D&D 5E Starter set unboxing photos

[Mistwell]

I stand behind the opinion I made at the time: I feel that, at $20 the Starter Set would be a poor value for the money compared to the Beginner Box at $23.

Again, you knew the $23 was discounted, and you knew the $20 was not...at best you can say you were too lazy to look up the discounted price for the one you were not sure about, but reckless enough to draw a conclusion based on information you knew to be inaccurate. It's not like you didn't know you were comparing apples (discount) to oranges (full retail price) - you knew, and did it anyway, and then made a judgement on it. So yeah, I think it's fair for me to criticize your opinion, and saying "just my $0.02" doesn't make your opinion immune to criticism. I am well aware it is your opinion, and you are well aware now of my opinion of your opinion.

If that's in any way unclear - what you did was the equivalent of this, "The Pathfinder box is a horrible deal because the 5e box is only $12.65 while the Pathfinder box is $35.00, a 277% increase in price!" And then when (rightfully) it would be pointed out that such a comparison is not in any way fair, the reply would be "Based on what I knew at the time that was a perfectly fair comparison, I shouldn't be bothered to look up actual apples to apples pricing, this is the internet!"

 

[ExploderWizard]

Jeez. All I wanted to find out was if Black Dougal has half a chance of surviving this, and instead I'm having my nits picked.

Pick pick pick.


By the numbers, a 1st level party vs an ogre is an uncertain proposition at best and this is a good thing IMHO. It should take a neophyte party a decently executed plan and a bit of luck to win against such an opponent.

 

[Stormonu]

Thanks all - looks like CR is still something to take with a grain of salt. A helpful tool, but a good understanding of your group's characters is still important. And a little rough at the lowest levels.

Y'know, what I skipped through on the unboxing video encourages me into considering picking this thing up.

 

[mips42]

knew the $23 was discounted, and you knew the $20 was not...at best you can say you were too lazy to look up the discounted price for the one you were not sure about, but reckless enough to draw a conclusion based on information you knew to be inaccurate.
It's not like you didn't know you were comparing apples (discount) to oranges (full retail price) - you knew, and did it anyway, and then made a judgement on it.

Okay, mist. I am going to try one, final time. You say that I

knew the $23 was discounted, and you knew the $20 was not

Lets presume for a moment that you, somehow, know what I did or did not know when I made my original comment. If I knew that the $23.00 discounted Beginner Box price was a discounted price (I DID know this) and that the $20.00 Starter Set price was not a discounted price (I did NOT know this), why would I not have stated that in the post? Why would I have gone out of my way to state, multiple times, that the $20.00 price was "estimated", "Rough" and "approximate"? Do you feel that I was purposely maligning the Starter Set? What would I gain by doing that and, If that were the case, why would I "hope it's awesome"?
The fact is, I had not seen announced pricing for the starter set. Maybe I just missed it, I dunno. When I made my original post, I was not aware of Starter Set pricing.

So yeah, I think it's fair for me to criticize your opinion, and saying "just my $0.02" doesn't make your opinion immune to criticism. I am well aware it is your opinion, and you are well aware now of my opinion of your opinion.

While I have no problem with a difference of opinion (even though I don't think our opinions are that different), I DO have a problem with someone saying I said something that I did not.

If that's in any way unclear - what you did was the equivalent of this, "The Pathfinder box is a horrible deal because the 5e box is only $12.65 while the Pathfinder box is $35.00, a 277% increase in price!" And then when (rightfully) it would be pointed out that such a comparison is not in any way fair, the reply would be "Based on what I knew at the time that was a perfectly fair comparison, I shouldn't be bothered to look up actual apples to apples pricing, this is the internet!"

Was it a "fair" comparison? In reality, knowing what I now know, no. It wasn't. I now know that the Starter Set will be available from Amazon for roughly $13. Will it cost that at the FLGS? I don't know, but it seems unlikely.

