Running Red Box for the Crew: Part One

Last week I got a real treat, the chance to run the new D&D Red Box game for my table. As you can imagine, the Essentials announcement had a few of the group members on edge. They are veterans of the older edition wars and sometimes express their bitterness over the 3/3.5 changes. While I could come back from Gen Con and tell them about how Essentials really wasn't 4.5, I knew the only way they would understand it was if they actually got to play it. So when I suggested that we run Red Box instead of our normal campaign, they were all in.

Character Generation

Their first request was that they create their own characters, using paper and pencil. They wanted to go through the solo adventure and build their character that way. While it led to a slow night of gaming, they had a lot of fun with it. This way of building a character was a little different for them but they enjoyed it.

If I could make one suggestion, it would be to include a short cut version, even if it's only available online. I had the pre-gens from Gen Con we could use, but they all wanted to create their own. Each character took about half an hour to create. One of them wanted an old-school experience and rolled for his scores, 4d6 drop the lowest, in order. While doing this is likely something someone brand new is unlikely to try, it would be nice to support it since part of the appeal of Red Box is the nostalgia factor.

New Character Sheets

One of the first things they commented on was the new character sheet. When I handed a sheet to each player, one of them asked where the rest of it was. That's right, the sheets are now 1 page. In fact, the solo adventure references just writing the information down on a scrap piece of paper if desired. My husband has been complaining about this for years now so I'm glad to see it addressed. If you want to see an image of the new sheet, Games HQ has one as part of their unboxing.

But there is more to the change that just the number of pages. Skills are now listed beneath the corresponding ability score. All those funny little boxes are streamlined to just two, your misc modifiers and the overall check modifier that you would use. If I had this sheet when I started out, it would have made so much more sense.

In addition the page is divided into three vertical sections, abilities and scores, combat statistics and character info like class, race, languages, and notes. The top portion of each column lists the info you are most likely to need during the game.

In addition to character sheets, the box provides cards for each class's abilities and powers and the magic items found in the adventure. This keeps the character sheet nice and clean and means no messing around with a printer and scissors. The only downside to these cards is that they are a bit flimsy and I ripped a few as I tore them out of the stock.

Given how long character generation took, we didn't get much in the way of gaming that night. It was nice that they already knew the basics of the story and so I didn't have to point them in a particular direction or anything. The first encounter, which was devastating at Gen Con, was pretty easy for my group, but they know how to work well together. On my side of the screen, running the adventure didn't change at all.

Different Skill Challenge Organization

The other thing I want to mention about Red Box is something they haven't gone through yet but I noticed during Gen Con. The skill challenge format is much changed and, in my opinion, much improved. I'll admit I was wary of the change when I first saw it. But then again I had fewer than 12 hours before I had to run it and some of that time had to be spent sleeping. When I pointed out the difference to Chuck Arnett[1], he said something along the lines of "Interesting, isn't it?"

Once I got over that though, I fell in love with it. First, there is a whole section on how to roleplay the NPC with usable information about how the NPC would act and react. In addition, it details ways to deal with each failure, giving the players clues that the accumulated failures are making the NPC unhappy.

It recommends that the DM "[t]ry to keep the skill challenge flowing like normal conversation." To aid this, it suggests the DM encourage the players to get into character, describing what the character does as it interacts with the NPC. It describes three ways the PCs might try to interact with the NPC and how different skills might help the PCs achieve their goals. In addition, it explains why the DCs are different for different checks and also states that different characters may want to use a different strategy during the challenge. Great advice for all DMs, regardless of their experience level and something I was pleased to see.

I'll discuss more about the Red Box as we play through the adventure, but the character sheets and change to skill challenge layout were things I just had to mention straight away. I can't wait to see what other goodies await in the Essentials series. So far the judgment of my players is that this is no 4.5.

1 - Ha, a footnote! I have to show my appreciation to Chuck ( @wotc_chuck ). I saw him the Wednesday night of Gen Con when I was, well, freaking out about having to run Red Box the next morning. I looked like I was cramming for a really hard exam and he noticed. He was very patient with me and suggested that I streamline the adventure a bit to make it easier for me to run. I would have been so afraid to make a decision like that on my own and I think he really saved a large portion of my Gen Con experience from potential ruin. Thanks again!