D&D 5E (2024) Heroes of the Borderlands

[EthanSental]

Now I need to persuade the LFGS to keep one for new players instead of pregens.

Now what I want is a set of freely available pregens for 2024 at a range of levels and in PDF.

Wotc did that for 2014, good idea for 2024 as well!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Wotc did that for 2014, good idea for 2024 as well!

Did they see much use? I remember them existing, but never used them. They didn't simplify like this product does.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The feats are integrated into the species and background cards. For example, the Human species card has the "Fortunate" trait, which uses the rules from the Lucky feat (I'm not sure why the changed the wording). The Acolyte background has the spells for the Magic Initiate feat preselected, including a space for a token to track usage of the 1st level spell.

This is what I would expect. You are drastically reducing the number of things a player needs to know so you can jump straight in to the game and show how it works. It's a teaching tool, not an alternative to the actual rule books.

 

[mrzarquon]

It wouldn’t be too hard the reuse similar design elements to make SRD based ones for other classes. I do see the design breaking down after level four - just so much more added complexity and options.

I was reminded as I had my morning coffee that one of nuances of design is not to introduce solutions to problems a user doesn’t have context for. They could have put a shield with a holy symbol on it in the box, but now you have to explain why the Cleric needs that one instead of the Fighter, before they may have even had to face the choice of “do I hold my holy symbol, my mace, or my shield?”

Compare that to the player whose has gotten invested in D&D, wants to create the level 4 character sheet for their beloved Jerome the Cleric, so gets the SRD or PHB. That person is now invested in Jerome. Imagine the reaction when they read the cleric class description and other item details, read about how for 5 gold they can have their holy symbol on their shield, or realize they get to pick a Feat! Then they discover War Caster!

Everyone here knows that little serotonin kick in D&D of “my lil guy gets to do new stuff! And I get to pick what that is!” Imagine how much more fun it would have been to fill out a character sheet for the first time when you actually had context for 70% of it and the stuff you didn’t was you learning all new, neat things your character can do.

 

[John Lloyd1]

Did they see much use? I remember them existing, but never used them. They didn't simplify like this product does.

They get a lot of use. My LFGS has a stash and they frequently get used by new players. Although experienced players can may a new character of a arbitrary level pretty quickly. I personally prefer to get playing quickly if am on a table that isn't my regular one.

 

[Plaguescarred]

How is it story wise beyond hack & slash ?

 

[EthanSental]

Did they see much use? I remember them existing, but never used them. They didn't simplify like this product does.

We did, especially before the companion rules came out and needed an npc of similar level and wanted it even quicker than dndbeyond creation already is.

 

[Reynard]

This might have been answered earlier in the thread: how extensive is the adventure? Is it a Phandelver scale starter campaign, playable for a longer period, or just a short one shot thing?

 

[mamba]

This might have been answered earlier in the thread: how extensive is the adventure? Is it a Phandelver scale starter campaign, playable for a longer period, or just a short one shot thing?

I believe it is for levels 1 and 2, so definitely shorter than LMoP

 

[Parmandur]

This might have been answered earlier in the thread: how extensive is the adventure? Is it a Phandelver scale starter campaign, playable for a longer period, or just a short one shot thing?

Three 16 page booklets (one for Social stuff st the Keep, one for wilderness exploration in the Borderlands, and one for dungeon crawling in the Caves of Chaos), it does sound like it eoukd take multiple sessions to play through it but I imagine we will need some time to compare directly to Phandelver.