Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (Dungeons & Dragons Starter Kit): Fantasy Roleplaying Game Starter Set

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.

A big box and a big dragon on the box equals big adventure. For new comers to D&D I am jealous of all the new excitement you potentially have in your hands. It's a gateway to your imagination. For longstanding role players (myself included- nearly 35 years!!! OMG) it will have nostalgic connotations similar to when you first ever set eyes on the box with the big dragon for within all the fluff and debris of previous editions has been blown away. We get a clean rpg system with the highlight on the roleplaying - not mimicking certain video games systems - where the rules are treated like guidelines in the pursuance of adventure. There are some neat ideas here even in the starter set, the idea of advantage and disadvantage being two dice rolls! Monsters have xp and a challenge rating, it remains to be seen if getting only 300 xp to get to second level really does work. There has also been comment on spell damage being too powerful, but as always it is up to the DM to decide. It almost feels like it needs a bit more playtesting to get the wrinkles out, despite being playtested by 175,000 rpg fans! The cover art really is good, the dragon is massive and really gets across how epic these creatures are. The artist is Jamie Jones. He has a great fluid style that captures movement and atmosphere. The graphic design on the other hand is odd, not sure if the branding works. I have twenty years experience of design in the publishing world and to me it's quite weak, may be understated. There are no fancy borders, frilly patterns or new logos, just great art, the D&D logo and the box title. It's certainly clean and refreshing. So what do you get in the big box? One adventure booklet, the lost mine of Phandelver,no cover as such but it is well printed and the graphic design is ok, maps are colourful but could be a lot bigger and to be really useful could have been a detachable hand out. There is a lot of info in the book and to help new dungeon masters there could have been more boxed entries, colour coordinated sections, hand outs and a monster booklet. This would have saved a lot of toing and froing, it looks like WotC was trying to cut production costs by keeping everything together. There is a separate booklet on basic rules and progression - the rulebook, again with no actual cover. And of course you get the opaque blue mottled dice which look quite decent. The rest of the box has character sheets pre-filled out which is great for players to get straight into the game with minimal start up delay. There is also a blank sheet for photocopying to make your own characters. There is plenty of space left in the box for additional sheets and adventure modules. The main thing here is that the fifth edition of the world's best ever role-playing game is totally suitable for newcomers to the hobby, for old timers check out the official pdf available from the WotC website and if you like that then you have the option to expand that basic game pdf by buying the hardback rule books coming out later this year. A big thumbs up for the big dragon on the box!

What an amazing starter set!! Out of all starter packs so far this has to have been my favourite. Not only is there an action packed adventure to unfold before your eyes, but five readily crafted character sheets that allow you to dive straight into the world of D&D without having to waste time writing up sheets and information. Alongside the character sheets is a rulebook, this allows you to understand the basic rules of the game and is also a comfort blanket throughout playing should you ever need to quickly check something you are unsure of. A plain character sheet template is also provided should you and your friends decide to send your own troops into battle, make sure to gain levels though or you may meet an untimely death. The story itself is very well written with immense player interaction and the ability to craft one's own battles and endeavours along the way. Right the way through the actual DM's book, is fantastic artwork that really captures the world of D&D and allows the creatures that inhabit the land to come to life. The dice included in the set offer you a chance to play the game straight away without having to order a separate product and should you decide that D&D is not your thing, you haven't wasted any extra money. Although, how can you not decide that D&D is not your thing when this set includes a brilliant adventure, an easy to follow rule book, five character sheets, a set of dice and a time with your friends that creates lasting memories. A really superb starter set!!

