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jason_pym's review
2.0
I started on the Red Box, which had a choose your own adventure type dungeon, explaining the rules as it went. That was perfect, and it was fun.
This is at first glance looks nice and shiny, but after going through it all I found it obtuse and bland. As a product aimed at introducing people to trpgs, it seems terrible. There was no "what is a roleplaying game section", no scripts of example play, no examples at all actually. I'm fairly familiar with the 5e rules, and this was a brief summary but not a clear teaching tool. Considering this set must have sold a million copies by now (two years after publication it was up to 400 thousand copies sold I think), that's really depressing.
There are dice, but no miniatures. The box itself has a card insert, so is mostly empty. They could have gone with a Chaosium style skinny box, this just seems cheap.
But the worst is the adventure, Lost Mines of Phandelver. Like the main rules, it ignores decades of rpg design. There should be a clear layout with the npcs, their portraits, what they want, a few flavourful quotes to help first time DMs roleplay them. This is supposed to be a starter set, make clear what should be the aim of each scene, a few suggestions as to what possible consequences there would be to different player actions, instead npc motivations mentioned in passing in a paragraph of lifeless text.
And wasted opportunities. There's an abandoned village with a green dragon and ash zombies (created after a magical volcanic disaster). That sounds great! What do we get? A handful of houses with nothing in them (blacksmith, empty, general store, empty). A dragon that is nothing more than hitpoints. Wouldn't it be better to have an iconic dragon (in Dungeons and Dragons) be well sign posted, a key player in the main plot and the ashy-desolation of the town (he should be able to manipulate the plant life, and his chlorine poison could be linked to the noxious sulphuric fumes of the volcanic explosion). The dragon should be dark and threatening, a terrifying power over the surrounding area.
So what do the PCs do against a real threat? We have the rest of the town, each of those empty shops could have all their wares preserved under the ash for the PCs to make use of MacGyver style, maybe they can come up with something that would fool a young, arrogant dragon. They should not be able to take a dragon head on, this is the time to show them that they have to come up with other ways to achieve their aims than just hitting things.
Instead we just get a plodding, repetitive, empty building > short fight > collect your 10 gold pieces. No flavour, no atmosphere, no puzzle, no challenge. It's so frustratingly boring, and to think this is so many people's first experience of playing.
This is at first glance looks nice and shiny, but after going through it all I found it obtuse and bland. As a product aimed at introducing people to trpgs, it seems terrible. There was no "what is a roleplaying game section", no scripts of example play, no examples at all actually. I'm fairly familiar with the 5e rules, and this was a brief summary but not a clear teaching tool. Considering this set must have sold a million copies by now (two years after publication it was up to 400 thousand copies sold I think), that's really depressing.
There are dice, but no miniatures. The box itself has a card insert, so is mostly empty. They could have gone with a Chaosium style skinny box, this just seems cheap.
But the worst is the adventure, Lost Mines of Phandelver. Like the main rules, it ignores decades of rpg design. There should be a clear layout with the npcs, their portraits, what they want, a few flavourful quotes to help first time DMs roleplay them. This is supposed to be a starter set, make clear what should be the aim of each scene, a few suggestions as to what possible consequences there would be to different player actions, instead npc motivations mentioned in passing in a paragraph of lifeless text.
And wasted opportunities. There's an abandoned village with a green dragon and ash zombies (created after a magical volcanic disaster). That sounds great! What do we get? A handful of houses with nothing in them (blacksmith, empty, general store, empty). A dragon that is nothing more than hitpoints. Wouldn't it be better to have an iconic dragon (in Dungeons and Dragons) be well sign posted, a key player in the main plot and the ashy-desolation of the town (he should be able to manipulate the plant life, and his chlorine poison could be linked to the noxious sulphuric fumes of the volcanic explosion). The dragon should be dark and threatening, a terrifying power over the surrounding area.
So what do the PCs do against a real threat? We have the rest of the town, each of those empty shops could have all their wares preserved under the ash for the PCs to make use of MacGyver style, maybe they can come up with something that would fool a young, arrogant dragon. They should not be able to take a dragon head on, this is the time to show them that they have to come up with other ways to achieve their aims than just hitting things.
