D&D Basic Game
- Thread starter IronWolf
- Start date
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
As a long term GM, I looked at the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set with a little bit of dread. What would I need it for? I’ve been gaming for many moons. However, upon looking at the back, there was something I couldn’t help but notice as I went over the contents.
16 fully painted miniatures (4 heroes and 12 monsters)
4 double-sided map tiles
4 character sheets
7 dice
Quick Start Rules
First Adventure Book
Advanced Rulebook
After the double-sided map tiles, I pretty much ignored the rest of the material. I got the box home and ripped it open. First off, this is a pretty sturdy box. I’ve already thrown a ton of my miscellaneous Dungeons & Dragons miniatures into it. I figure they’ve got to go someplace right?
Second, the miniatures are as follows:
Aramil Elf Sorcerer
Lidda Halfling Rogue
Eberk, Dwarf Cleric
Regdar, Human Fighter
Dire Rat
Kobold Skirmisher (x2)
Kobold Warrior (x2)
Wolf Skeleton
Orc Warrior (x2)
Warrior Skeleton (x2)
Troglodyte
Young Black Dragon
In the boxed set, each miniature also has its card set, D&D stats on one side, miniature stats on the other, on perforated sheets for ease of removal. So far, I feel I’ve got my money’s worth, as the Young Black Dragon is a miniature that I don’t have, despite spending over a hundred dollars on the Dragon set. In addition, the stock monsters, kobold, orc, and skeleton, always have a place at my table.
The four double-sided tiles are on heavy cardstock and are nice and thick. I wish we had eight tiles instead of four double-sided, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. The maps are of various dungeon scenes or rooms and numbered on the bottom right hand corner. Individual rooms are also numbered for ease of reference. Some of the tiles look familiar but as I’m not a long-term player of the miniature game, I couldn’t say where I’ve seen them before.
The dice are completely unimpressive. This is a case where I would’ve went to a 3rd party vendor and got some Crystal Castle dice or something as these seven dice are bland. One of each type, 1d4 (black), 1d6 (red), 1d8 (blue), 1d12 (yellow), 1d20 (orange), with two d10 (purple 10s and green 1-10).They seem flat and are fairly bright in colors I don’t particularly care for so they stay in the plastic wrap or go to a friend who needs a set of dice.
For me, that’s enough right there. I’m seriously considering getting another boxed set to have another set of tile sand another young black dragon and some more stock monsters and another box to throw everything in.
For others though, there’s more. See, despite revisions and changes, Dungeons & Dragons is a fairly complex game and sometimes to bring in new players, it’s probably better to have fewer rules and a simple system. To aid in that, we have pregenerated characters with special abilities spelled out in separate sheets.
For characters, we have the dwarf cleric. His character sheet includes all of his ability scores with all notes written in. For example, under Strength, he has a score of 12, bonus of +1, and a section for what that bonus applies to. Saving throws, feats, gear, and skills are all listed. For skills, the bonus or modifier is shown right in the box. For example, for Hide, it has d20-7, noting the poor dexterity and the armor penalties. For Spot, it has d20+2, showing the Wisdom bonus. One of the things I note is that alignment is still here, but it’s just listed in terms of one of the factions, (good, evil or neutral) instead of all nine.
On the backside of the character sheet, it shows all of the dice and that 10s die is now the d90. I guess if you add that to a d10, you get the full range. Anyway, it notes his spells and special abilities and what the spells do. I notice that Initiative is a flat score based on dexterity and feats, in this case 9, and speed is based in number of squares moved per turn, in this case, 4. Weapons and roll to attack and roll for damage, are all noted. In this case, d20+1 and d8+1, noting the cleric’s strength. Armor class is 15 and hit points are 11. Fairly standard stuff and once a GM knows what everything means, it should be easy to explain to someone what those numbers mean.
About the only thing I question are having characters start off at first level. The survivability factor of such characters is questionable at best and unlike other systems, like Rolemaster, hit points aren’t increased to a high level to help survivability.
The quick start rules and first adventure book are in small format, similar to the conversion guide from 2nd edition to 3rd edition. The former book covers things like combat basics and movement. These are very simple rules and perhaps modify things too simply. For example, you can’t cast a spell when next to a monster. Diagonals take up 2 squares for every step. Attacks of opportunity are still present, which for a starting game, is probably more complexity than necessary.
The first adventure book includes four steps to setting up, boxed text to be read aloud, and several rooms. Each room includes a summary, read aloud text, and information on what skills or actions would be appropriate and what can happen from their use. For example, if the adventurers open the doors in room 1 without making a noise, the kobolds in room 2 are surprised. One good visual they have is spaces listed where the kobolds are for quite adventurers or loud ones, and the placement of the treasure. Combat and information about what the kobolds do is included to walk the GM through it. In essence, it’s a hand holding first combat scenario with a trapped treasure chest that the characters can toy with. For those looking to go further, they then move into the Advanced Rulebook.
