I just discovered this news article on the official Dungeons & Dragons website. It includes the quickstart rules for playing D&D 4E (six pre-made Player Characters levels 1 to 3 are at the end of that PDF) as well as the first 4E module, H1: Keep on the Shadowfell. I hear that the module's been updated, as well, featuring a bit of new content, and corrections/updates (enthusiastically touched upon at Eleven Foot Pole.) Oh, and it seems you can build a character yourself, if you don't like the pre-made ones!
Now this is something new, and completely awesome, and that's what I want to focus on. Sure, the D&D website has an archives/download section with old AD&D products and adventures that were once published; but those aren't for the supported system, those weren't put on shelves just last year. Sure, the D&D website had tons of 3rd Edition/3.5E adventures put up for free download, professionally written and designed to boot. But those were all, essentially, side treks. And sure, the OGL/SRD meant that the core rules were free to lookup for anyone, legally, but that wasn't exactly the intention.
But this is different. This is generous. It's tasty, like the old Tom Moldvay basic rulebook (which also only covered levels 1 to 3 - but you had to pay for it.) This is the kind of thing Wizards needed to do to hook people into the game.
Now, it's true that they had a running free trial... deal... thing... associated with their Dragon and Dungeon e-zines (the Insider subscription). But I'm sorry to say, that felt like more of an appeasement than an offer. The perception was that the features of DDi would be available with the launch of 4E, along with a lot of other things that may or may not have been promised. It's been a year now, and I hear it's still not where people thought it would be.
But this, it's a surprise. It's a gift. This is even better than all the pre-release excerpts (which were also generous). I hope it gets more people to pick up the game, and of course: buy the books. Or at least, generate some content of their own to give to the paying fans.
Now, Wizards can't just continue the trend and go "oh, when H3 comes out, we'll put H2 up for free." (Or they could, but it seems a little reckless.) I've got my own, rather radical ideas about what I think they should do; or more accurately: what I want them to do.
Because I really want to see old-edition PDF sales; really cheap, too, since this property is just sitting there, doing almost nothing for the company for the past decade except getting stolen. And what better way to announce that your classics are once again available than to provide some quickstart rules and a free starter module, to help old players remember the old days, and maybe introduce a new player into the wealth of content that was never before available to them? Sure, it would take work digitizing a library of game books, setting up the space, etc., but it doesn't have to be a "get this done" project. To see it done before, say, the next Summer Olympics, would be more than reasonable, but who knows; maybe by then, 4E and H1 will have gone the way of those "old editions," themselves.
Of course, if there's still time before 5E, then why not also update their old-edition adventures? They had an article on the subject, after all, and did just this (for free, no less) with the Tomb of Horrors for 3.5E. I dare say, if they updated a large and iconic adventure like, say, the Temple of Elemental Evil, then they could get away with charging for the PDF download (or even selling it.)
All-in-all, this is a sign that the Wizards of the Coast aren't going mad from lichdom, and it should be making the D&D players much happier than they seem to have been of late. I may even be inspired to get a few online sessions together this summer, perhaps seeking out people new to the game.
