Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set

After a few rounds of trying new editions of D&D when they came out and being disappointed with the results, I was a little dubious about purchasing 5th edition. This starter set seemed like a relatively cheap way to try it out without the time and cost commitment that comes with buying all the books and planning a whole campaign. Well after trying it out, I'm very pleased to say that this is by *far* the best starter set I've ever encountered in any tabletop RPG. It's more like a mini campaign setting that a starter adventure. We've logged 16 hours of game play with it, and aren't even half way through. Very robust descriptions and maps are provided of four large dungeons, and at least half a dozen substantial side quests, not to mentioned very well fleshed out NPCs at virtually every building in the thoroughly described and well-mapped town of Phandalin. The core rule book they provide with the set covers 90% of everything you need to know for the full game. I've since purchased the full Player's Handbook, which is also excellent, but it really just expands on race and class offerings and character creation. You really don't need it to play all the way the 8-10+ gaming sessions that this set will provide. A quick side note on 5th edition: I've been playing various incarnations of D&D for 20 years. I was a huge fan of AD&D 2nd edition, and haven't really liked any of the newer editions since. Until now. 5th edition may well be the best version of D&D ever made. The advantage/disadvantage system makes it really fast and easy for the DM to apply situational modifiers uniformly and without having to consult a whole litany of tables and charts. For that matter, the whole game seems to have been streamlined to encourage faster play, but they've managed to do it without sacrificing any of the depth of game play that more experienced players are accustomed to. It also seems to be a little more tilted in favor of keeping low-level players alive, which I consider to be a good thing. It's nice to be able to present the players with something other than small bands of goblins to fight for the first 2 levels without having to worry about losing a player, and having to spend time rolling up replacements. I think the only minor complaint I can come up with is that halflings don't have any dark vision, which strikes me as odd - the race that is best suited to play a thief or assassin should really be able to see in the dark without a torch. Overall, though, after about 4 gaming sessions, I'm absolutely in love with 5th edition, and so are my players. The only critique I can offer about this starter set is that the pre-fab character sheets they include with it provide background on the characters in ways that should impact the game play, but that's never really addressed in the campaign book. So the DM is left to make several split decisions about whether or not a character's history with a given NPC, group, or location should provide them insight above and beyond what is explained in the book. Most DMs with a bit of experience in rolling with the twists and turns that players always seem to throw at you shouldn't have much trouble with this, but first time DMs might find it a little frustrating. All-in-all, though, it's one relatively minor weakness among an otherwise great value, especially at the price point. Wizards seems to have realized that they have hit a home run with 5th edition, and are confident enough in their product to provide a very low barrier to entry for new players wanting to try it out. If you're a classic AD&D player curious about 5th edition, or a new player that has never tried D&D (or any RPG) before, this is the best way I can think of to get started.

I was a player years ago with the AD&D Rules and recently decided to get back into the game after one of my sons became interested. Remembering how costly the guide books used to be (at the time), I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money to get started in case we decided we didn't want to play the game long term. Mainly for that reason, I decided on this Starter Set since it seemed to have everything that was really necessary to play a campaign. After spending a few hours perusing this set, I was impressed with the detail. I was expecting something a lot more dumbed down. This goes in depth with four different types of character classes, several different races, the basic mechanics of the game, and even pointers on how to approach some of those aspects. If you are a beginner DM, it really takes you step-by-step through the entire Adventure even giving alternate paths that can be taken by the Player Characters. There are lots of tips on how to approach the many different encounters in the campaign. If you are thinking about playing Dungeons & Dragons, I highly recommend starting with this Starter Set. It's a very nominal investment that charges you right into battle so to speak. It spells out almost everything you need to determine whether the game is really for you. Even if you are already an experienced player I feel it's worth it for the Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign alone. UPDATE: 01/16/17 We started the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign included in this Starter Set. The current party consists of my 10 year old son, my son's friend of the same age, my son's friend's Father who is my age, and a 13 year old whose family is friends with all of us. I am the DM which I was reluctant to do but realistically I always new this was best for the group. We have spent approximately 30 hours in game play and I estimate that we are 80% complete. So far everyone seems to be having a blast. Everyone created their own characters for this campaign rather than using the pre-generated ones that came with the set. We did however use the Rogue as a second PC for the other Father until the 13 year old joined us about half-way into the campaign. I have to admit that I am having more fun as the DM than I thought I would. It does take some preparation for each game session as you need to make sure you are fully knowledgeable of the relevant material so that everything runs smoothly and without lags. There are also some aspects of the campaign that you may feel you need to adjust or improvise from what is provided but I am learning that a good DM should be able to do that. Some of that is purposely left to the DM to fill in the gaps and some of it is that you simply can't always know what actions the players are going to take in any given situation. That's really part of the beauty of this game. Everyone has a part in telling the story. After a few game sessions, we all had purchased a copy of the Player's Handbook. Not because we felt the Starter Set didn't include enough information to play The Lost Mine of Phandelver , but because we had become so excited through playing it that we just wanted to be exposed to more. I have also purchased the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster's Manual so that we can continue playing beyond this campaign. I'm not suggesting that anyone do this before finishing this Starter Set campaign. I am simply warning you that you could get so excited once you start playing that you will want more. UPDATE 01/05/21: We had a blast with Lost Mine of Phandelver and ended up continuing the adventure with some supplements from the online DM's Guild that were created for a continuation of this short adventure. I still highly recommend this Starter's Set for anyone new to the D&D that only wants to make a token initial investment. The Essentials Kit is also worth a look for beginners at a slightly higher price point.