Instead we just get a plodding, repetitive, empty building > short fight > collect your 10 gold pieces. No flavour, no atmosphere, no puzzle, no challenge. It's so frustratingly boring, and to think this is so many people's first experience of playing.
ppetropoulakis's review
5.0
Great introductory material combined with a low level adventure that is absolutely wonderful. Fifth edition rules are described in short so that you won’t need the player’s handbook or dungeon master’s guide.
arthurbdd's review
3.5
There was a span of time - after the fondly-remembered days of the Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer-penned Basic Sets - when D&D starter sets went through a bit of a slump, offering a shallow gameplay experience and functioning solely as a little advertisement for the core books. This first 5E starter box does a reasonable job of pivoting away from that approach, with the provided adventure being involved enough to offer a satisfying amount of play. Subsequent starter set offerings for Call of Cthulhu, WFRP, and RuneQuest have since set a higher bar, but this set arguably established that starter boxes don't necessarily have to be rudimentary and trivial. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/dungeons-dragons-starter-set-the-kids-are-going-to-be-alright/
art_cart_ron's review
4.0
Wizards of the Coast have seen fit to toss you in w/o being bogged down with character creation, in this fascinating starter set. There are three books seen as Core Rulebooks for D&D, the first of which - and arguably the most important one - is the Player's Handbook. The Player's Handbook has well over 200pages devoted to character creation - making the choice to exclude that information from the Starter Set a rather bold one. Seeing as that information is available for free, in a brief form, on the D&D website - you aren't exactly *prevented* from knowing this key information - but the focus on gameplay at the expense of character creation is what appears to be at the heart of the choice.
As I have both of these resources - I won't be able to answer the question of whether it is a mistake. Their game testers and decades of knowledge and experience are not to be underappreciated, though - and there is a certain sense in jumping in and relying on the valuable adventure (if not campaign) that is included in the kit. It seems developed with beginners in mind, but is purchased and appreciated by seasoned players (because of its quality, as I understand it).
I would have been bothered, as a young person, if this were represented as an "everything you need" place to start - it really isn't, at least, not if part of what you want is to be able to play independent of the enclosed adventure, with characters of your own creation.
It was a highly enjoyable read, and I'm eager to jump in with my kids. We'll be playing some simple homebrew sessions, then giving the Starter Set adventure a go when we're ready to include a couple more players, and we feel less like noobs.
I don't think it's possible to give a starter set 5 stars if that starter set isn't comprehensive enough to play from scratch - but I will go to 4, because it's a clever, fun, exciting way to get your feet wet. People have played the enclosed adventure for a over a year, in weekly get-togethers - and a year of gameplay for under 16 bucks is an insane bargain by anyone's standards.
As I have both of these resources - I won't be able to answer the question of whether it is a mistake. Their game testers and decades of knowledge and experience are not to be underappreciated, though - and there is a certain sense in jumping in and relying on the valuable adventure (if not campaign) that is included in the kit. It seems developed with beginners in mind, but is purchased and appreciated by seasoned players (because of its quality, as I understand it).
I would have been bothered, as a young person, if this were represented as an "everything you need" place to start - it really isn't, at least, not if part of what you want is to be able to play independent of the enclosed adventure, with characters of your own creation.
It was a highly enjoyable read, and I'm eager to jump in with my kids. We'll be playing some simple homebrew sessions, then giving the Starter Set adventure a go when we're ready to include a couple more players, and we feel less like noobs.
I don't think it's possible to give a starter set 5 stars if that starter set isn't comprehensive enough to play from scratch - but I will go to 4, because it's a clever, fun, exciting way to get your feet wet. People have played the enclosed adventure for a over a year, in weekly get-togethers - and a year of gameplay for under 16 bucks is an insane bargain by anyone's standards.
dbrousseau's review
5.0
Awesome introduction to DND. We played through this adventure multiple times.
poljack's review
5.0
"Lost Mine of Phandelver" is a great little adventure. There's a surprising amount of play in such a small book. It's compelling and very well-designed.
kairin16's review
4.0
A nice starting story for those who want to get into playing D&D but don't have a DM who'd be willing or have time to write customised story. A little bit convoluted and the play might become a little too long for casual players. The starter box includes all the necessities to start the campaign: the dice, character sheet, short set of rules, and chapter by chapter campaign.
annasirius's review
3.0
The set is a good first step for people who might be overwhelmed by the full ruleset. It focuses on the basics and provides preconfigured characters (for me, character creation is by far the most complex issue in D&D 5e).
Personally, I find the characters delivered with the set boring - and the same goes for the adventure. It has too much the feel of 1980s fantasy. It's a dark setting with lots of opportunity for violence and little opportunity to explore uniquely interesting places or interact with really intriguing NPCs. While the 3 big rule books are colourful, artsy and make a point of exuding an air of inclusivity for people of all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and adventuring tastes, this starter adventure feels like it's made for those who used to be the main players of D&D a decade or two ago: guys interested more in hack&slash than in more intricate storytelling.
Personally, I find the characters delivered with the set boring - and the same goes for the adventure. It has too much the feel of 1980s fantasy. It's a dark setting with lots of opportunity for violence and little opportunity to explore uniquely interesting places or interact with really intriguing NPCs. While the 3 big rule books are colourful, artsy and make a point of exuding an air of inclusivity for people of all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and adventuring tastes, this starter adventure feels like it's made for those who used to be the main players of D&D a decade or two ago: guys interested more in hack&slash than in more intricate storytelling.
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