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.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not disputing, but that means it sold millions of copies. I'd love to see what the numbers are. Do you have a reference perhaps?

@Alphastream did a blog series about the BookScan mumbera from 2023. The 2014 Starter Set had over a million sales frok BookScan...but thoae numbers don't include the hundreds of copies that @FitzTheRuke
sold, or any other FLGS, and apparently not even Amazon sales necessarily. So the million is by all accounts a fraction of what the Starter Set sold.

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

alphastream.org

 

[FitzTheRuke]

@Alphastream did a blog series about the BookScan mumbera from 2023. The 2014 Starter Set had over a million sales frok BookScan...but thoae numbers don't include the hundreds of copies that @FitzTheRuke
sold, or any other FLGS, and apparently not even Amazon sales necessarily. So the million is by all accounts a fraction of what the Starter Set sold.

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

alphastream.org

Hmm... my guess might be over, but I'm not sure. IF it's not over 10M it's very possibly close. Though I DID intend my guess to include digital sales, which is another thing that BookScan leaves out. BookScan could easily reflect less than 10% of total sales. It's mostly reported to by Book Stores, and while that would include B&N, it doesn't include Amazon (AFAIK), DDB, Roll20, or (m)any FLGSes, nor, I think, anything at all outside North America.

 

[Parmandur]

Hmm... my guess might be over, but I'm not sure. IF it's not over 10M it's very possibly close. Though I DID intend my guess to include digital sales, which is another thing that BookScan leaves out. BookScan could easily reflect less than 10% of total sales. It's mostly reported to by Book Stores, and while that would include B&N, it doesn't include Amazon (AFAIK), DDB, Roll20, or (m)any FLGSes, nor, I think, anything at all outside North America.

Thing is, at 1 million and change the Starter Set per the BookScan numbers comes close to the Moldvay 1.3 million high watermark: IIRC, Teos estimated that the Bookscan numbers might be about 25% of total sales...4 million 2014 Starter Set sales seems possible.

Though the 2014 PHB is the undisputed champ, to be honest.

 

[SteveC]

This looks to be a good set, but it's also outside of the pricepoint where I could just excuse purchasing it on a whim. I really like the PF2 starter set, and I bought that one to teach myself how to play/run that game. Since I know 5E, it would be just a fun purchase, and that's too rich for my blood.

I have no doubt that there are a lot of parents out there that it won't be to much for, and that doesn't include those college students or people who used to play and are thinking about getting back into it. So I'd expect it will be a success.