D&D General Actual Play: Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set

[Paul Farquhar]

Some new quibbles, though: Digging through the tokens to find, say, the three lizardfolk when that encounter is rolled in the swamp, really slows things down

Yes, I had similar issues. I’m inherently disorganised and I had to do a lot of rummaging around trying to find what I needed from all the pretty components. I found it easier with pencil and paper. And the monster tokens would have been easier to use with simpler art to make them stand out, rather than using the arty illustrations, with all the extraneous background details.

One thing that struck me is they didn’t tokenise the initiative tracking, still using pencil and paper.

For the person I was testing it on, I think they would have had an easier time with a plotted adventure like Stormwreck Isle, rather than a sandbox. They also seemed to have trouble interpreting the maps. But then they also struggle with road maps so I think that was a personal quirk.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, no one I've run if for now had any problem with the maps. The players got quite excited about having everything labelled in the keep, for instance.

Amusingly, as someone who knows B2 well, no one noticed the canyon where the Caves of Chaos is on the wilderness map. I think an NPC is eventually going to tell them to go to the area.

 

[pukunui]

I've just finished reading through the booklets and am about to dig into the cards and such. I love the production value in this boxed set ... but I'm a little worried about the transition between this colorful, simplified, accessory-laden version of D&D and the "real" version with its full-page black-and-white character sheets, distinct lack of cards and handouts, and so on. I can't afford to follow this up with any Beadle & Grimm box sets!

As an aside, the landscape-oriented character sheet cards with "slots" for more cards reminds me a bit of Cthulhu: Death May Die. I wonder if that's where they got the idea from.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've just finished reading through the booklets and am about to dig into the cards and such. I love the production value in this boxed set ... but I'm a little worried about the transition between this colorful, simplified, accessory-laden version of D&D and the "real" version with its full-page black-and-white character sheets, distinct lack of cards and handouts, and so on. I can't afford to follow this up with any Beadle & Grimm box sets!

As an aside, the landscape-oriented character sheet cards with "slots" for more cards reminds me a bit of Cthulhu: Death May Die. I wonder if that's where they got the idea from.

Yeah, I suspect that we're going to see new WotC-made spell, equipment and magic item cards after this, given how good these cards are.

The Gale Force 9 cards were just OK and not as thoughtfully designed. (WotC, of course, was able to iterate on the problems of the GF9 cards after presumably using them for a bit during the Borderlands development process.)

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, I suspect that we're going to see new WotC-made spell, equipment and magic item cards after this, given how good these cards are.

The Gale Force 9 cards were just OK and not as thoughtfully designed. (WotC, of course, was able to iterate on the problems of the GF9 cards after presumably using them for a bit during the Borderlands development process.)

That would be great! I really like the cards in this set.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 4 with my son (age 6) and daughter (age 9). He's playing a dwarf rogue, she's an elf cleric. Gobs of fun.

They went to Cave D, the goblin cave. Freed Vrix the dwarf, killed two goblins, and got the goblin boss to run away. (To return later, naturally!) The fighting was intense, with the rogue going down, but coming back thanks to a timely Cure Wounds.

I'm not pulling punches, so emotions are intense as they endure the fickleness of the dice.

The kids took their gold and returned to the Keep to uplevel their gear.

I'm going to hold off on Level 2 until they have a stronger grasp of their character abilities.

 

[aco175]

I'm going to hold off on Level 2 until they have a stronger grasp of their character abilities.

I wonder if you can level 2 in stages? You can get the HP one week and a power or spells another. Keep it easy, but they get 'prizes' often without suddenly being 5th level.