I've been following the development of 5e (called D&D Next during development) off and on for a while, and I feel like they really captured what I want out of a role playing game, and did a good job of making it easy to start with something simple and only add as much complexity to your game as you want to. I've been looking for a good game to start playing with my kids -- my youngest is just now starting to be old enough for this to be workable -- and I think this is the ticket. It leaves out lots of extraneous things -- all the tactical-board-game complexity of 4e (which can be great if that's what you want), and the bonanza of multiclassing complexity 3e typically gets buried under. The starter set gives you a very limited set of mechanical options for your character -- it actually doesn't contain a full set of character creation rules at all, opting instead for some prebuilt characters that you can customize, so you can get started right away. (Note: there's a free set of rules on the Wizards of the Coast website that includes more character creation rules, so if you want a little more latitude to build your own character without buying all the handbooks, that might be something you want.) It includes a simple, well-explained set of rules that do a good job of covering the real breadth of different actions you can take in the game, which for what I want is a big improvement over 4e -- instead of a million rules covering combat tactics and limited guidance for what to do outside of battle, the 5e rules start by explaining how you can resolve all the different actions you might want to take, then add specifics for combat, exploration, etc. as needed. This box is designed to support playing without a game board and minis, where you can refer to a general map of the area, but take actions based on imagining the space and your position in it rather than dividing it into squares. This is how I grew up playing D&D back in the 80s, and I think it's great that Wizards is returning the game to its roots in this respect. In my opinion, it also lends itself to different kinds of creativity -- "I use my agility to jump up, grab the chandelier, and deliver a flying kick against the orc" -- as an alternative to mastering tactics based on the game's grid layout. On the other hand, if you definitely want a game that uses map squares and minis -- and there's certainly nothing wrong with that, if that's how you like playing -- you might prefer the Pathfinder Beginner Box, which costs more, but includes everything you need to get started with a grid-based game, including printed cardboard figures that stand on little bases and a dry-erase playmat for mapping the layout of an area. (4e is also oriented this way, so buying 4e books and accessories would be another alternative.) The bundled adventure seems like a solid offering, and a good way to get started with D&D for next to nothing and see if you want to invest more time and effort/

