 themes for every class, about a dozen backgrounds, rules for character creation, mundane equipment and stuff the players can reasonably make/buy (potions, scrolls, etc.)
DM: Advice on how to create an adventure and run a campaign, random tables for generating encounters, dungeons, towns, etc.
Dungeon: Monsters, magic items, and traps.
Rules: All the hard crunchy rules. Rules Compendium was the greatest product out of all of 4e. Give me that one book and I can run a game from it alone (plus character sheets, dice, tokens/minis, map/tiles, scratch paper, and pencils).
The main reason I say four books is that I hate paying for stuff I don't use. It bothered the hell out of me buying Monster Vault for $10 more than other books in Essentials because it came with stuff I had absolutely no need for (poster maps, tokens, and an adventure). I would've been far happier if it'd just been $19.99 for the book alone. That's why I want the DM advice book separated from magic items because odds are I'll never once use the thing. I've been running games for 20 years in over a dozen different systems including at least a few sessions in every edition of D&D and at least one long-running campaign in every edition since 2nd. I think I know what I'm doing in how to run a campaign and I don't want to buy a 200 page book for the 20-30 pages or so of magic items and traps.
The price point has to provide a completely playable game, to level five, for under $20. This product must be of the "impulse-buy"/birthday-present level for the parents of every twelve-year-old in the developed world. If it is packaged in a way that demands $60 investment just to get started and seriously hooked, d&d dies.
I agree that this is needed for D&D to have a chance of bringing new players into the hobby. I fondly remember buying my first D&D Basic set and watching it spread through my small town because we could buy it at the local Target for about $12. It was easy for the kids to sell it to their parents.
In this day and age, Wizards should seriously consider offering a download of the core game for free while also putting a physical copy in mass market stores like Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us.
Create the familiar 3 core books for current players moving to Next. Forget the hardcovers. I don't want to pay the extra cost for them in this economic climate.
Keep the page count to the absolute minimum for the main core rules. I want simple, clean rules that are easy to digest and a book that makes it easy to find what I need during actual play.
Give me great DM advice in the DMG and all the rules for creating new stuff for the game (rule modules, monsters, adventures, themes, backgrounds, adventures, campaigns). Give me a ton of monsters in the Monster Manual and give me rules for how to swap stuff out to make them unique and memorable.
Finally, Wizards should also seriously consider offering new modules through a micro-transaction economy (think iTunes).
I would buy an abstract wealth system module (like Resources in Burning Wheel), an organization system module (kinda like companies in Reign), stronghold and nation building system modules so the players can make vast changes in the campaign world, and a random adventure generation system module to help spark my creativity when I'm pressed for time.
I would buy each of those system modules separately, but I'm highly unlikely to buy separate expensive physical books just to get those system modules with a lot of extra crap I just don't need or want.
do. not. make. sexist. art. inside. Boobies are not visible in armor, mages would reasonably be covered by their clothing, women tend not to stand with their **** facing the combat just so they viewer can be tittilated. Have you ever seen plate mail? You can't tell if someone in it is a man or a woman, and unless it's an illustration of the fantasy-Gaul women AND men naked but for woad, let's keep the pictures that make my friends refuse to play out of the game. And they're not prudes - our games have sex in it, and adult themes, and some of the players are voluntary sex workers! - but that's not the same as trashy illos of boobies.
This, for the love of God, THIS! I have some books that I can't take to work because of the soft porn inside. Get your ya-yas elsewhere! My brother-in-law only lets his kids play at my table when they come over as long as I don't let them see the books. Do a "Hot Chicks In Padded Leather" or "Hunks of the Sword Coast" meat magazine/carnal calendar if you must, but leave the flesh-o-rama out. (No prude here, either. I have an adult-fantasy fictional memoir out there and have painted pin-ups for individuals and clubs that run the gamut from "oo-la-la!" to "oh my god!")
I see a lot of people going for a essentials and a regular version. Don't make us buy both. Essentials had differences from 4E, almost bought it but didn't want to play a .5 edition of a game on it's way to the grave.
Make it a solid experience. Stuff may be missing from any essential line but nothing should be in it that isn't in the regular books if you do this.
And all classes in 3E MUST be in any basic book of D&D today, especially if it claims compatibility with older stuff.
I wouldn't mind if the barbarian was a theme on the fighter as well as the wizard being a theme for the sorceror (or the other way around), the rogue being a theme for the thief, etc.
do. not. make. sexist. art. inside. Boobies are not visible in armor, mages would reasonably be covered by their clothing, women tend not to stand with their **** facing the combat just so they viewer can be tittilated. Have you ever seen plate mail? You can't tell if someone in it is a man or a woman, and unless it's an illustration of the fantasy-Gaul women AND men naked but for woad, let's keep the pictures that make my friends refuse to play out of the game. And they're not prudes - our games have sex in it, and adult themes, and some of the players are voluntary sex workers! - but that's not the same as trashy illos of boobies.
This, for the love of God, THIS! I have some books that I can't take to work because of the soft porn inside. Get your ya-yas elsewhere! My brother-in-law only lets his kids play at my table when they come over as long as I don't let them see the books. Do a "Hot Chicks In Padded Leather" or "Hunks of the Sword Coast" meat magazine/carnal calendar if you must, but leave the flesh-o-rama out. (No prude here, either. I have an adult-fantasy fictional memoir out there and have painted pin-ups for individuals and clubs that run the gamut from "oo-la-la!" to "oh my god!")
Okay...I'm going to preface this...I agree with what you're saying. I completely agree with the sentiment. I completely agree with showing people regardless of gender in practical armor. I believe strongly that the art should reflect multiple classes, races, and genders to the point that I supported Sarah Darkmagic's Kickstarter to commission CC-licensed fantasy art showing female versions of different race/class combinations in non-objectifying ways. I really agree with what you're saying.
However, I also like good looking art. You can show a woman in practical armor in a realistic pose that still looks cool. You can have a female sorcerer/wizard/rogue who is fully dressed and also in a realistic pose who is, dare I say it, sexy. I want a good aesthetic in the game. I want it to look cool. I want the men to look strong and powerful and I want the women to look strong, powerful, and sexy (I'm a heterosexual male, sue me).
This can be done without cheesecake pictures. If I wanted that, I'm sure there's a coffee table book or three of Vallejo art I can order, if not back issues of Heavy Metal magazine. That's not what I want. I want characters to look awesome without being purely objectified. I also don't mind women looking sexy as long as it makes sense. A rogue wearing leather pants makes sense. A sorcerer with high charisma dressing in revealing clothes makes sense. A male wizard wearing flowing Gandalf robes and a female wizard wearing flowing see-through gossamer garments does not make sense. Chainmail bikinis have never made sense.
Hopefully, I've made my point clear enough without digging the hole too deeply for myself...
