I love the concept of all-in-one starter sets. I think they're the answer to providing an entry point into gaming for people who don't know anything about gaming. Recently, I happened to purchase a Lord of the Rings boxed game plus a mostly-unrelated Lord of the Rings wargame rulebook, and the difference between the two speaks volumes. Here's what I mean.
The back of the rulebook (which was shrink-wrapped, so you can't flip through it to see what you're getting) says this:
This rules manual contains all the information you need to begin your journey into Middle-earth and to unleash your forces on the tabletop.
That's objectively untrue. I imagine Games Workshop would belabour the word "begin", but if you purchase the rulebook and two armies of miniatures, you cannot yet play the game. This book lacks miniature Profiles, which are the stat blocks for each miniature. You can buy Gandalf, but to play with Gandalf you need to know his Move speed, his Fight rating, his Defence rating, and so on. This book contains none of that information, so you can buy this rulebook and every single MESBG miniature on the markety, but you still can't play the game.
It's almost aggressively bad.
I realise that this is not a new criticism about Games Workshop. Many people in the past have pointed out that Games Workshop often seems to want to prevent its customers from actually using their products. There's a strong argument that after you've spend $100 on toy soldiers, and another $100 on paints, and another $100 on rules, you ought to be able to play with what you bought. I don't disagree, but then again it's all opt-in. If they want to charge extra for an army book, that's up to them. It's not OK, though, when it's a surprise.
The back of the book also says things like:
A brand new way of building your armies, and a selection of example armies to guide you on how to build your own force.
And:
6 specially formulated Matched Play Scenarios...
But it's all useless without Profiles and this book has just one complete Profile (for Elrond), which it uses as an example on how to read a Profile (should you ever find one).
I don't actually mind the rulebook not containing the Profiles. I see the value in keeping the Profiles and rules separate, and I understand that as they release new miniatures they also have to print more Profiles. The problem is that the book makes it sound like it's everything you need. In fact, the first sentence of the book's Introduction is "Chances are that at least some people reading this will never have played a tabletop wargame before [...] But fear not, within the pages of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game rules manual you will be guided upon your journey into the wonderful realm of tabletop wargaming."
I'm using Games Workshop as an example, but that's only because they're the ones who caught me off guard. I think almost every major RPG publisher is guilty of the same error of omission.
I don't know why the gaming hobby, much like the tech industry, suffers so severely at providing an entry point to people. It seems like a simple problem to solve, to me. On the back of every book, include a checklist of the basic requirements.
Did you pick up the rulebook but not any miniatures? You should be made aware of that before you leave the store.
Did you pick up the rulebook and an army but not the army book containing the Profiles (and, more importantly, the Profiles for the army you purchased)? You should be made aware of that.
Did you pick up a book of scenarios because you're a fan who buys everything with Frodo's face on it? It should be obvious at a glance that what you're about to buy is useless with a rulebook, two armies, and one or two army books (depending on which miniatures you bought).
As writers of rules, you'd think gaming companies would understand how to clearly communicate the algorithm for correctly getting started with a game.
And now the good news: starter sets for roleplaying games exist, boxed games for wargames exist, and they do an amazing job of providing players with everything they need to get started.
Incidentally, along with the rulebook for the big Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, I happened to buy the Battle in Balin's Tomb boxed game. They're essentially unrelated, although they're both developed and published by Games Workshop.
The boxed game experience is a little like a start set for an RPG. You open the box, and actually everything you need is included. Miniatures, dice, rulebook, board, cards. There's no extra purchase. You buy the box, walk out of the store, go home, and start playing (well, first you have to assemble the miniatures, but they're push-fit and no more complex than setting up any other board game with cardboard cut-outs and other physical components).
In this case, the boxed game is basically a wargame that you play on a fixed battlefield, with some events generated by cards. The rules are sort of a super simple version of the rules in the MESBG rulebook, in fact, so if you like Battle in Balin's Tomb then you can graduate to the full wargame later. Provided that you buy the army book containing the relevant Profiles, you can even use the miniatures in the boxed game as miniatures in MESBG (good luck figuring out which army book you need, because there's no guidance on that).
What's even more amazing is that the rules for the boxed game are maybe 8 pages. That's not 8 pages of text, either. There are graphics and examples. It's a quick and easy read, and you're skirmishing in no time.
It's a night-and-day difference in experience. You buy the boxed game, and you feel like you've won a prize. You've got the miniatures for the entire Fellowship (well, aside from Bill the pony), and a bunch of goblins, and a cave troll. If you want to get into painting, that's 20 miniatures ready to go. If you don't want to ever paint, that's OK because the unpainted miniatures are colour coded. Hate rules? No problem, the rulebook is trivial.
It might feel like the strength of a boxed game is its limited scope. But that's not its advantage. The real strength is that somebody had to sit down and think about what elements must be, without question in the box. I think that's the step that wargames and roleplaying games are missing. Nobody sits down and plans out the imaginary box. They produce the stuff, and then let players define the imaginary box for themselves. That might be fine for many experienced players, but it's nothing short of obfuscation to new players.
The solution isn't hard. Tell players what they need to play the game. Maybe I'm an experienced player, and maybe I'll outsmart you and modify the contents of the imaginary box, because I already have a book of monsters and don't feel like buying yours. But maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm new to gaming, or maybe I'm an experienced gamer but new to your game. In that case, the boxed game feel is exactly what I hope I'll get.