This set gives you everything you need for a few friends to take a dip into Dungeons and Dragons. At the current Black Friday price of under $12 it is a steal. It is definitely a great place for absolute beginners to start, as well as a good choice for experienced players who've never played fifth edition. The main elements are two handy things and one awesome thing, namely : 1. The awesome thing: The starting adventure it gives is actually one of the best published adventures for 5th edition. Even if you are an experienced player you might enjoy it, particularly if you're playing with newbies. It is very well calibrated to give people an introduction to the game and its most classic setting elements (dungeons, a dragon, orcs, a goblin fortress, a tavern, an evil wizard or two). Basically it's everything someone who hasn't played expects, which is what they should be given in their first outing. It also has handy tips along the way to help a first time Dungeon Master get through it. I'd estimate it provides about 20 hours of gameplay. The only major flaw is that the opening encounters are rather rough for 1st level characters run by new players, but this has the upside of teaching people used to computer games that in a tabletop games charging into battle is not always the best option. Also, to nitpick, at one point you meet a cadre of undead serving a necromancer who is not actually of high enough level to raise or control undead, and I hate when the game breaks its own rules. But seriously, on the whole its good stuff. 2. Handy thing: Some dice. If you're new and don't have a set of polyhedral dice this is vital. Otherwise of little consequence, they get the job done but they're nothing special. At one point in the early history of the game TSR couldn't actually source dice for their starter sets and instead included paper chits with numbers to be drawn from a bag, so be thankful for the dice. 3. A basic rulebook. This is, I believe, the same rules available free online, but it is handy to have a physical copy to pass around the table. Once you buy a players handbook it is superfluous, but still handy as a spare copy of condensed rules..

Short Review Pros: -Really well written and laid out material. -Adventure is varied, with lots of different combat and no combat encounters. -Premade characters are custom tailored to the adventure and have very rich and well written backgrounds. Cons: -No maps, this is pretty greedy of them. -No d100 dice; it must add maybe 20 cents at most to the cost of the product to include it in, I would have paid that gladly. -No marketing or promotional material explaining the free online resources and upcoming books. Long Review I am someone who has never played much D&D before (I played through the 4th edition red box but never actually finished it) so my review might be more relevant if you are a "noob" like me. I would say that this adventure is a good way of introducing one to the world of D&D. The adventure is well written and well laid out, It is quite varied, having combat encounters, RPG encounters, advice on how to roleplay all of the different NPCs, etc. The fact that the characters are pre-made is great since it lets new players ease into the experience instead of having to figure out how to make new characters, and my players still felt attached to their characters as they got to pick which one they wanted to play and named them. It was also nice that the characters had such rich backstories as it gave my players a lot of motivation. Since purchasing this I have begun reading more and more about D&D, and I am excited to play with the new classes of the Player's Handbook. That being said, I knocked a star off for 3 reasons: 1) No Maps: this is certainly the worst thing about this set. The adventure itself has 6 maps included in the adventure book, which they could definitely have included in 3 double-sided posters. Instead of including the lame space maker they should have saved the cost of that and just printed the maps. This certainly makes it feel as if Wizards of the Coast (the company behind D&D) was cutting corners on this one. At the very least they should sell the maps on their website as it would save me some time from having to draw all of the encounters. 2) No d100 dice. I know it doesn't matter much, but again it goes back to cutting corners. I bought a chessex set along with this and noticed that those sets have an extra d100 dice added in so now i feel kinda irked that I don't have that extra dice for the regular set. Is a d100 ever used in this? no. Would it be nice if they included it? Yes. 3) As a new player I would have like to see a promotional pamphlet leading me to the free basic rules and the downloadable copies of the premade characters included in this set. Not sure why they did not include it in the set, but it would certainly have been helpful. This also would have been a great opportunity for marketing this product: they could have presented it as "look at this free stuff we are providing you online!" which would have made me feel a bit better about the product and the company. Instead, it makes me feel as if their marketing team had a bit of an oversight. They could have included a simple booklet explaining what is or will be available for free online and what each upcoming book has. I know, its rare when a consumer ASKS for marketing, but I think it would have been educational in the context of a new set. That begin set, for this to be included they would have had to include at least the maps; otherwise it would be pretty terrible that they include marketing materials but not poster maps. Overall, I would say this is a great set. I can't compare it against any other current beginners set (besides the 4th edition red box which is now out of print) because I have never played one. I think that the set should have included the extra die and the 3 double sided poster maps, even if it brought the price up by 5 dollars or so, as I am sure that most people would be ok with that tradeoff. I will say one thing, I certainly wish that I had this set when I was in HS or even college :)

