D&D (2024) Take A Deeper Look At The New D&D Starter Set's Card-Based Characters

Heroes of the Borderlands, the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons 2024 starter set due out in September, was on display at New York Toy Fair, and the YouTube channel Otakus & Geeks were given a brief demo. The way the cards, standees, and maps are presented it looks like they took some inspiration from 1989's boardgame HeroQuest!

• Character creation is card-based.
• Each player has a 'class board', such Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Warrior (it's not clear if the demonstrator misspoke and meant to say Rogue or not).
• Then you pick a species card and a background card and place them on your class board.
• Those components the tell you what equipment or spell cards to also pick up--for example, the Fighter takes the cards for chainmail. greatsword, a lantern, and one additional item.
• The class board and the equipment cards tell the players what dice to roll for attacks, etc.

• The DM has a small, 10-page guide.
• There's a big battlemap for each of the three main areas (presumably Keep, Caves, and Wilderness?), and a booklet for each.
• Monsters have tokens and corresponding monster cards for the DM.

 

[dave2008]

Wow, this does look like a good starter set. I don't really need one, but kind of of want this

 

[GarrettKP]

Definitely can’t wait to get this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's a big battlemap for each of the three Caves of Chaos, and a booklet for each.

The three booklets are the keep, the caves and the wilderness. Should this be there's a battlemap for each of the booklets? Or are there three battlemaps to supplement the caves booklet?

 

[BruceWright]

I'm running a lot of "Peril in Pinebrook" as a sample session when I teach people D&D, along with some cheat sheets I generated. I'll definitely update to this.

 

[Morrus]

The three booklets are the keep, the caves and the wilderness. Should this be there's a battlemap for each of the booklets? Or are there three battlemaps to supplement the caves booklet?

I just watched the video. I don't have any insider info.

 

[Nightfly]

Can't lie, this looks kind of brilliant.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just watched the video. I don't have any insider info.

Sorry, that wasn't necessarily about you.

It would be great for WotC to put out info clarifying a lot of these questions.

 

[ngenius]

Move over, Daggerheart, top dog is back in the house. And I bet this set will outsell the core rulebook to many casual fans, especially people who want a simple game to take out and play without time consuming character generation or high level play. Yes, Daggerheart can do that, but it is not the most popular role playing game in the world.

 

[Shiroiken]

Wow, this does look like a good starter set. I don't really need one, but kind of of want this

I didn't need Phandelver, but I picked it up anyway so I could teach the game. If you ever plan on introducing players to 5E 2024, it's probably a good purchase.