Now the advanced rulebook starts off with two tables, one for random door features and another for random traps. I make a mental note to myself to come back for that. I’m lazy and always looking for a table for this or that. The book then goes into some of the stuff that makes Dungeons and Dragons an icon of fantasy gaming. It provides a blank character sheet, explanation of ability scores, information on how to roll ability scores (good old four d6), skills (a very reduced list with no knowledge, healing, profession or survival skills), racial stats (abbreviated of course), and at this point, I note that the simplification includes knocking out the gnome, half-elf and half-orc. Heck, if it was me, I’d probably knock out the Halfling too since I’ve yet to see a player take one in almost any game I’ve run.
Classes are also simplified to four, but it’s not the standard four more experienced players will know. Instead of fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard, we have fighter, cleric, rogue and sorcerer. In many ways, it makes more sense. The sorcerer matches Computer Role Playing Games more with their limited selection of spells that they can fire over and over again with no need for memorization. In terms of advancement, the book is really basic, covering only 1st and 2nd level with rules for 3rd level and higher characters being referred to the Player’s Handbook.
The inclusion of feats, skills, equipment and combat, are all reduced from the Player’s Handbook but simple to understand. First through third level spells are listed for the cleric and sorcerer. These are abbreviated spells with no school noted. For example, Slow is listed as Level: Sorcerer 3rd-Level, Range 25 feet (5 squares), Duration: 5 rounds, and a Saving Throw for Will negating it. A sample dungeon with full text is supplied.
After the dungeon, we have basic monsters including the black dragon and the nice thing about this entry, is that it includes a list for it’s breath weapon as both a diagonal attack and a straight line attack. The other monsters include the basic ones with illustrations taken from the Monster Manual, the miniature game, or the miniature itself. Oftentimes there are two illustrations.
To be honest, I don’t know how well the game does what it sets out to do. I’m going against the grain here and stating that I’m not good at teaching others to play. One of the strengths of D&D is that once you’ve learned how to play, you know how to play the core rules and can apply that knowledge to many levels. I don’t know if this is so simple that the recommend age group, of 12+ would be bored or at just the right challenge. You see, at my age of 33, I don’t hang around a lot of 12 year olds and that’s not because I hate the youth of America, it’s because I don’t have any younger siblings and I’m not involved in any youth activities.
For an experienced role player, I think that the card stock and non-random miniature selection is a nice bonus and some of the random tables can be clipped from the book and put into your note sections. For a newcomer, the game offers a streamlined rule set that is easy to run and understand as it holds the readers hand and provides him with dice, map, and miniatures to visualize everything.
16 fully painted miniatures (4 heroes and 12 monsters)
4 double-sided map tiles
4 character sheets
7 dice
Quick Start Rules
First Adventure Book
Advanced Rulebook
After the double-sided map tiles, I pretty much ignored the rest of the material. I got the box home and ripped it open. First off, this is a pretty sturdy box. I’ve already thrown a ton of my miscellaneous Dungeons & Dragons miniatures into it. I figure they’ve got to go someplace right?
Second, the miniatures are as follows:
Aramil Elf Sorcerer
Lidda Halfling Rogue
Eberk, Dwarf Cleric
Regdar, Human Fighter
Dire Rat
Kobold Skirmisher (x2)
Kobold Warrior (x2)
Wolf Skeleton
Orc Warrior (x2)
Warrior Skeleton (x2)
Troglodyte
Young Black Dragon
In the boxed set, each miniature also has its card set, D&D stats on one side, miniature stats on the other, on perforated sheets for ease of removal. So far, I feel I’ve got my money’s worth, as the Young Black Dragon is a miniature that I don’t have, despite spending over a hundred dollars on the Dragon set. In addition, the stock monsters, kobold, orc, and skeleton, always have a place at my table.
The four double-sided tiles are on heavy cardstock and are nice and thick. I wish we had eight tiles instead of four double-sided, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. The maps are of various dungeon scenes or rooms and numbered on the bottom right hand corner. Individual rooms are also numbered for ease of reference. Some of the tiles look familiar but as I’m not a long-term player of the miniature game, I couldn’t say where I’ve seen them before.
The dice are completely unimpressive. This is a case where I would’ve went to a 3rd party vendor and got some Crystal Castle dice or something as these seven dice are bland. One of each type, 1d4 (black), 1d6 (red), 1d8 (blue), 1d12 (yellow), 1d20 (orange), with two d10 (purple 10s and green 1-10).They seem flat and are fairly bright in colors I don’t particularly care for so they stay in the plastic wrap or go to a friend who needs a set of dice.
For me, that’s enough right there. I’m seriously considering getting another boxed set to have another set of tile sand another young black dragon and some more stock monsters and another box to throw everything in.
For others though, there’s more. See, despite revisions and changes, Dungeons & Dragons is a fairly complex game and sometimes to bring in new players, it’s probably better to have fewer rules and a simple system. To aid in that, we have pregenerated characters with special abilities spelled out in separate sheets.
