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.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Yes! This starter set uses the 2024 rules. We've also streamlined some aspects to make for easier onboarding, but if you learn to play D&D with this set and then go pick up a Player's Handbook or the D&D Basic Rules, you'll be playing the same game. One example of a quality-of-life improvement you might have noticed in the previews was that we chose to only include ability modifiers on the Class Boards (and not both ability modifiers and ability scores), since it's more important for new players to get rolling with the right bonus than to understand where that bonus is coming from. The math is still worked into the characters; it's just invisible for the sake of simplification.

As for the adventure, it's a reimagining of the original B2. Keep on the Borderlands. If you played the original, many things will feel familiar, but there are some new surprises as well. We also made some small improvements. For example, all the NPCs now have names—and art!

Good to see you here, Justice!

 

[SlyFlourish]

I work directly with Darrington Press, they are very professional and refreshing to work with. They sent me my Dagghearts 3 weeks early which was great.

I've been tracking sales since they began bundling physical products with Dragonlance. My sales have slowly trended downwards since then. We opened in 1981, and I've been doing this since 1999 (I started shopping here in 1983). It gives me a lot of data to mine. Obviously, the OGL Fiasco didn't help things. Factoring 2023, 2024, and 2025 sales of the DnD segment has slowed considerably, but other RPG sales are up. I've been demoing a lot of alternative games since 2023, and with the release of the 2 Realms books, I will spotlight the setting and 5.5, so we will see how that goes. While our sales for 2025 have exceeded my projections despite the current Administration, I want to assess where my DnD fandom is at, and I've found running in-store events to be a good barometer.

I'm glad your sales don't seem to be as affected.

As for Magic, I've been doom and gloom about it since 2019 and I keep getting proven wrong. With how early they started online preorders for Final Fantasy I really worried how the set would do but I listened to my co-workers and was pleasantly surprised. When you factor Dragonstorm & Foundations selling out its been good for us. Since 2022 our tournament scene has exploded. We average at least 40 a night and had to expand our Commander events to a second night. I don't think it can last forever and I'm still conservative, we survived Fallen Empires, but we have very much become a magic store that sells comics.

Fantastic insights!! Thank you!

 

[Mark Craddock]

Fantastic insights!! Thank you!

Any time. I don't know if I can help but I'm always glad to share industry insights.

 

[Mark Craddock]

Yeah, it will be interesting to see.

Since we just found out the only way to get the Forgotten Realms "DLC" is with the $160 digital bundle for physical and digital products I feel like that is a major escalation of competing with local stores. At worst it requires a completist to buy that bundle AND both of the exclusive covers that we get.

Its bad news, IMO for the fan either way and just a jerk move by WotC against retail partners.

What are your thoughts?

 

[mamba]

What are your thoughts?

my thoughts are that I expect them to be available outside the bundle too. If this turns out to be wrong, bad on WotC

 

[Zaukrie]

Since we just found out the only way to get the Forgotten Realms "DLC" is with the $160 digital bundle for physical and digital products I feel like that is a major escalation of competing with local stores. At worst it requires a completist to buy that bundle AND both of the exclusive covers that we get.

Its bad news, IMO for the fan either way and just a jerk move by WotC against retail partners.

What are your thoughts?

Except I'm sure we've been told you can get it separately eventually.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Except I'm sure we've been told you can get it separately eventually.

You can get it separately in the future and it’s also available in the cheaper digital bundle

 

[Nikosandros]

Do not turn your back on those kids. Especially if they have shovels.

Yes, the situation looks grave, I can dig that.

 

[sevenbastard]

Both this and the new Stranger Things box set are on Amazon now. Im realistically going to drop $100 on two diffrent starter sets this fall.

They both looked jam packed. But the components are similar but the graphic design is diffrent and Stranger things looks like its pre made charachters versus rules for building them.

Fall is going to be great!