RPGs - Where are the Beginner's Games?

One of the things that has concerned me for some years now, has been a trend amongst RPGs to become ever more complex.  I understand the motivation behind it, that players want real flexibility in character creation and choices hence the inclusion of skills and advantages/disadvantages and combat options and feats of all kinds.  Whilst this is as i say understandable it does leave the question of how do we as a hobby get new players involved, especially in this age of computer RPGs and MMORPGs?

Recently, I saw "beginner's box sets" for 2 games that are amongst the biggest sellers in RPGs, namely D&D 4th edition and Pathfinder.  I myself bought my daughter a few years ago a box set that was pretty much an introduction to D&D 3rd edition.  All these box sets have the same essential components and the same flaw. The components are simplified versions of the Player's handbook and DM's Guides, along with a map for figures (and sometimes some figures or cardboard cut outs) and some dice.  These sets go for roughly £20-£25 and are for the most part clear, concise and well laid out.  I haven't tried the beginner's box sets for pathfinder and D&D 4th but from watching Youtube clips and reviews they seem similarly laid out and very much designed to get new players introduced to their parent systems, but in a gentler way than paying out for the appropriate corebooks for the parent game.  It sounds like a good deal yes?  My answer is, sort of.

Some people play RPGs and instantly become a fan.  others play and like the concept but perhaps not that particular game or that particular rule set or setting or genre and it just becomes a matter of finding the one that fits.  Others play and whilst they think its okay they don't make a hobby of it and others yet play but it really doesnt grab them like they thought or hoped or assumed it would.  Depending on which group you fall into, the beginner's set becomes a different proposition.

Taking the groups in reverse order, starting with those who play but don't really get into it or those who get into it but not in a major hobby way, the beginner's sets are not a bad deal at all.  Why?  because if they aren't getting into the hobby then the game becomes just another boardgame amongst others that can either be tossed away or donated or kept for the occasional game.  In that respect the asking price doesn't seem too high.  Similarly if the concept sounds good but the genre or rules doesn't fit then the asking price is similarly not too bad compared to the near £50 one would pay for the corebooks for either Pathfinder or D&D 4th edition (3rd edition being out of print can be picked up relatively cheaply 2nd hand if you shop smartly).

But what if playing one of these beginner's sets gives you the gaming bug and you want to purchase the main rules?  Then the beginner's set losed a great deal of its lustre and looks a lot more cynical.  You see the corebooks aren't the next stage up from the beginner's set.  They repeat everything that is in the beginner's set and just adds more stuff.  In other words the only real difference between buying the core books straight away and buying the beginner's set first is that you have spent more if you buy the beginner's box set as all the corebooks still need to be bought to play the game proper.

So what is the answer to this conundrum?  Well, back in the mists of time at the dawn of the hobby some bright spark thought it would be smart to release a beginner's set dealing with the simple core rules, and then releasing add on sets dealing with ever higher characters and rules, gently easing the gamer into the rules rather than bombarding them.  it also meant that the beginner's box set (this is classic Dungeons & Dragons I'm talking about here of course) wasn't replaced by corebooks but was a corebook itself that was then added to buy subsequent releases.  I have noticed that the Dragon Age RPG, released recently by Green Ronin publishing, is going back to that method of releasing and I honestly believe that it is the way to go.  it would also ensure that the often excessive price tags placed on games these days due to the sheer volume of the tomes can be more evenly spread out.

So I would urge gamjes manufacturers to go back to the simpler method of incremental releases, that would at least bring new players into our hobby rather than overloading them with huge volumes at excessive prices.  We risk pricing ourselves out of existence, both intellectually and fiscally, if we don't start looking at this issue.