I seem to be in the habit of playing only every odd numbered edition of D&D. I skipped 2nd Edition, played 3rd Edition to death, and got into 5th edition (after selling all my 1st and 3rd editions of the book) because Bowen, after reading The Hobbit, started pretending to be certain characters in the story, and of course, the grand-daddy of all RPGs inspired by Middle-Earth is D&D. I picked up the 5th Edition Starter Set for $12 on Amazon, thinking that at worse, it would turn into reading material. The starter set comes with 5 characters, no character creation rules, and no rules for going above 5th level. It comes with a set of polyhedral dice, and a 32-page starter adventure. There are no miniatures, but the game doesn't really need it, as 5th Edition is a bit of a throwback to the old 1st edition. Things seem pretty loose: most DM adjudications are pretty much only "advantage" (roll 2 d20, take the highest) or "disadvantage" (roll 2 d20, take the lowest). Most modifiers do not stack, and there are very few "named" modifiers, which I remember being significant load to take care of. This is a good thing, because I was going to run a game for 3 6-8 year olds and their Dads, and we already had our hands full with the kids. Bowen had set his mind on playing "Gendalf", his imaginary version of the well-known Wizard. On an initial reading of the rules, I was quite impressed: the power scaling of the characters are much different from the 3rd edition of the game. Characters' proficiency bonuses do not scale up rapidly: at high levels in 3E games, you can pretty much ignore the d20 unless the results are a 1 or a 20. The modifiers overwhelm the d20. The maximum proficiency modifier in 5e at 20th level is a whopping +6 (as opposed to +2 at 1st level). That means the threats scale quite differently as well. The rules for spellcasting are also quite different: spell casters now "prepare" spells by selecting what spells they have available (and again, the scaling is very low), but now they can use whatever spells they have prepared in the spell slots they have at will. Spell slots scale very slowly and there are no ways to get bonus slots. On the other hand, cantrips have been boosted in power and can be used an unlimited number of times, so the Wizard is never stuck shooting crossbows and can always hurl an attack cantrip (which while doing the same amount of damage mechanically, does add quite a bit of flavor). The packed-in adventure is intended to take in characters from 1-5, and is very reminiscent of The Keep on the Borderlands in all sorts of good ways. The characters are thrown into an open world, and have the flexibility to go in whatever direction they wish (and also get themselves killed an a number of creative ways). It took all of 30 minutes of play for my characters to jump off script in a way that only D&D characters can. All in all, Bowen loves the game, and has now made me read The Players Handbook or The Monster Manual to him at bedtime. The game sessions double as practice sessions for arithmetic, and he gets excited about the game sessions. And any thing that gets him wanting to read more is good in my book. Recommended.

Just finished this adventure with a group of first-timers -- about 30 hours' worth of game time for us -- and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Wizards of the Coast have done a fantastic job creating an accessible, compelling adventure specifically designed to get newbies started more easily, while showcasing why D&D can be such an addictive game. I especially liked: -- Helpful advice for first-time Dungeon Masters on how to create an engaging, successful game experience -- A well thought out, classic adventure storyline -- Very playable stock characters that make it simple to get started, and help you care about the story from the get-go -- Showcases many different kinds of fun monsters and villains (yes, it does even have a dragon) -- Solidly grounded in the Forgotten Realms world, which makes it easy to spin off further adventures (we're doing Princes of the Apocalypse next, using these same stock characters) A few tips for the DM buying this game: -- Feel free to tweak the game whenever and wherever doing so would make the adventure more fun for your players. -- Many online discussions provide great ideas for tweaks (just Google the part you're looking at). -- Plan to spend 4 hours preparing for every 4 hours of game time. It's exponentially more fun for the players when you know the next phase of the adventure by heart and can adapt quickly to whatever crazy things their characters are trying to do. Two specific changes I'd suggest (SEMI-SPOILER ALERT HERE): -- The Big Bad in Thundertree will probably kill all your characters in one shot. So change what Reidoth says (he's a bit boring anyway) and don't let your players near the Big Bad until they complete the entire rest of the adventure. I used an idea someone had online: have Reidoth use some nameless "fancy magic" to simulate for the characters what would have happened if they HAD gone up against it. The players loved it. -- In part 4, it's much more fun if the shapeshifter in area 18 pretends to be the captive being held in area 20. When we played, he almost got away with it... A big thank you to Wizards of the Coast for all the fun!

