I considered holding off until after v4.0 is released, but I also considered that not everyone will be ready to jump into the new version. And I think a lot of these basics will remain the same. I mean, you’re still going to have stats and races and classes and whatnot, so a good solid foundation, even if founded in 3.5, shouldn’t be too far off the mark.

I hope you’ll share some of your insights during the transition, though, and help identify those pitfall our new players are likely to encounter.

However of the main obstacles I ran into with getting people to try D&D is how often WOTC milks the cash cow of the “new version.” 3.0, then 3.5 now we’re looking at 4.0?

They’re constant rerelasing of the books forces GM’s (and players) to rebuy the core books and any canpaign supplements or fuss with continual conversions; a repeated pain in the arse.

Because of this a lot of gamers I speak with say they’d use other rules mechanics like palladium 2nd edition simply becuse they won’t have to reinvest $100+ every year or so just to buy the new version of the exact same darned books when they could be spending that $$ on new supplements or other things to enhance their gaming (like minatures, and so forth)

I also think having to relearn the rules (and there’s loads of them in D&D) every couple years is a real put off to prospective players. (Especially if the GM uses a lot of house rules and needs to revise them to be hopefully balanced in the new system and reinterpet all the new rules which may make previous house rules obsolete)

I guess what I’m trying to say is it might be ideal to hold off on introducing some of your prospective new gamers to the wonderful magic of D&D (I dearly love their campaign settings even if I abhor their rule system) until version 4.0 comes out; since it will be much easier for new players to learn one system and stick with it for a long while, rather than just get into learning the basics of 3.5 only to get beat over the head with 4.0 a short while later and perhaps leave the table in confusion over the sudden rule changes.

However, since waiting sometimes just isn’t a good idea or you really want to get your signifigant other into your favorite hobby, consider picking up a copy of D&D for dummies for them; it makes the game about as user friendly and easy to play as you can possibily get.

I cannot stress enough how perfect that book is to get a new player into the game and having fun without feeling overwhelmed.

Check back soon, I’ll be posting another Orientation later this week.