So nostalgia has pulled me back into doing some D&D for the first time in maybe 12 years.
I won't hold back my opinion (for whatever it may be worth): the new starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is absolutely amazing. It's almost everything I always wanted in a D&D starter set.
The box weighs maybe 5 lbs. and is packed with a gigantic amount of material for $50. And it includes innovations designed to ease new players into the game, innovations that I hope make it into the regular game.
For instance, there are player boards instead of character sheets that get all the information up front, easy to read and access. The boards include spaces for the excellent new cards that detail the abilities and numbers for weapons, armor, spells and items as well as species and backgrounds. A new player can get up to speed right away.
The adventures are somewhat in a sandbox across three settings: Wilderness, Keep, Caves. The set allows you to take characters to level three and includes a few dozen encounters. The encounters are designed to demonstrate various ways of playing: theatre of the mind, combat, NPC interaction.
There are a LOT of huge maps, a set of dice, tokens for all the monsters in the game and more. I almost forgot the large cards for each monster that have full art on one side for the players and stats on the other for the DM. It should be mentioned that the quality of all these items is much higher than past starter kit material: the maps are more durable, the cards are real cards, everything speaks to attention to detail. It really seems like WOTC wanted to provide a great experience.
I am very much looking forward to playing.
I do have a few quibbles that I think could be areas for improvement for products like this in the future. For instance the weapon cards require players to look at both sides. One side only displays the name and damage for the weapon (using some rather too small dice icons). They really could have put the damage on both sides.
There was also the apparent design decision to just throw the players into the game without any story preamble. I appreciate this in principle but I wanted just slightly more of an introduction for my new players. So I wrote a replacement introduction speech and designed a new player handout. Anyone is welcome to use it if it appeals to them.
So any quibbles aside, I am very happy with this product and very much looking forward to playing.
I am in total agreement with you. I run a D&D afterschool program and this new starter set is a game changer regarding teaching someone new how to play, both as a player and as a DM. The quality of the materials is an order of magnitude better than all previous starter sets. I hear you on the lack of plot for the adventure books, but this is based on an old Basic D&D intro adventure that was just as bereft of story so I just view this as a learning tool more than anything else. I am really loving the design of the spell and monster cards. The symbols for touch/self/range and visuals of areas of effect make spells much easier to comprehend, and the size of the monster cards makes the art more engaging during play. If they produced a spell card set for the rest of the PHB and a monster card set for the MM in the same style I'll buy both in a heartbeat.
I'm actually blending this into Princes of the Apocalypse, with Red Larch leading to the Keep. I'm also using the Borderlands Quest: Goblin Trouble taking place in Red Larch to kick things off before the party actually gets to the keep. Basically, I'm making the bandits sisters that worked for a merchant who stopped bringing them merchandise to sell (the mystery begins) and they run out of coin and resort to theft to try to get by. And if the group take mercy on them (really hope they do, but who knows with players), they'll take them with them to the keep and they'll gain employment keeping the provisionist's shop cleaned and organized. The starter set will basically replace the level 1 - 3 intro adventure in Princes of the Apocalypse. There'll be a lot more adjustments but I think it'll work out really well. They'll be getting the main quest from a unicorn instead of the elven queen, and they'll be able to use the unicorn's glade as a home base moving forward and have a way to teleport between it and the keep so they can still resupply.
So nostalgia has pulled me back into doing some D&D for the first time in maybe 12 years.
I won't hold back my opinion (for whatever it may be worth): the new starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is absolutely amazing. It's almost everything I always wanted in a D&D starter set.
The box weighs maybe 5 lbs. and is packed with a gigantic amount of material for $50. And it includes innovations designed to ease new players into the game, innovations that I hope make it into the regular game.
For instance, there are player boards instead of character sheets that get all the information up front, easy to read and access. The boards include spaces for the excellent new cards that detail the abilities and numbers for weapons, armor, spells and items as well as species and backgrounds. A new player can get up to speed right away.
The adventures are somewhat in a sandbox across three settings: Wilderness, Keep, Caves. The set allows you to take characters to level three and includes a few dozen encounters. The encounters are designed to demonstrate various ways of playing: theatre of the mind, combat, NPC interaction.
There are a LOT of huge maps, a set of dice, tokens for all the monsters in the game and more. I almost forgot the large cards for each monster that have full art on one side for the players and stats on the other for the DM. It should be mentioned that the quality of all these items is much higher than past starter kit material: the maps are more durable, the cards are real cards, everything speaks to attention to detail. It really seems like WOTC wanted to provide a great experience.
I am very much looking forward to playing.
I do have a few quibbles that I think could be areas for improvement for products like this in the future. For instance the weapon cards require players to look at both sides. One side only displays the name and damage for the weapon (using some rather too small dice icons). They really could have put the damage on both sides.
There was also the apparent design decision to just throw the players into the game without any story preamble. I appreciate this in principle but I wanted just slightly more of an introduction for my new players. So I wrote a replacement introduction speech and designed a new player handout. Anyone is welcome to use it if it appeals to them.
So any quibbles aside, I am very happy with this product and very much looking forward to playing.
I am in total agreement with you. I run a D&D afterschool program and this new starter set is a game changer regarding teaching someone new how to play, both as a player and as a DM. The quality of the materials is an order of magnitude better than all previous starter sets. I hear you on the lack of plot for the adventure books, but this is based on an old Basic D&D intro adventure that was just as bereft of story so I just view this as a learning tool more than anything else. I am really loving the design of the spell and monster cards. The symbols for touch/self/range and visuals of areas of effect make spells much easier to comprehend, and the size of the monster cards makes the art more engaging during play. If they produced a spell card set for the rest of the PHB and a monster card set for the MM in the same style I'll buy both in a heartbeat.
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D&D StaffDid you post this somewhere else? I feel like I remember reading this over the weekend.
No judgement if you did; I'm very happy you decided to post it here as well! So glad you're enjoying the Starter Set! :D
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I also put it on Reddit.
I'm actually blending this into Princes of the Apocalypse, with Red Larch leading to the Keep. I'm also using the Borderlands Quest: Goblin Trouble taking place in Red Larch to kick things off before the party actually gets to the keep. Basically, I'm making the bandits sisters that worked for a merchant who stopped bringing them merchandise to sell (the mystery begins) and they run out of coin and resort to theft to try to get by. And if the group take mercy on them (really hope they do, but who knows with players), they'll take them with them to the keep and they'll gain employment keeping the provisionist's shop cleaned and organized. The starter set will basically replace the level 1 - 3 intro adventure in Princes of the Apocalypse. There'll be a lot more adjustments but I think it'll work out really well. They'll be getting the main quest from a unicorn instead of the elven queen, and they'll be able to use the unicorn's glade as a home base moving forward and have a way to teleport between it and the keep so they can still resupply.