New "Red Box" Starter Set hands-on preview
JohnSnow
Hero
Sounds like the set may be a 'slayer' fighter, 'thief' rogue, 'warpriest' cleric and 'mage' wizard. Talk about old school!
thalmin
Retired game store owner
My 2008 Starter set isn't handy, but these do have a 2010 Copyright.
[sblock]The large are Black and White Dragons and a Warhorse, reverse a Hulking Zombie, Dire Wolf, andGelatinous Cube[/sblock]
Peraion Graufalke
First Post
Oh yeah, you're right. I missed that. I saw one or two pictures of the token sheet and I thought they were the same.
@thalmin: disregard my question, I was mistaken.
Peraion Graufalke
First Post
The 2008 large ones were Black Dragon/Warhorse, White Dragon/Dire Wolf, and Rage Drake/Gelatinous Cube. Thanks, thalmin.
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JohnSnow
Hero
Different. The old ones were a white dragon, black dragon, and rage drake, reversing a dire wolf, warhorse, and gelatinous cube.
Thalmin: So it includes an adventure that levels you up to 2nd, and the powers for that, but NOT those for going up to 3rd?
I suppose that's okay, but I think 3 levels would've been better.
Dislike.
Thalmin: So it includes an adventure that levels you up to 2nd, and the powers for that, but NOT those for going up to 3rd?
I suppose that's okay, but I think 3 levels would've been better.
Dislike.
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Tony Vargas
Legend
The adventure isn't "In Search of the Unknown" by any chance?
The pick-a-path character generation is an intriguing idea. I suspect the class choice will give the genuinely new player a stilted view of the game, though. If they'd stuck with the PH classes, it wouldn't matter what class you picked, you'd still be getting a clear idea of how the game worked in the most basic mechanical sense, for all classes.
Now that the classes have been differentiated down to basic mechanics... I don't know, it seems like that will make it harder on /new/ players. Returning players, OTOH, will probably want to pick options and investigate all the classes - and get little thrills from the familiarity of the 'Thief' and 'Mage' (and wonder where 'Fighting Man' went - too sexist, I guess) - which makes the pick-a-path format less than ideal.
It's pointless second-guessing at this point, but I suspect the Red Box would have been better released as an 'Anniversary Special' targetted explicitly and entirely at returning players.
A product to attrack genuinely new players would have been good, too, of course, but probably shouldn't have been released at the same time, let alone been the same product. Resources are limitted, though, and there's the potential for confusion. D&D was plenty confusing when I was a kid, there were the old sets, the Basic Set, the 'Advanced' books (that weren't actually the next step after 'basic'), and all sorts of suplements, TSR & third party, that didn't bother specifying which of the three versions of the game they were for...
The pick-a-path character generation is an intriguing idea. I suspect the class choice will give the genuinely new player a stilted view of the game, though. If they'd stuck with the PH classes, it wouldn't matter what class you picked, you'd still be getting a clear idea of how the game worked in the most basic mechanical sense, for all classes.
Now that the classes have been differentiated down to basic mechanics... I don't know, it seems like that will make it harder on /new/ players. Returning players, OTOH, will probably want to pick options and investigate all the classes - and get little thrills from the familiarity of the 'Thief' and 'Mage' (and wonder where 'Fighting Man' went - too sexist, I guess) - which makes the pick-a-path format less than ideal.
It's pointless second-guessing at this point, but I suspect the Red Box would have been better released as an 'Anniversary Special' targetted explicitly and entirely at returning players.
A product to attrack genuinely new players would have been good, too, of course, but probably shouldn't have been released at the same time, let alone been the same product. Resources are limitted, though, and there's the potential for confusion. D&D was plenty confusing when I was a kid, there were the old sets, the Basic Set, the 'Advanced' books (that weren't actually the next step after 'basic'), and all sorts of suplements, TSR & third party, that didn't bother specifying which of the three versions of the game they were for...
thalmin
Retired game store owner
Power Cards
Following has been added to first post:
Just noticed 4 of the cards are Second Wind.
Fighter Cards:
Following has been added to first post:
Just noticed 4 of the cards are Second Wind.
Fighter Cards:
- Poised Assault: At-Will Stance (+1 to melee weapon attack)
- Battle Fury: At-Will Stance (+2 to weapon damage)
- Power Strike: Encounter Free Action (extra 1W to damage triggered by successful hit)
- Minor Resurgence: Utility 2 Encounter Minor (gain 5 temp HP if bloodied) (Prereq Endurance trained)
- Sudden Sprint: Utility 2 Encounter Minor (move up to CON mod and end up adjacent to enemy) (Prereq Athletics trained)
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