The product consists of one set of dices, starter rulebook, Lost Mine of Phandelever adventure and 5 character sheets (for level 1 Cleric, Wizard, Rogue and two Fighters). I'll start with the most positive item in this set - the adventure booklet. It is excellent for beginners, very straight forward, perfect for first-time DMs. Every time my players made not so obvious decisions, the scenario included hints on how to handle the situation. I'd say it's a classic D&D adventure - players don't need to understand the roleplaying aspect of RPGs yet and can still have a lot of fun just by exploring the dungeons or in combat. Starter set rulebook is also a sufficient booklet for beginners. I feel like it includes a perfect amount of rules not to discourage any new DMs & players, yet provides rules that suffice in and outside of combat. When it comes to my negative views of this product, I disklike the fact there's only one set of dices provided in the box. This starter set is designed for the new players, which means it's rather obvious that not everyone at the table will have their own dices. If you'd decide to play D&D with your friends having ONLY this starter set, you'd need to share the dices between everyone. There are also only 5 character sheets in the box. What the rulebook suggests when you play with more than 5 players, is that 2 of the players can share the same character but they should have different behaviour... I really don't think it'd be that much more complicated to add one or two extra sheets (as I don't think anyone would play in a group of more than 6 or 7 players) and then it'd be enough for everyone. Additionally, if there were less players it'd be also good if they could choose their character out of 6/7 rather than being allocated an unwanted one if other players picked their character first. Also, I don't like the fact that Cleric and Wizard only have their spells listed with annotation that full description is in the rulebook. During the gameplay the DM should have the rulebook (considering he's a beginner) so it'd be very impractical to share it with two other players. Would it be really that much more work to print out the specific spells for Cleric and Wizard on a separate, smaller piece of paper? To finish off, I don't quite understand why this box is so big. Contents of the set take up to half of the box and the rest is filled out with carton. As many GMs know, RPGs very often take a lot of our space in our houses so it'd be very nice if that box would be smaller as there is absolutely no reason for taking so much space. Especially, if you want to take this box somewhere with you, it's impractical to carry it in your bag. To sum up, this starter set is amazing for new players. There are some minor changes I'd introduce to it if it depended on me to make it even more beginner-friendly but nonetheless I can definitely recommend this box to anyone who would like to start their D&D adventure.

This box comes with the basics for setting up a new adventure for people who have never played before. It has a 64 page campaign book which will level characters up from 1 - 5, a set of dice, 5 unique characters and a 32 page rule book, with all the rules needed for the campaign. The campaign itself is split into 4 sections, which gradually increases difficult each section as characters should level up at the end of each one. There are more than a dozen fright's set up throughout the campaign, with the ability to include random encounters as different points. The enemies you will face vary from simple goblins and humans to mighty wizards and a dragon. The book is very well illustrated with art work of monsters, lairs and maps of locations, such as towns and ruins. The 5 characters includes a wizard, a rouge, a cleric and two fighters, each with a verity of equipment, skills and spells. The characters come with their own unique stories and background ready for use. The rule book includes all the rules you will need to play through the campaign and includes the rules for all spells available to the cleric and wizard for levels 1 -5. It gives a good breakdown of the game, including prices of equipment, should you adventurers need to purchase any more. There are even sections to help people get to grips with DMing and leading the adventurers through the campaign. If you and your friends are new to the game I would recommend this as the staring point

Having been reminiscing with a mate about playing D&D 15 years or so ago, we decided to give it another go and picked up the 5th Edition Starter set. The starter set includes 'everything you need' to play a D&D adventure with 6 people (one DM and five players). This is true, and whilst I rated this product five stars for value (£11 odd from a market place seller), it could easily be a little better in a couple of ways. For starters, the basic rules and characters included with the set are available for free from the Wizards of the Coast website as PDFs. In addition to this the set contains 1 x set of dice and a copy of the starter adventure (Mines of Phandelver). Rule book: My main issue with the starter set is that two of us (experienced with RPGs in the past), reading the rule book found a fair bit of ambiguity with the rules. Both of us felt that by simply including examples of play within the rule book, or referencing character sheets, already included with the starter set, the rule book would have been much less ambiguous. For a set of basic rules included online this seemed acceptable, but for a stand alone 'starter / beginner' product there were a lot of cases were we had to turn elsewhere (blogs etc online) to find out fairly crucial game mechanics. It's a shame, as with a few extra pages and a smattering of examples it's relatively quick to get started on something that on the surface can look fairly impenetrable. Scenario: We're two gaming sessions into the included scenario. The early encounters do a very good job of talking inexperienced DMs through the encounter (what to tell the players, what to not, which rules will likely be encountered). Having run the particular crew of players through it, it's clear that the starter encounter is good value for money, in terms of play time you're getting for your money. However, I've found that it quickly goes from quite linearly supportive, with clear delimited 'tell the players this', 'secret information for the DM', to 'background information' and the DM having to pick their way through it. I'm sure with a little experience this is fine, but it caught me a little of guard I have to admit, and broke up our flow of play. I've also ended up having to sort of re-shape the adventure, as it seemed pretty unwieldy at the early stage, but quickly narrows in scope along the way. Like I say, this might be my inexperience as a DM showing. I realise the starter set is good in that it gives you a box of tools / scenarios from which to choose your path. It just seems to go from very supportive, to a little clumsy in places.

