If you’ve ever wanted to start playing Dungeons & Dragons, but didn’t have anyone around that knew how to play, Wizards of the Coast is releasing its second new intro kit with everything you need to get started. Expanding on the 2014 D&D Starter Kit and its The Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign, this Tuesday an all-new D&D Starter Set arrives in stores, featuring the new scenario Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. It’s available as of publication date here at Amazon for a pre-order price of only $16.99.
A surprise about this boxed set is where it’s heading: Schools! That’s right–it’s going to schools across the U.S. during this school year as part of a new project and partnership. Teachers can use roleplaying with the game as a learning tool to provide social, emotional, and creative benefits to kids. Teachers interested can find out more about the Afterschool Kit via the “Learn to Play” hub at playdnd.com.
This D&D Starter Set includes all of the components for new players to have their first adventure out of the box. Unlike the Essentials Kit, which is another beginner set we discussed here at borg, the D&D Starter Set sticks to the basics. Players are provided with pre-generated characters, so there’s no character building quite yet, but players get their first taste of taking heroes to battle monsters, find treasure, and undertake epic quests. Here there be dragons–although that’s not always the case with D&D. This first journey takes players into an ancient war among dragons as they explore the secrets of Stormwreck Isle.
This boxed set includes:
- 48-page adventure booklet with everything you need to get started
- 32-page rulebook for playing characters of levels 1–3
- 5 ready-to-play characters, each with an included character sheet
- 6 sapphire polyhedral game dice
Players also can download the ready-to-play characters from the D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. You may print and photocopy them for your personal use.
This is definitely bare bones gaming, but it’s like renting a drum set for $45 per month instead of buying your kid a $3,000 drum set that he may decide not to play next year. For less than $20 you can get started on what costs about $100-$200 to really engage in a D&D RPG campaign.
The D&D Starter Kit is for true beginners, but completists may also want it to get their hands on the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle adventure.
For anyone who has ever wanted to give D&D a try, the D&D Starter Kit arrives this Tuesday, available at all game stores, and it’s available now at a discount price here at Amazon.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
