Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set Price Point Revealed

The new Heroes of the Borderlands D&D boxed set will be significantly more expensive than past Starter Sets. Pre-order pages up on D&D Beyond and Amazon confirm that the new Starter Set, made to introduce the new version of 5th Edition rules to newcomers, will cost $49.99. Previous starter sets, such as the Essentials Kit or the Dragons at Stormwreck Isle, had much lower price points ranging from $19.99 to $24.99.

One reason for the price increase is that the new Starter Set will contain many more components than previous Starter Sets. A trailer (seen below) shows off many of the cards, tokens, and handouts that are included in the boxed set in addition to the standard quickstart guide and character sheets. Per Amazon, the new Starter Set will contain 3 adventure booklets, 8 character class boards featuring iconic D&D classes, 1 quick-start guide, a reference booklet, 5 in-world immersive handouts (including a tavern menu and shop catalogs), 9 double-sided poster maps, a combat tracker, 11 dice, 210 game cards (including spells, magic items, and equipment), and 273 tokens (including monsters, terrain, and resources).

One twist for this new boxed set is that it will include tiles that will add a modularity to character creation. Players will choose their background and class and then build a character sheet using corresponding tiles.

Hasbro also previously stated that the Starter Set was produced in China, so the increased price could be impacted by the current tariffs imposed by the US on foreign-made goods.


The new Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set will be released on September 16th, 2025.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

@FitzTheRuke can you order it from distributors?

Which, the Essentials Kit, the 2nd Starter Set, or the Heroes of the Borderlands?

Yes to all three, but I would not be surprised if the Essentials Kit and the 2nd Starter are discontinued when HotB comes out. Though like I said - I think they'll have stock on hand for a while still. We'll have to see.

I agree with you that AFAIK, up until now the Essentials Kit has been in print. I just don't think that will continue.

 

[Parmandur]

Which, the Essentials Kit, the 2nd Starter Set, or the Heroes of the Borderlands?

Yes to all three, but I would not be surprised if the Essentials Kit and the 2nd Starter are discontinued when HotB comes out. Though like I said - I think they'll have stock on hand for a while still. We'll have to see.

I agree with you that AFAIK, up until now the Essentials Kit has been in print. I just don't think that will continue.

The Essentials Kit being in print hasn't felt quite the same since it can't be paired with the Lost Mines Starter Set.

I have not seen any of these three in Target recently: as far as mainstream retailers, I think this new vox is going to be the hard launch of 2024 rules.

 

[Juomari Veren]

I think it's going to do reasonably well if the adventure is not castastrophically bad. People buy more expensive board games than this to let rot on the shelf all the time. The brand is powerful and this might draw back some people who have been out of the loop for a while.

But just like all of the Magic: The Gathering starter kits with similar mid to low value proposition I don't see many enfranchised players buying this.

The adventure is one of the earliest adventures ever made for D&D and it's done well enough when they've brought it back for less successful systems.

Also, on the topic of enfranchised players investing in this; I am buying it not just for the updated nostalgia bait but also because I like having teaching tools for new players, on top of the fact that ever since they announced the "tile" system for character creation I've wanted to start a campaign with other enfranchised players where they make their characters randomly using this system.

 

[John Lloyd1]

The adventure is one of the earliest adventures ever made for D&D and it's done well enough when they've brought it back for less successful systems.

Also, on the topic of enfranchised players investing in this; I am buying it not just for the updated nostalgia bait but also because I like having teaching tools for new players, on top of the fact that ever since they announced the "tile" system for character creation I've wanted to start a campaign with other enfranchised players where they make their characters randomly using this system.

I do wonder if they will sell the character facing cards separately for the full range of classes. It would be neat, but I doubt it will happen.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I do wonder if they will sell the character facing cards separately for the full range of classes. It would be neat, but I doubt it will happen.

I doubt it. Maybe it's the kind of thing that someone could create very similar DMs guild versions of, though!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Waterstones had Icespire Peak in stock as of last week. Didn't see essentials kit, but they had it fairly recently.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I do wonder if they will sell the character facing cards separately for the full range of classes. It would be neat, but I doubt it will happen.

They may. One of the reasons for doing the card based stuff is to give people a reason to buy physical copies, rather than digital (printing stuff out as needed). Remember WotC's other line is selling printed cards for a card game.

And if WotC don't 3PP can (so long as they remember to leave the logo off and only feature SRD classes).

 

[John R Davis]

And the cards in DH are proving very useful. And Hasboro well set up for such printing.
I can envision a day when your character is fully card based and you no longer need paper sheets. Works well for semi RPGs like Blackstone Fortress.

 

[kayakingpoodle]

They haven't printed any cards for D&D books since MToF which pretty much equates to none for the 5.5 books (if you consider TCoE, and MPMoM as 5.5), Gale Force 9 was printing the cards for 5.0, and Wizbro has some of the decks on ddb so they may still be printing them.

They also have not come out with any cling packs for the campaign case: creatures either, which would seem to be easy to produce as they need the art for the maps tool on ddb and would generate some physical purchases.