In my haste to Choose My blue-skinned cleric’s Own Adventure, I skipped this interesting passage from the beginning of the player’s book, explaining the concept of an RPG:
If you’ve ever played Neverwinter Nights, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, or games like those, you already have some idea of what the Dungeons and Dragons game is about.
The collection of games is interesting. It would be a daunting task to assemble a list of RPG video games that are a) well-known to 12 year olds and b) likely to stay so for the entire period that D&D Essentials stays in print. I think WOTC did about as well as could be expected. Neverwinter Nights makes sense, because it’s actually a D&D property, and rumor has it that Wizards is going to license a new 4e Neverwinter game. Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, and Warcraft are blue-chip RPGs that will probably continue long after the race of Man has passed from the earth. Dragon Age is the biggest risk: it’s only at game 1 of the series. Still, I love Dragon Age and I’m glad to see it make its way onto the list.
Tags: redbox
“Dragon Age is the biggest risk: it’s only at game 1 of the series.”
Not really: The computer game already had a large standalone expansion pack sold as a separate disk, putting it at about 1.5 games, the pen-and-paper RPG was released a while ago, and the sequel computer game was announced some time ago as well, so WotC would have known well in advance of having to send off the Red Box to the printers that Dragon Age was already a major franchise (and in fact one competing for that same boxed-set intro-to-roleplaying market).
not to mention dragon age: journeys! That’s 2.5 games at least!