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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JeffB" data-source="post: 7881670" data-attributes="member: 518">For the money the Essentials Kit is a good buy-it has plenty of eye-candy with the cards and map and extra dice set, and character generation is a plus for some. The real meat is the adventure.However, the adventure is lackluster, and while most complete newcomer adventures have many elements of a video game's quests- the essentials kit adventure is blatant with it's "job board" and "do this and you get X gold". Then after you have done the low level easy peasy stuff- some new jobs show up on the board which opens up harder areas, and so-on. Meh. Additionally the main enemy is known from the beginning and most of the adventure meat is in minor side quest type things that ultimately don't have much to do with the main enemy (and PC's may or may not ever learn about, let alone investigate). Completely the opposite of Lost Mine where the Side Quests are up front, and usually tie back into, or lead characters back to the main adventure somehow. While I enjoy the random element of the main enemy in the Essentials Kit adventure showing up here and there-the player's cannot really defeat the enemy at those times, and instead will just have to find it's lair at some point in order to actually defeat it- I hate to say it, but more videogame. There is no real mystery for the PC's to solve, very little sense of urgency, and locations that are side plots are more interesting than the main adventure story locations and foe. The initial quests are not very exciting at all- I used them on my 8yo daughter and she ignored them instead trying to find something more interesting to do, like finding out where the big bad guy was.  <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937.png" title="Person shrugging    :person_shrugging:" data-shortname=":person_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />In contrast-The Starter Set's Lost Mine provides more plot, mystery and sinister air to the adventure which draws PLAYERS into the adventure and therefore the game. It then sprinkles some side plots/quests into the mix.My Bottom Line- While the Essentials Kit  may offer a crisper/clearer physical presentation compared to the Starter Set- it is a typical boring to newcomers exercise in character generation, and a low energy introduction to a low energy adventure that takes too long to get to any good bits (if they are found).  Lost Mine gets players immediately into the action with it's pre-gens (which are the kinds of things you would be creating from scratch anyway) and the actual adventure starts out in an exciting way and provides some real mystery and greater intensity throughout.  As a budding DM who already has the Starter Set, The Essentials Kit makes a fantastic follow up/add-on product to a PC group using Phandalin as a home base-assuming the DM is prepared to pump some much needed energy into the adventure/plot line. But I would never recommend the Essentials Kit over the Starter Set for complete newcomers to D&D/TTRPGs, or as an intro to a new edition for experienced players.</blockquote>

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