D&D General Take A Look At The Class Boards From The New D&D Starter Set

Check out the cleric's 'dashboard'.
Heroes of the Borderlands, which is Dungeons & Dragons' upcoming new starter set, is one of the largest starter sets the game has ever produced--not least in part to the card-based character creation pops. One essential part of that card-based process is the class board--as D&D Beyond puts it, "a dashboard that clearly lays out everything you need to play, from your Armor Class to your spells and features, with card slots and token trackers that keep the game moving fast".

class-board.jpg

There's a board for each class in the boxed set (the example above is the cleric). In the bottom left you can see a 'What You Need To Play' section which lists the additional cards you need to play a cleric--in this case, two equipment cards, 7 spell cards, and a bunch of gold pieces.

The card itself includes your basic stats--ability scores, saving throws, skills, hit points, speed, and so on. There are also clearly marked spots where you can place cards for your armor, your spells, and other things. There's also a space over on the far right for species and origin cards.

Once you reach level 2, you flip the card cover. That automatically increases your hit points and other features.

cleric-level-2.jpg

Finally, at level 3, you choose your subclass and you swap your class board for a more specialised one. The included cleric includes boards for the Life and Light domains. The new board not only updates your stats (like when you leveleled up to level 2) it also adds in the subclass features.

cleric-board-3.jpg

Heroes of the Borderlands comes out September 16th for $49.99.

 

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I really, really do not like this. All it's going to do IMHO is confuse newbies when they get past this and have to play the "real" game and have no clue what a character sheet is or how to fill it out, etc. I get what they were going for, but it seems like it'll just cause more confusion. now if they had done ALL of 5.5 in this style (which still IMHO would have been a mistake) it would be understandable.
 

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I really, really do not like this. All it's going to do IMHO is confuse newbies when they get past this and have to play the "real" game and have no clue what a character sheet is or how to fill it out, etc. I get what they were going for, but it seems like it'll just cause more confusion. now if they had done ALL of 5.5 in this style (which still IMHO would have been a mistake) it would be understandable.
The PHB does a good job explaining character sheets.

The kids will be OK.
 

I really, really do not like this. All it's going to do IMHO is confuse newbies when they get past this and have to play the "real" game and have no clue what a character sheet is or how to fill it out, etc. I get what they were going for, but it seems like it'll just cause more confusion. now if they had done ALL of 5.5 in this style (which still IMHO would have been a mistake) it would be understandable.
Also, easy readers are clearly confusing, those kids should be made to start with Dickens.
 

I really, really do not like this. All it's going to do IMHO is confuse newbies when they get past this and have to play the "real" game and have no clue what a character sheet is or how to fill it out, etc.
I think people are clever than you seem to. They’ll be just fine.
 

4e was not a role playing game though. At least advertise what it is; "don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining".
Isn't this a little much? A Role-Playing Game does not need to look like D&D to be a RPG. Whether you use minis and a grid, theater of the mind, or a screen, or use dice, or cards, or digital RNGs or other resolution mechanics, if you are playing a character where you get to role-play their personality, and have the freedom to choose your own adventure, sounds like an RPG to me.

You don't have to like how different 4E is from other editions, but there are far weirder RPGs than 4E. But it not being an RPG? Weird take.
 

Am I the only person who thinks these are more complicated than a simple character sheet?
I think they are differently complicated, and they could be a boon to certain types of players that learn, or visualize, or math differently. My relative who is more into board games is now more interested in playing D&D for the first time. The single character sheet with only writing and math was intimidating for visualization and not knowing the rules. But they are intrigued by the components that help them visualize what is happening. I hope to run the Starter Kit for them sometime soon when we have a good time and plan to hang out next. If they really like it, I will gift the Starter Set to them.
 


I know it is a starter set. However, it is a different approach to how players play the game. I am wondering if this might cause WotC to adapt D&D to a different version such as crossing the game with cooperative board games like Gloomhaven and Frosthaven.
Pretty sure the intent is to pull people from Gloomhaven and Frosthaven away to play D&D instead, not to become one of those. That's why you convert this character over to regular format once you reach 4th level. It's a way to transition people from boardgames to role playing games in a way that seems somewhat familiar as you start out.
 

I'm a little taken aback at the amount of work that seems to have been done to ensure that you don't need...a pencil with an eraser.

Like, I'm sure that there legitimately is a group of people for whom having dozens of little yellow physical circular cardboard tokens in denominations of 1 and 5 is for whatever reason easier than just...writing down how much gold you have and subtracting from that number when you buy things. But I can't imagine that this is the easier method for the majority of players.

I feel like there is a lot of awesome stuff in this box (I really, absolutely do want this many color battle maps, yes) but there is also stuff that feels like a solution to a problem that I can't imagine actually existed. BUT if playtesting with total novices informed these design choices, fair enough. I'm obviously not the target audience.

The absence of a "when you're ready to move on from this set, here's the next thing you might want to do/read/buy to continue playing D&D" element is an omission that is difficult for me to understand.

They also make a clear design choice to support a table with "rotating DMs" where a new DM takes over every session. In doing so, they sacrifice narrative links, or for that matter the adventure having a beginning and an end or any discernable climax. For ME, that hurts the usefulness of the product. If it legitimately ends up creating more DMs, then obviously it's worth it for WotC, because DMs are the big spenders when it comes to D&D.
 
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