I thought I had heard of all the strange marketing strategies I could ever imagine with Wizards of the Coast and their latest D&D products. But I see that man is indeed an animal that trips twice on the same stone.

I guess FFG has made some research on what kind of people would buy this, but I can't  see it.

tydir said:

Okay, not sure what exactly you're getting at…

But as far as the notion of  "beginner games" go, if FFG can grow the fanbase with something fairly inexpensive (30 bucks for the box set vs. the probably 50+ bucks the hardcover corebook is likely to cost once the added art and fluff pieces are factored in), that comes "ready to play," then I say go for it.

The fact that it provides a starter set of dice (which themselves are likely to cost 10 dollars or more) is an added boost.

Also, it depends on where FFG is able to sell this.  If they could manage to get it onto the shelves of a big box store like Walmart or Target, particularly during the Christmas season… well, there's a lot of older gamers that got their start in the hobby off of the old Red Box, and that could be bought at Sears and toy stores quite easily.  Then again, even if just in regular gaming stores, the fact that it's Star Wars and is "ready to play" might entice folks to at least check it out, something they might be less willing to do if they needed to drop 60+ dollars on both the corebook and dice.

Admittedly, the 4e Essentials attempt at a Red Box wasn't a huge success (the fact it had very limited replay value didn't help), but with a 32 page adventure booklet, maybe FFG can avoid that particular pitfall.  After all, Sterling Hershey was able to put together a solid introductory adventure with only 12 pages, since this is using a bare bones version of the final rules, not as much space is going to be needed discussing the more intricate rules found in the Beta.

Those of us that have already bought the Beta aren't really the target audience for something like this, as we've already "bought in" to FFG's Star Wars line, and I imagine most of us that bought the Beta are going to at the very least by the final version.

My comments in the Beta forum seem to be my same response to this thread -

Since the Core book is not being released at the same time, but later, the Basic set is something to tide you over until the Edge of the Empire comes out. If they were released the same day (Core, Beginner's Box, and Dice Packs), then you might have many skipping the box and just using their money on the Core book and dice only. If there is even a month gap, many of us will run out with nerd-ADHD and get the Beginner's box anyway. We just can't wait.

There are a few things in the box that could be used for a Core game anyway that I wouldn't want to miss out on (playmat, extra dice, ship map).
 

 It also seems like they're taking their "starter set inspiration" much more from Paizo's Pathfinder Beginner Box than the utterly miserable WotC Starter Set, but that's just my opinion. I bought the beta book at GenCon, but I do plan on getting this too. It'll be easy to get less experienced role-players into this than making them jump through the hoops of character creation. This'll be great for demos, too.

Plus, we'll get actual DICE. That's worth it alone.

Then again, so is the map.   :D

IG-58 said:

Yeah, but what makes me NOT WANT TO GET INTO THIS GAME is the special coded dice. Just make a system that uses normal dice. Its why I had no interest in WFRP 3E.

Peacekeeper_b said:

You mean you want the same old dice, not something new and creative? The dice make the action system which is very refreshing, not the usual roll dice + modifiers vs. target number = you win! Remove the dice mechanics of FFG Warhammer or Star Wars and I may not play it.

Considering you get the dice, and a rule book, it could very well be a good companion to the main game.  After all, there is many a time that my group needs to look at the rules at the same time - an extra book helps out, without everyone having to buy the main book.

Peacekeeper_b said:

The special dice are the only cool thing about WFRP 3E. They aren't as mind blowing as FFG would have you think, but they're fun. Yeah, it's a cash grab, but not a pricey one so I can get onboard.

The way I see it is, once the Core book gets released, I'll just be buying that and then passing the beginners guide on to a new or more casual player so they have something to study on thier own.  I'll mainly want the dice, but it's not like the other stuff that comes in the box set will go to waste, at least for me anyway.

tydir said:

I'm not exactly sure what makes you say that this is tripping twice on the same stone.  A "beginner set" is not really all that uncommon in the RPG world.  Some of them are done well, some of them aren't.  IIRC Every time a new company has done a SW RPG, they've had a beginner set.  WEG had one back in the day, WotC made theirs with their original core rulebook, and now FFG is giving it a turn.  If anything, you could criticize this as a tired marketing tactic.  The trick is making it valuable after the inital play-through.  The maps and dice might be the thing that tips the scale for some consumers.  

bandersnee said:

They aren't really all that common, either. 

Lots of companies have quickstarts on Free RPG day - but those really are NOT for newbs in most cases. They're usually for experienced gamers to see enough of the system to decide whether or not to buy the core game. FFG has done a LOT of those. And they're free in PDF, and the current one is free on FreeRPG day at participating retailers.

This looks to be a rather strong "learn as you play" offering from the samples posted. It seems to use most of the full-up options. It provides a set of physical dice and a wickedly cool looking poster map at 11x17 or so. Since it includes tokens, it's reasonable to expect it to give ways to use them - something not covered in the Beta.

the interesting thing is that i love having physical dice but since they put out a dice app for the game and since almost anyone and everyone has a smart phone these days so for 6 bux you get all the damn dice you want.

Tassedar said:

i havent encountered much more hassel with the app than i would with my dice bag

Tassedar said:

as a GM, I have.

There are a number of little things that are done better in other die-rollers….

• several have multiple pages - you can leave a set of dice on page 1, swipe over to page 2 for a different character, and back to page 1
• several have the ability to leave the tray up at all times
• several have multiple sizes of dice (as in small vs large)
• most support multiple colors of standard polyhedrals
• many have automatic totalling. Which would be absolutely wonderful for EotE…
• A few support zooming in and out

I'm going to get the beginner box  for several reasons… in order, 

1. the dice
2. the tokens (and hopefully, rules to use them)
3. the poster map
4. the canned adventure