We ran our first-ever Designer livestream on D&D's Discord! In this Q&A, Justice Ramin Arman, the Managing Game Designer on the D&D team, talked about D&D's new Starter Set, Heroes of the Borderlands!

We learned a ton of new information during the livestream, including Justice's favorite dinosaur, and we've distilled an hour's worth of fun into the top things you should know!

Don't want to miss another livestream? Join D&D's Discord today to get notifications when they start!

1. What was the design philosophy you had going into Heroes of the Borderlands?

When we first approached this project at Wizards, we set clear goals. We wanted to:

1. Use components to teach people how to play and DM.
2. Cut the time from unboxing to actually playing.
3. Break the adventure into standalone sections you can run in 30–90 minutes. This also helped groups swap roles, so the DM one night could be a player the next.

We also wanted almost everything represented by components to avoid note-taking; the only thing you’ll ever write on is the DM’s combat tracker. Overall, we aimed to build a smooth onboarding ramp—a true Starter Set—tuned for the 2024 rules revision.

2. How easy is it for lapsed groups to jump in?

We had lots of playtests—some internal, some with agencies that have access to broad player bases. We really positioned this for players of all experience. It was tested with groups where no one at the table had ever played D&D. They were board gamers, people who saw the movie, people who played Baldur’s Gate but had never rolled a physical d20.

It was important to watch where people struggled in playtests. Though sometimes, those same spots were easy for other players.

An important thing we saw was that people could go from unboxing to playing the first adventure in about 20 minutes. So, how easy is it? Pretty darn easy.

3. Everyone’s buzzing about the components. Will there be more?

I have to be mysterious about future products, but here’s the truth: if you like something, make noise about it. Tell us on Discord, forums, reviews. We listen, and success does influence future product lines. Just keep in mind, timelines at a company like this are longer than you might expect.

So, if you don't see something immediately, that doesn't mean that we aren't doing it or thinking about it.

 4. Any chance of expansions for class boards?

I’d love that. This set leaned into the iconic four—Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric—and the classic fantasy species. I'd love to see a future product where we show the newer classes, like Barbarian and Warlock. But complex classes mean trickier component design.

 5. Why no tieflings, gnomes, or orcs in the keep?

Part of the reason for that is that we didn't want to introduce an NPC that was of a species players can’t actually play in this box. Otherwise, new players would feel bad. 

Plus, that's pretty similar to the original. A lot of the inhabitants in the keep were human.

And by the way, I love gnomes. They're probably my favorite species. So there was a point where I was like, "Ah, I would love to put a gnome in here."

 6. Did you carry over lessons from earlier products?

In selecting the adventures for Quests from the Infinite Staircase, one of them that we talked about was Keep on the Borderlands, and we intentionally saved it as an introductory adventure for the future. Then, it manifested into this Starter Set.

 7. The adventure feels more sandboxy, with one-shots and less of a big narrative. Why?

Yeah, it was intentional. I think for anybody who's played Keep on the Borderlands, I'm pretty hopeful they can see the parallels between that and Heroes of the Borderlands.

That adventure had three main settings and took this idea of showing up at the keep, getting reasons to go out into the wilderness, and then foraying into the Caves of Chaos. You return to the keep, you resupply, you rest, you buy things, you talk to people in the keep, and then you go back out and you do that again.

While there are conflicts and secrets to uncover, the story that emerges is the one your group experiences.

 8. What advice would you give a first-time DM?

Well, if you got this Starter Set, you're already on a good path. I would say have fun and take a chance. It gets easier the more you do it.

I was nervous my first time, too, and now I love DMing. I enjoy controlling all the monsters and creating stories for different players. I think this is a fun set to do that with.

 9. Okay, but why does ale cost 1 gold piece in the Drunken Dragon tavern?

So the gold pieces. We didn't want anybody to have to manage a bunch of different denominations. One gold piece is a lot easier to manage than a gold piece and 10 silver pieces and 100 copper pieces and all that. So you just have to pretend that the Drunken Dragon tavern is not extorting you.

Call it inflation, or the ale is just that good.

10. What’s your favorite dinosaur?

Triceratops. It eats greens but is dangerous. Good motto for life: eat your vegetables, be dangerous.