D&D 5E (2024) 2024 D&D Starter Set - Your turn to design

[Stormonu]

Inspired by another thread. No set is ever perfect. If you had been in charge of the 2024 D&D Start Set (Heroes of the Borderlands), what would you have done differently? What would you keep?

Spoiler

I would have added minis for the pre-gens, myself. Also, if this box is meant to be shared I'd strongly consider putting enough dice in the box for all the players. Yeah, that would make it even more expensive...

On the other hand, I could also see the value in a lite version - an introductory book explaining how to play (littered with examples, sidebars and a partial play-through), a handful of pre-gens and two reference books - one that's a rules reference for players and a second with a condensed form of DMG with the information a DM needs (some advice, monsters and treasures, covering up to level 5). Also include a booklet with a starting adventure. It would be pretty close to the 2014 Phandelver boxed set, I imagine, tweaked where needed.

As for keeping, the mats, tokens and spell cards. I'm a visual/hands-on person and I like the physicallity of these sort of things - as well as handy reference items so I don't have to dig through a book midgame.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The cardboard standees seem doomed to get pretty beat up. Having branded miniatures available for each of the hero choices as an add-on would be nice.

Similarly, the dice aren't great. Chessex makes much better dice at a very reasonable price. I know WotC was trying to squeeze costs down to meet the $50 MSRP (and I know there's a bit of psychological resistance to going above that number), but those seem like an obvious thing to upgrade. At the very least, I would have approached Chessex and put in a coupon for a better polyhedral set in the box.

As anyone who's used any of the other 5E starter kits knows, the booklets in this book are destined to rip, tear and bend over time. Even a simple heavier cardstock for the covers would be a big upgrade.

Likewise, the character cards are on wimpier paper than I'd like. I might be getting mine laminated so they stand up better over time.

The four baggies are meant to keep all the character tokens together between games (I think everyone whipping out their phones and taking a picture of their character boards probably would work better). But I'd like to have baggies for all the different tokens. I'm going to be picking up "snack size" sandwich baggies for that purpose, myself.

Finally, replacing those tokens with fancier ones (it could be something as simple as cheap items from a party store or craft store, or as fancy as getting gold coins from Campaign Coins) is a quick way to make the whole set feel more deluxe.

Maybe I'm just describing a $100 version of this set from Beadle's & Grimm's. I'm a little surprised and disappointed that they didn't offer a deluxe set, taking it up to the high-end board game level.

 

[BruceWright]

The term "Character Boards" is a misnomer, as they are really "Character sheets of slightly thicker paper". I have laminated mine. Would love them to be actual boards. Would have liked tokens to be plastic. I agree that the dice are not nice, and would have preferred the quality of dice the old Essentials Kit had.

The only thing else I'd add would be some more videos. The videos offered are good, but have a strange fake-sassy tone that a lot of official Wizards videos have, and that gets tiresome. "Get ready to roll... those... dice!"

I'd lose the cool 'tude and just have a couple more videos on how to be a DM and how to be a player. Not "how to play the rules" but how to play, if that makes sense. What being a good player means. And how to look at that book and make choices and present. A bit of a video that demonstrates that the DM is making stuff up on the fly, and that's good, and expected, and here's a good demonstration of how that works.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The only thing else I'd add would be some more videos. The videos offered are good, but have a strange fake-sassy tone that a lot of official Wizards videos have, and that gets tiresome. "Get ready to roll... those... dice!"

I'd lose the cool 'tude and just have a couple more videos on how to be a DM and how to be a player. Not "how to play the rules" but how to play, if that makes sense. What being a good player means. And how to look at that book and make choices and present. A bit of a video that demonstrates that the DM is making stuff up on the fly, and that's good, and expected, and here's a good demonstration of how that works.

There are several YouTube channels that teach how to play board games. Most of them are painfully earnest, but it's a much more helpful tone when trying to learn, I find.

 

[Stormonu]

Acrylic standees for the PCs would have been a great compromise between cardboard and plastic minis, I think.

 

[BruceWright]

Yeah I find the sassy tone distancing. Like I'm being "hello fellow kids" talked at.

As the old joke goes: "Sincerity is the key. Once you can fake that, you've got it made!"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Acrylic standees for the PCs would have been a great compromise between cardboard and plastic minis, I think.

There's an upcoming crowdfunding campaign for acrylic tokens (not standees) for all monsters in the SRD, and it looks like a great upgrade.

 

[definiteFreakyFishGuy]

This might be a controversial take here, but I actually think the starter set should not come with a dice set, but it should include a note about which dice to get.

My local game store has this jar full of random dice, and you can either get individual die for like 50 cents(EDIT: inaccurate? actually cheaper?), or grab a handful for extra discounted price, and I bet (with 0 evidence) the rando set of dice you get from the rando jar is better quality than any dice set you can get from a reasonably priced starter set.

EDIT: I checked the game store's website, and based on the pricing of their "pound of dice," I actually think it's cheaper than 50 cents per loose dice. But not sure.

 

[Lidgar]

There's an upcoming crowdfunding campaign for acrylic tokens (not standees) for all monsters in the SRD, and it looks like a great upgrade.

Link?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Link?

https://tokens.splatteredink.com/