Box Sets

[cczernia]

I was wondering what everyone thinks of box sets popping back up like in Doctor Who, D&D4 essentials, FreeMarket, DragonAge and the grand daddy Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd ed.

I'm personally not a fan finding must of the stuff that isn't a book mostly extra. I can see an argument that some of those games might bring in new players due to being big properties (Doctor Who) but I've never met anyone who was introduced to rpgs through a licensed game that just picked up.

[Sadohara]

Admittedly, it was the 80s but my first RPG experience was the Marvel Super Heroes Basic Boxed Set. The second was a second hand, mostly destroyed MERP boxed set.

I think boxed sets have the potential to bring in many many new players. But those players don't go to game stores.

They go to box stores with their parents. And the D&D Red Box is in Target and Toys R Us.

[devlin1]

Box sets have that "Hey, this is a game!" appeal in the public eye that a big hardback book just can't. Especially the new Red Box, which I picked up a couple weeks ago.

BTW, DiceHouse has a used copy of WHFRP 3e for $50. I'm always tempted to get it for reasons I can't quite understand.

[SpaceMonkey]

I own quite a few, but tend to have a love/hate relationship with them. A box set usually has a nice map and some extras, and can feel more special, but storage and transport are more difficult. Also just grabbing it to go read in another room can be a pain. I usually say 'screw it' and grab just the one part i'm currently perusing, only to find that i want the other stuff too.

The real question is: Which is tastiest to SimonSpawn? - the boxed set, the perfect bound, or the hardback?

[devlin1]

[quote="dnd3eplayer"]The real question is: Which is tastiest to SimonSpawn? - the boxed set, the perfect bound, or the hardback?[/quote]
This is why my RPG books are on shelves out of Ben's reach (for now, anyway).

[cczernia]

[quote="devlin1"]Box sets have that "Hey, this is a game!" appeal in the public eye that a big hardback book just can't. Especially the new Red Box, which I picked up a couple weeks ago.[/quote]

I can see the box set for D&D. Even before the new Essentials box they had two intro box sets for D&D3, and an intro box set for 4e. So yes, defiantly box sets for D&D. But what about other games?


[quote="Sadohara"]Admittedly, it was the 80s but my first RPG experience was the Marvel Super Heroes Basic Boxed Set.[/quote]

Did you play another friends copy or did you buy it, read it and then play it? I've heard of people picking up D&D and playing it with no introduction but never other rpgs.

[Sadohara]

[quote="cczernia"]Did you play another friends copy or did you buy it, read it and then play it? I've heard of people picking up D&D and playing it with no introduction but never other rpgs.[/quote]

I was 11 or 12. I loved comics. I saw the box in a store, I don't even remember where, but it was probably a mainstream bookstore or Toys R Us. One of the selling features for me was an image of the game map on the back of the box. I liked maps. Apparently, even bland top-down maps of urban America.



There was considerable effort expended on my part to get my parents to buy that game. It was expensive, but I had the good vibes of a family vacation on my side. I think I even promised to be good (read: quiet) for the rest of the summer if I had this game to play. This was the clincher, no doubt.



What followed was a summer of moving super hero tokens around the map and imagining their crazy adventures as I waited, impatiently for my brother to grow up so he could play with me.



I missed D&D completely until 1999 when I made a character for a game that was never played. (I did have a [url=http://www.comictreadmill.com/CTMBlogarchives/2008Images/addcacov.html]supremely rad D&D colouring album[/url] as a child, but I don't think I was aware of any connection to a game, though there was a game somehow incorporated into it.)

[mordraine]

Box sets should have substantial contents inside that require a box to hold. Like, if they separate the player and GM info into two booklets. Or if there's a creature book and a setting book along with the rules book. A pad of character sheets. Some dice. A map or two. Something like that. It seems like a lot of box sets are only box sets cuz the publisher thought it would be cool.

The Gamma World game that's coming out has a great excuse to be in a box. Rule book, cards, maps, tokens... all sorts of stuff!

The WHFRP game needs a box too. But that's mostly cuz it has so much crap, there's no other way to carry it around. Ridiculous. Pfff.

[cczernia]

[quote="Sadohara"]
What followed was a summer of moving super hero tokens around the map and imagining their crazy adventures as I waited, impatiently for my brother to grow up so he could play with me.
[/quote]

Heh, sounds like a similar experience I had with the FASA Doctor Who box set where the rules sat and never read but the source material book I couldn't put down and used to keep backyard adventures accurate.


[quote="mordraine"]It seems like a lot of box sets are only box sets cuz the publisher thought it would be cool.



The Gamma World game that's coming out has a great excuse to be in a box. Rule book, cards, maps, tokens... all sorts of stuff!



The WHFRP game needs a box too. But that's mostly cuz it has so much crap, there's no other way to carry it around. Ridiculous. Pfff.[/quote]

Agreed. However, it feels like they went out of there way to include more stuff in the box (at least for WHFRP). I understand the idea of creating a game where you never have to write anything during a session but they went a little overboard.