For characters, we have the dwarf cleric. His character sheet includes all of his ability scores with all notes written in. For example, under Strength, he has a score of 12, bonus of +1, and a section for what that bonus applies to. Saving throws, feats, gear, and skills are all listed. For skills, the bonus or modifier is shown right in the box. For example, for Hide, it has d20-7, noting the poor dexterity and the armor penalties. For Spot, it has d20+2, showing the Wisdom bonus. One of the things I note is that alignment is still here, but it’s just listed in terms of one of the factions, (good, evil or neutral) instead of all nine.
On the backside of the character sheet, it shows all of the dice and that 10s die is now the d90. I guess if you add that to a d10, you get the full range. Anyway, it notes his spells and special abilities and what the spells do. I notice that Initiative is a flat score based on dexterity and feats, in this case 9, and speed is based in number of squares moved per turn, in this case, 4. Weapons and roll to attack and roll for damage, are all noted. In this case, d20+1 and d8+1, noting the cleric’s strength. Armor class is 15 and hit points are 11. Fairly standard stuff and once a GM knows what everything means, it should be easy to explain to someone what those numbers mean.
About the only thing I question are having characters start off at first level. The survivability factor of such characters is questionable at best and unlike other systems, like Rolemaster, hit points aren’t increased to a high level to help survivability.
The quick start rules and first adventure book are in small format, similar to the conversion guide from 2nd edition to 3rd edition. The former book covers things like combat basics and movement. These are very simple rules and perhaps modify things too simply. For example, you can’t cast a spell when next to a monster. Diagonals take up 2 squares for every step. Attacks of opportunity are still present, which for a starting game, is probably more complexity than necessary.
The first adventure book includes four steps to setting up, boxed text to be read aloud, and several rooms. Each room includes a summary, read aloud text, and information on what skills or actions would be appropriate and what can happen from their use. For example, if the adventurers open the doors in room 1 without making a noise, the kobolds in room 2 are surprised. One good visual they have is spaces listed where the kobolds are for quite adventurers or loud ones, and the placement of the treasure. Combat and information about what the kobolds do is included to walk the GM through it. In essence, it’s a hand holding first combat scenario with a trapped treasure chest that the characters can toy with. For those looking to go further, they then move into the Advanced Rulebook.
Now the advanced rulebook starts off with two tables, one for random door features and another for random traps. I make a mental note to myself to come back for that. I’m lazy and always looking for a table for this or that. The book then goes into some of the stuff that makes Dungeons and Dragons an icon of fantasy gaming. It provides a blank character sheet, explanation of ability scores, information on how to roll ability scores (good old four d6), skills (a very reduced list with no knowledge, healing, profession or survival skills), racial stats (abbreviated of course), and at this point, I note that the simplification includes knocking out the gnome, half-elf and half-orc. Heck, if it was me, I’d probably knock out the Halfling too since I’ve yet to see a player take one in almost any game I’ve run.
Classes are also simplified to four, but it’s not the standard four more experienced players will know. Instead of fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard, we have fighter, cleric, rogue and sorcerer. In many ways, it makes more sense. The sorcerer matches Computer Role Playing Games more with their limited selection of spells that they can fire over and over again with no need for memorization. In terms of advancement, the book is really basic, covering only 1st and 2nd level with rules for 3rd level and higher characters being referred to the Player’s Handbook.
The inclusion of feats, skills, equipment and combat, are all reduced from the Player’s Handbook but simple to understand. First through third level spells are listed for the cleric and sorcerer. These are abbreviated spells with no school noted. For example, Slow is listed as Level: Sorcerer 3rd-Level, Range 25 feet (5 squares), Duration: 5 rounds, and a Saving Throw for Will negating it. A sample dungeon with full text is supplied.
After the dungeon, we have basic monsters including the black dragon and the nice thing about this entry, is that it includes a list for it’s breath weapon as both a diagonal attack and a straight line attack. The other monsters include the basic ones with illustrations taken from the Monster Manual, the miniature game, or the miniature itself. Oftentimes there are two illustrations.
To be honest, I don’t know how well the game does what it sets out to do. I’m going against the grain here and stating that I’m not good at teaching others to play. One of the strengths of D&D is that once you’ve learned how to play, you know how to play the core rules and can apply that knowledge to many levels. I don’t know if this is so simple that the recommend age group, of 12+ would be bored or at just the right challenge. You see, at my age of 33, I don’t hang around a lot of 12 year olds and that’s not because I hate the youth of America, it’s because I don’t have any younger siblings and I’m not involved in any youth activities.
For an experienced role player, I think that the card stock and non-random miniature selection is a nice bonus and some of the random tables can be clipped from the book and put into your note sections. For a newcomer, the game offers a streamlined rule set that is easy to run and understand as it holds the readers hand and provides him with dice, map, and miniatures to visualize everything.
tylerthehobo
Explorer
I heartily agree on all counts. The set gives you all the tools you need to teach a new player the game. The one thing I wonder about is how accessible it is to folks who buy it from square one - as a group who have never played before. Wizards did a great job with their latest release of Magic's starter set, and they seem to have applied a lot of that know-how here. I intend to use my copy to teach new players.
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