Considering the low price, this is a good deal. It could be better, but it's still good idea. As a long-time player since 1st edition, I remember buying the old Basic red box in the the early 80s and learning from that. So I have nostalgia for that idea of someone buying this as their first intro to D&D. This mostly fits that bill. Edition Itself: I've been playing this with my game group and love the 5th edition rules. They are more streamlined than previous editions, but still offer flexibility. I liked 1st and 4th editions, but now I think this edition has won me over as being the best. So if someone is interested in D&D, I would easily tell them to start here. It's as streamlined as the rules can get without getting in the way of a good time. Rules: The printed rules are mostly high-level but at least provide a list of spells. But it basically is everything you need to get started. I think this is where I wish WotC should've added a printed version of the 100+ page rules book available for free on their web site. The rules and adventure in this box are decent for getting started, but they could've added a little more bang for the buck by adding that other rule book. I wish they would put that in a future edition. (But it's always available for free for everyone. So it's out there. And it's not needed at all for this.) Adventure: The adventure included is quite long and worth the purchase. It'll keep your party busy for many sessions (which may be 30+ hours total). So it fits the bill for being standard enough for new players to get a feel for D&D, but with rich interactions that flex social abilities, communication, spells, many character skills, and combat in creative ways. It has the nice, glossy artwork, charts, and maps to make it fun to read and easy to follow. Nice work on this. Characters: It's a pretty good set of characters. I just wish they had a little graphical splash to them to make a player feel like "I want to play this" versus "hey here's a set of stats". I like how Encounters has those graphical cards with stats on them that just shout, "cool". But the sheets fit the bill. Everything is one them, and they are sturdier paper stock to be used several times. Dice & Box: You get a sturdy, attractive box with this, and some nice dice to start you out. It reminds me of the red box days of Basic where you have everything you need to get started from scratch. The splashy artwork is nice, and the box is large enough to carry all your future stuff and printouts. Overall, it's a nice set at a cheap price: dice, character sheets, a rule book, and a good adventure all in an attractive box. At the cheap Amazon price, you can't pass up on this if curious about the game or giving it as a gift. It's as cheap as a movie/book but will offer a lifetime of adventure.

