Review by C.J. Bunce
Back in 2012 I met Wil Wheaton and discussed with him his board game podcast and the game Tsuro in particular (see my discussion of it here). His show was an entry point to explain new games that you could view then walk into a game shop, pick up and spend the next few hours having fun. Even better than the last three basic Dungeons & Dragons 5E “Starter Kits,” the latest is bigger, better, and even easier to use in precisely the same way. Open the box, review the quick start guide and spend an afternoon actually playing D&D. For true beginner players and Dungeon Masters, Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands borrows from a Gary Gygax original adventure and strips everything down to make this the easiest way to get onboard the RPG fun. It does it by adding in tokens, character and NPC cards, giant maps, and even prop elements with three simple adventures to use as practice runs. This big boxed set is available this week at game shops and you can pre-order it now here at Amazon.
So what’s in the box?
Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands is the biggest D&D Starter Kit yet–it seems each new one cancels out the need to check out the previous edition. Since new players hear about the RPG anew every day, continually reaching for the simplest springboard seems like an obvious way for Wizards of the Coast to bring new people into the game. Where all the other D&D adventures require the three core rulebooks, the Starter Kit provides the bare bones in the form of a Quick-Start Guide and a Play Guide. These are booklets, not hardcover books like D&D gamers are accustomed to. But again this isn’t for old timers, unless you’re a DM trying to bring in all-new players and want to use this set to make it happen.
Humans are tactile creatures, and games with physical components add to the familiarity of players with game night fun. Years ago that might have included little painted lead character figures (some still use updated versions of those). This kit uses punch-out cardboard character tokens. It also includes a complete dice set, physical maps, class boards, monster cards, spell cards, NPC cards, gold tokens, and marker tokens.
The Quick Start Guide and Play Guide navigate players through how to modify the provided character cards to form their own characters as a step toward doing so in the full RPG version. Just as the documentation makes it easy for character players, the instructions for new Dungeon Masters is even clearer, providing sample interactions between players that the DM can practice and test before bringing in friends for game night. So for anyone who has learned a little bit about D&D and wants to be “in charge” and run a game as DM, you can even do that with this kit.
The hefty box incorporates quality cards, translucent red dice, thick cardboard punch-out sheets, and sturdy and attractive over-sized maps for play. It’s all premium (shiny, coated, bright inks) content.
Upon first opening the box you’ll encounter the Quick-Start Guide, the Play Guide, and three adventures booklets: Wilderness, Keep on the Borderlands, and Caves of Chaos. Each booklet reflects some painstaking efforts to lay out every step in rudimentary fashion that anyone 12 years old and up can handle (as well as advanced reader younger kids). Five handouts serve props that can be incorporated by a DM into your campaign, including a menu and weapon price posters. Five full-size maps and four half-size maps aren’t the pull-outs from the books but foldouts that serve as the “game board.” Eight Class boards replace the character sheets for this version of the game, featuring Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard options.
Then five thick cardboard sheets have all the punch-out tokens:
- 8 Player Character Tokens
- 40 Power Tokens
- 46 Hit Point Tokens
- 75 Gold Piece Tokens
- 6 Gem Tokens
- 18 Terrain Tokens
- 80 Monster Tokens
Then you encounter the plastic game tray, featuring:
- The set of 11 dice
- Combat Tracker
- 8 Background Cards
- 8 Species Cards
- 55 Equipment Cards
- 53 Spell Cards
- 20 NPC Cards
- 20 Magic Items Cards
- 4 Double-sized On-Your-Turn helper cards
- 42 Double-Sized Monster Cards
The Monster Cards are a more hands-on way of incorporating elements from the full game’s Monster Guide. The full 5E game doesn’t include tangible magic items, but the Magic Items Cards can enhance the fun here. The game is written to allow DMs to connect all three booklet adventures over any number of game nights, so plastic baggies are included to allow players to continue exactly where they left off after they wrap a given night of play.
As a nice touch, all the artwork incorporated via the adventures and cards are attributed to their creators. And it’s all contained in a reusable, slick sturdy box.
This is something more than bare bones gaming, but less than all the books required for the full D&D commitment. 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 $50 you can get started on what costs about $100-$200 to really engage in a D&D RPG campaign.
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 has the latest intro kit with everything you need to get started. Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands is available now for pre-order as both a physical box, a digital product playable through D&D Beyond, or a bundle including both physical and digital versions of the set. Pre-orders are also available at game stores and here at Amazon.
