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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9759916" data-attributes="member: 7045072">Taking a look at this set (just the adventures part) with more of an old school perspective - I also enjoyed the maps, they were new school maps - small, with limited distance markings and such, but they are functional and charming enough in a very brightly colored way.  I think they really sold me on the idea that this adventure is fundamentally a 5E adventure, despite being a reasonably faithful B2 Keep on the Borderlands reboot.  They aren't dungeon crawling maps - but then 5E as written isn't a dungeon crawl game - and it's good that the maps match the play style.It really is a B2 homage, but one thing I wish was still in Heroes of the Borderlands was a bit more intrigue at the Keep itself - it largely feels like it in B2, but without the creepy undertone of being a near police state (Perhaps also corrupted by the Church of Chaos?).  In general Heroes handles monsters and NPCs well enough, much better then most prior 5E products I've seen, but it doesn't move very far from a very good and evil worldview - of course B2 has that same intent, though it fails by making the humanoids sympathetic and the Keep oppressive. In that failure is something that makes B2 interesting.I somewhat disagree - exploration to me is more then wilderness movement, it's primarily the smaller puzzles of the dungeon set withing the larger spatial puzzle of the dungeon and made into a game of pathfinding and problem solving through the pressures of turn keeping, supply depletion and asymmetrical/unpredictable risk.  This is a 5E adventure it focuses (well I think) on tactical combat, OC characterization and rules-light puzzle solving - overall a lot more video game inflected (again this isn't an attack on 5E - it's just a different game - one that oesn't place a lot of focus on exploration). That said I think Heroes of the Borderland is likely the best 5E starter set (the dragon island one was also very good in a similar way) yet, and the only one that takes a more sandbox approach. I think the Caves are the strongest part of this set, while they lack much of an overarching story each has a few neat set pieces, and relationships between the denizens (many are limited, or exist as potential alone, but will likely grow in actual play).  The number of non-combat options and the way they are laid out (there are still plenty of combats) is very good, and they are written up in a way that should help a novice referee run them. Nothing complex, but solid.I like less plot then you I suspect, but I agree that heroes feels like it could have a bit more going on in town - some timers perhaps or some sort of brewing Chaos Church scheme - again from my point of view this is because it treats the Keep too much like a fairytale village of generally good guys and not like the colonial borderlands fort full of renegades, strivers, desperate settlers, and criminals ruled by a slightly mad martinet and a secret cult priest ... B2's Keep ... but really the fundamental narrative structure of B2 is a Western, a "Cavalry Story", that aims for "classic Western" and usually fails to become an anti-Western because the players aren't murderous psychos. I might actually if I need to run 5E for some folks or give a friend a first D&D game (though something like Cairn or B/X and a couple of adventures would be more likely) - it's feels a lot more like D&D to me then Phandelver or the Ice Dragon one, and it feels a lot more approachable. It is also very much true to B2 is some fundamental way.Thanks for the review - it got me to pick up a 5E product, read it and enjoy it!</blockquote>

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