The D&D 5th edition starter set is, without a doubt, one of the best Dungeons and Dragons products which has been produced in a very long time. Fifth edition, (which the company usually refer to as just "Dungeons and Dragons" now) is a near-perfect ruleset, and the starter set is a brilliant introduction to the system for old an new players alike. The set contains several key pieces, and everything you need to start playing the game. It includes a simple rulebook—just around 30 pages—which contains all of the core mechanics of the game, a (nearly) full set of polyhedral dice, a set of five pre-generated characters, and, most importantly, a 70+ page adventure, "The Lost Mines of Phandelver" The rulebook is amazingly succinct, but surprisingly complete. The text of the rulebook is, primarily, taken directly from the Basic Rules and Players Handbook (PHB), and covers all of the basic mechanics for playing the game. Instructions are clear, and the new system is amazingly intuitive. Unlike the Basic Rules, (a 100+ page free PDF available from the WOTC website) and the PHB, the basic rules contain only the mechanics for playing the game. What is missing, then, is all the aditional information for creating new characters, lots of class-specific information, instruction advanced, and non-standard playstyles like multi-classing, and only a limited set of spells and attacks for casters. It also includes only enough information to take a character from first, to fifth level, but since the included adventure doesn't really give players the option to advance much beyond this anyway, this is not particularly a problem. Almost any rules which will come up during normal play in this game are covered in this rule book, which can be read, cover-to-cover in only around 15 minutes, and will give even complete novice players all of the information that they need to play the game. The box also includes a nearly complete set of RPG Dice. It contains the 6 basic dice, a D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20. It lacks the D10 Percentile dice, but rolling percentages can still be achieved by rolling the D10 twice, and multiplying the first roll by 10. This comes up so infrequently as to be inconsequential. However, while passing around a single set of dice is certainly possible, most players will want to purchase their own dice in addition to this, to significantly speed up play. The dice are quite nice marbled blue dice, and seem of good quality, similar to that of Chessex matched sets—in fact, it wouldn't surprise me to learn Chessex actually make the dices for the starter set. The pre-generated characters make picking up, and playing this set really easy. The five characters feature the typical common D&D races—Human, Dwarf, Elf and Halfling—and Classes—Wizard, Cleric, Rogue and two fighters, a ranged fighter, and a "tank". While it is entirely possible to create your own characters for this adventure, using the free, basic rules (though you would still be limited to the same race/class combinations) or PHB, the pre-generated characters actually have a great and well thought out backstory, and plenty of adventure hooks, and so it is well worth using these, at least during your first play-through. The adventure itself is wonderfully written, and amazingly deep. The adventure book is a combination of adventure, Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and Monster Manual (MM) and contains not only the adventure itself, but also great tips for new DM's, additional advanced rules, and stat-blocks for all monsters featured in the adventure. Wizards' decision to split the adventure and the rules into two separate books is an inspired one. This means that players can read through rules, and this can be a resource on the table, without the possibility of players spoiling the adventure, and seeing things they shouldn't. Both the adventure and the rule-book are printed in full colour, on glossy premium magazine type paper, and both feature artwork, both from the printed core rulebooks (PHB, MM, DMG) and some artwork created specifically for the adventure (primarily maps). It is typically very high quality, and very much in keeping with the high-fantasy setting of the campaign. The Lost Mines of Phandelver takes place in the Forgotten Realms setting—the most popular D&D setting of all time—along the sword coast, primarily in and around the previously largely unexplored town of Phandalin. It starts as a fairly standard sort of adventure, an "escort the cargo" mission, but from the beginning, there are plenty of hooks in the characters back-stories which drives characters towards Phandalin, and that make this more than just a "you've been hired, so shut up and do the job" sort of affair. It starts with a fairly standard ambush encounter, but this quickly opens up multiple branching adventure possibilities. Even the initial exchanges with basic monsters are challenging and feel rewarding, and while all encounters are winnable, success never feels guaranteed, and there is a real sense of danger and a constant possibility of failure at every turn. The adventure has many options, which allow encounters to be overcome in a number of different ways, and encourages creative solutions to be considered. There is potential inter-player conflict baked into their back-stories, and the adventure gives the DM plenty of opportunities to test the bonds between players, simply by introducing multiple, mutually exclusive options that different players will want to explore. The adventure is very dense. Our group is approaching 15 hours into the adventure, and barely feel like we have scratched the surface—we have multiple adventures we have been tasked with completing, and several others threads we are exploring which we don't even have enough information or skills to begin to think about tackling yet. There is more than enough in the adventure for several months of intense play-sessions. While experienced groups may want to jump right in to creating their own adventures with the core rulebooks, this adventure is so well-produced that experienced adventurers will get just as much from this starter set as complete newcomers. This sort of adventure would be well worth the price of the starter set, and then some, if printed as a stand-alone product. Fifth edition is the quintessential version of D&D, with all of the best things from previous editions, and a number of new innovations brought together in a perfect package, and the Starter Set is the perfect way to experience this new and improved version of D&D. An easy recommendation for new and experienced players alike.

Dit heb je niet per se nodig en ik vind hem wat prijzig voor wat je krijgt, maar als je van DnD houdt is dit een prima begin of desnoods toevoeging aan je collectie.

Muito bom, veio tudo certo, e no menor prazo possível, chegou muito rápido e me agradou muito, super indico para quem quer começar neste mundo de fantasia de D&D.

Cosa dire di questo set? Perfetto per iniziare a giocare in poco tempo a D&D. Il set include i dadi, le spiegazioni delle regole di base e un'avventura completa, a mio parere, molto bella. Unico problema e' che il gioco e' in inglese, quindi bisogna avere un po' di dimestichezza con la lingua o dotarsi di un bel vocabolario, perche` alcuni termini sono un po' particolari (equipaggiamento, incantesimi, ecc.). Insomma: STRA-CONSIGLIATO!

This set is awesome it's got everything you need (all the kinds of dices (they're color is like a marbled-blue) and some character pages) the books with the story and rules are high quality and the box in real life looks so freaking nice!!! really cool yep :3 Lo tiene todo para empezar a jugar (todos los dados (chulos en un tono azul- amarmolado) y hojas de personajes) los librillos con las reglas y la historia son de muy buena calidad y la caja es super guay! (la verdad no se porque escribo esto en español si el set es en ingles y si lo quieres jugar tienes que saber ingles, pero bueno.)