RPG starter sets

I find myself thinking about ttrpg starter sets.

I recently bought the Agents of Dune starter set for the Dune RPG, in their Black Friday sale. I hadn’t planned to buy it, but I noted that Masters of Dune, a campaign I’ve heard good things about, was also in the sale, and I figured that if I were to get the campaign, then I ought to know how the rules work. And it was an excellent Black Friday deal.

So I’ve been reading Agents of Dune (a “roleplaying campaign experience”), and it has made me think about starter sets and, in particular, what purpose they serve and who their target audience is. 

Target audiences

So I don’t know what goes on in the marketing departments of modern ttrpg companies, but I figure there are several different audiences, and they all want different things from a starter set.

The complete newbie: Has never played (or run) a ttrpg before. Needs the starter set to hold their hand and explain both what ttrpgs are, as well as selling this particular ttrpg. Oh, and doing so in a way that they like it so much that they pick up the core rulebook.

Existing roleplayers who are new to the game and the system: This existing GM or player likes the sound of the game, but doesn’t know the system and needs to find out what it’s about without breaking the bank.

Existing roleplayer, familiar with the brand, new to the game: This is someone who has played games by the company before, but not this particular line. (So think of a RuneQuest fan who wants to try Call of Cthulhu.)

Veterans familiar with the game itself: Someone who already plays the game and doesn’t need a starter set. Or do they?

The market size gets smaller as we go down the list. Complete newbies outnumber existing roleplayers, who outnumber those familiar with the company, who outnumber those familiar with the actual line.

Who are starter sets written for?

This is probably obvious, but these different audiences have different needs.

A newbie needs their hand holding. Other GMs need a set of rules and an adventure, and maybe some bling.

What should starter sets contain?

We’ve pretty much got this sorted. Rules and an adventure. Pregenerated characters. Dice. Maps and miniatures or tokens to suit.

An adventure. Maybe more than one. (The Call of Cthulhu starter set has three.) Unique adventures make a starter set appealing to existing players. The first edition ALIEN starter set had the excellent Chariot of the Gods adventure. (I think Free League have made a mistake by putting the somewhat average Hope’s Last Day in their latest starter set.)

The Dune starter set has a longer, more involved adventure (almost a mini campaign).

Rules: Enough rules to play the adventure. As pregenerated characters are usually supplied, starter set typically don’t include character generation rules. Apart from character generation, the first-edition ALIEN starter set had the complete rules (I’m not sure about the current edition) and the cinematic adventures Destroyer of Worlds and Heart of Darkness could be played with just the starter set.

The Dune starter set takes an odd approach to the rules, explaining them as the adventure progresses, but it also includes a free download of the core rules.

Dice: Dice are pretty much mandatory in a starter set. A nice set of dice might encourage existing fans to pick up a starter set.

Other bling: Starter sets can include maps, tokens, miniatures and other bling. Depending on the quality of these, they may encourage experienced GMs to pick them up.

Should a starter set be aimed at complete newbies?

Maybe. I don’t know.

I guess if you think your starter set will appeal to newbies, you might need to write for them. But I wouldn’t tell them how to roleplay – I’d point them to a short YouTube video showing the game in action. Along with rules tutorials.

But I would note that most roleplaying games are ridiculously complicated (and I’m foreshadowing my review of the Dune starter set here), and unsuited for attracting newbies. So targeting existing roleplayers seems like a safer bet – unless the game is very explicitly aimed at bringing new players into the hobby.

What would I include in a starter set?

So my aim for a starter set would be to draw in existing gamers while also giving veterans a good reason to purchase it. I wouldn’t target complete newbies for the reasons stated above.

So a starter set must include:

A good adventure. Clearly, it has to include a great (and ideally unique) adventure. The adventure has to say, “This is how good this game can be.” There’s no point in including a mediocre adventure. The Call of Cthulhu starter set may include three investigations (which is good value), but none of them are new, limiting its appeal for veterans. 

The original ALIEN starter set included the excellent (although flawed, as I've discussed before) Chariot of the Gods – in my view, an excellent adventure. And it wasn’t available anywhere else.

Enough rules: The starter set must have enough rules to run the adventure. It doesn’t need character generation rules or starship building.

Again, the ALIEN rules are good. You get the complete rules (bar character generation), and Free League explicitly say that their cinematic adventures can be run with the starter set. So buyers weren’t compelled to buy the core rules – although many did. (I did.)

To give the Dune starter set some credit, while they don’t provide a set of rules (rules are explained as you play the adventure), Modipheus give you a code to download the core rules for free.

Some bling. Custom dice, maps, handouts, maybe a small deck of cards. And make them good quality. One criticism of the ALIEN starter set is that the dice aren’t particularly great quality dice. They look and feel cheap. I still use them, but I would rather have nicer dice.

Books that aren’t going to fall apart. And of course, it’s nice to have books that aren’t going to fall apart after a few uses. I’m still waiting for that – I find that starter set books (rules and adventures) feel very cheap and aren’t very robust.

My ideal Traveller starter set

So if I were to assemble a starter set for Traveller, what would I do?

I want to create a boxed set that gives new players (and GMs) the Traveller experience. Given that Traveller has a broad scope, I’d have to narrow it down. So let’s go for a merchant game, centred around the crew of a 200-ton Far Trader.

(And, yes, I know that the Traveller Starter Pack exists. It gets bonus points for being free, but it’s only in pdf and I’m not a big fan of either of the starter scenarios as I think they are overwritten, structurally unfriendly, and don’t really sell the Traveller experience to new GM.)

So what would my starter set include?

Rules: A cut-down ruleset. Enough rules to run the game, but no more. So no starship or world building, no deckplans (except as required). And robust enough not to fall apart after a few uses.

Pregens: I’m in two minds as to whether to include pregenerated characters or not. Generating characters is such a fundamental part of playing Traveller, I think I’d include the merchant career path. But only for merchants. And I’d fix the mustering out so that the group ends up as part-owners of a Far Trader, with a mortgage.

Maps: Two obvious maps – a large subsector map (maybe two or four subsectors), and a map of the ship. Plus other maps, if required by the adventures.

Adventure material: Three adventures, half a dozen patrons, and a few casual encounters (as the detailed NPCs used to be called). Enough material for a few sessions of play, along with advice for running the ship.

Dice: Some six-sided Traveller dice.

Other bling: If possible, other bling such as cards for key NPCs, or random encounters, or equipment. (Equipment seems to be a common use for cards in starter sets, but I must confess that I’ve never used them that way.)

A starter set focusing on a different part of Traveller (the Scout service, say), would have different adventure material but otherwise might be very similar.

I think that sounds like something I would be tempted to pick up!

Prelude

Anyway, all this is a prelude as next time I will look at the Dune RPG starter set, Agents of Dune, in more detail.