Such an improvement over The Red Box from 4th Edition. This set includes 5 interesting premade characters for a 'default' party setup - An adventure that should last for several sessions, some fairly nice marble effect dice - And everything you need to play the game at a basic level. I think the only thing I would really like changed is the layout of the spells section in the rulebook - You've got the Cleric and Wizard spells mixed together, and sorted by alphabetical order rather than order of level. There's a good range of monsters included in the adventure - which takes players through a few different [albeit fairly standard] Forgotten Realms settings, and serves as a fairly good introduction to new players. As for the core ruleset, the game has simplified since D&D4 with regards to combat, which now runs much more fluidly. Classes still seem to feel the same (though we'll see how far this goes when the Player's Manual comes out soon). If you're new to RPGs and have some people itching to play too, this would make a great start. For more experienced players, the adventure provided is fairly standard - Nothing too complex - But most of the information included elsewhere won't be too relevant for you since you can just go and download DND basic.

I's a good product and can serve as a good introduction to Role Playing Games, although due to the fact that this is based on a popular version of Dungeons and Dragons and has the back up of a massive corporation known as Hasbro, you would think that they would have invested more in the Starter Set compared to say, the Pathfinder Beginner Box. But this may change in the future if they learn from the competition. Basically it has all you need to run the game and beyond thanks to the OGL rules online, I wish it has included more Game Mastering resources or implemented shorter scenarios to hook new players up without having to start a lengthy scenario that caters to dedicated players or more experienced ones that want to learn the new 5th edition system. But it's a matter of taste, it's good and recommended for people who want to taste this new popular system, but if you want replayability and more material in one set I would recommend the Pathfinder beginner box which still offers a streamlined set of rules within the first 5 levels.

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.)

This Starter Set is all you need to start playing Dungeons and Dragons (you'll need a few friends too, but that's kinda obvious, eh?).This set includes - - a 32 page Rule Book : contains all the essential rules pertaining to combat, roleplay and rollplay in d&d 5th edition. The 5th edition is very streamlined , and you'll be up and ready after a read or two. - a 64 page adventure : Lost Mine of Phandelver. This is a very well made adventure, easing you into its world, introducing you to different rules and scenarios in a step by step manner, and all the while staying exciting and entertaining. It is straightforeward and railroaded in the beginning (which is good, since you're supposed to be beginners), but starting with the second chapter it becomes totally sandboxy and will allow the players a lot of choices and creativity. All the creatures and monsters that you shall encounter through the adventure are also depicted inside, and the art is mostly very beautiful. And yes, there is also a dragon encounter. 6 polyhedral dice : very good quality dice. Any one i show these dice to, is amazed at the quality, especially of the d20 (20 sided dice). Now , the cheapest set of polyhedral dice on amazon is 295 bucks, and i am pretty sure they will NOT be close to these dice in quality. Quality matters here, not only in terms of looks, but also because unbalanced dice could possibly ruin your game ! So you're getting a really good deal here. 5 pregenerated character sheets, 1 blank character sheet : you'd be best off getting out photocopies of these. Though even if you loose them, they're available online for free. Ok, that's it. That's all there is in the box. No minis or anything. It does seem too little in-the-box for this price point, and physically, it is. But don't worry. What is inside the box, promises you hours and hours and hours of fun. Say, if you play weekly with friends, for a few hours everytime, this adventure is going to last you a couple of months !! And even then, the campaign is very replayable. It doesn't end there ! There are some more adventures available for free online. Once you have sqeezed dry this awesome package, it's time to buy the Player's Handbook, (and also the Monster Manual), and then you'll be ready to craft your own adventures !