Making the best decisions and valuations you can based on the information you have at the time? People do this all the time. Heck, major corporations do this all the time. Does that mean that the opinion can't change? No. Once I was aware of the pricing, I changed my opinion.
I reserve my final opinion for when I get to actually hold it.

So, here goes:
Is if fair to compare the $13.00 (discounted) starter set to the $23.00 (discounted) Beginner box. Right now, all you can really do is take the information that WOTC has given and make judgement call. So, I guess, no. Because you CAN buy the Beginner Box now and you CAN'T buy the Starter Set now. (Please no arguments about placing pre-orders, that's just being pedantic). Therefore ANY value comparison is speculative at this point.

I guess what I was trying to get across, and doing so poorly, was attempting to say that I wasn't sure how well the Starter Set compared to the Beginner Box. To me, they are (or should be) similar products. The "get your toes wet" version of their respective games. It's entirely possible that the Starter Set doesn't have some of the things the Beginner Box has because it doesn't NEED them. Right now, we don't have a 100% answer because we have so little real knowledge of what 5th Edition is or will be.
And finally, again, I want to be as clear as I can work out to be: I want the Starter Set to be great. No. I want the whole Edition in total to be great. I want it to be the version of D&D that brings all the splinter groups back, brings players back from Pathfinder, Numenera, Dungeon World, Exalted, Dragon age (and many others) and makes D&D the dominant game it once was. I want it to be the game that re-sparks my love of RPG's and role-playing in general. I want it to be the game that sparks the imagination like original D&D did when I discovered it.
I want 5th edition to be the game that I WANT to play because it's so incredibly frickin' awesome.
To conjoin two phrases: Be excellent to each other and don't be a d!ck.

-OUT-

 

[Obryn]

Okay, mist. I am going to try one, final time. You say that I
Lets presume for a moment that you, somehow, know what I did or did not know when I made my original comment. If I knew that the $23.00 discounted Beginner Box price was a discounted price (I DID know this) and that the $20.00 Starter Set price was not a discounted price (I did NOT know this), why would I not have stated that in the post?

Because Mistwell specifically replied to your post #47

The reply was post #48, right below yours.

Paizo's was $35 though, not $25. And this is $20 retail, or $12-something at Amazon. And yes, there is a ton of "here's how you play" stuff in there.

And that was a reply to your direct question

That's why you're getting a hard time - because you ignored that by your post down-thread at 56 where you said,

I hear what you're saying. The Beginner Box is available for as low as $23.00 right now though. If the Starter Set is $20 and the Beginner Box is $23, the beginner box wins in value in my opinion.
Not saying it's a better game, just that you get more more for the money you're spending. We'll have to see about the game itself. Personally, I hope it's great.

 

[mips42]

Now that some have gotten their starter sets (I have not) I will pose the question: Do YOU feel your money was well spent for what you got?

 

[thalmin]

Now that some have gotten their starter sets (I have not) I will pose the question: Do YOU feel your money was well spent for what you got?

Yes. The pregens were done well, with interesting back-story tie-ins to the adventure. The first section of the adventure has a good balance of combats, interaction, and investigation to give a new player a broad experience. The combats were simple to challenging. In my party of 5, 1 character split off (always a bad choice) 1 character outright died (full HP to dead in one critical hit, 22 points of damage) and 2 more characters were down, but they killed the BBEG. The rogue slipped away unscathed, and came and got his stabilized allies to safety. And they fully accomplished their mission.

 

[mips42]

Yes. The pregens were done well, with interesting back-story tie-ins to the adventure. The first section of the adventure has a good balance of combats, interaction, and investigation to give a new player a broad experience. The combats were simple to challenging. In my party of 5, 1 character split off (always a bad choice) 1 character outright died (full HP to dead in one critical hit, 22 points of damage) and 2 more characters were down, but they killed the BBEG. The rogue slipped away unscathed, and came and got his stabilized allies to safety. And they fully accomplished their mission.

This substantiates my theory that 1st level characters can be squishy.
Sounds like a good time was had. Cool.