D&D 5E The Starter Set and In-box Handholding

[halfling rogue]

It's very handholdy. In the first encounters, so much so that it says stuff like "now you need to roll the goblin's initiative. It's +2 so roll 1d20 and add 2."

Exactly. It's just not laid out formally nor does it contain a written narrative (or enough of a written narrative) to pacify some folks. I think the Starter Set would be just fine for anyone green without it.

 

[the Jester]

You know, I- and a lot of other people- started running D&D after like one or two sessions run by a friend. I bought the old Basic Set (Erol Otus art FTW!) and there was far less hand-holding in there. And we did just fine.

I think the notion that a bunch of excited 12-year-olds would have any trouble grasping D&D and how to play it to be rather amusing, honestly. My guess is that 12 year old kids aren't going to have any trouble at all.

Not only that, as others have posted, the 5e Starter Set is VERY handholdy. It walks the DM through everything. It's an adventure with training wheels on- and a pretty good one, at that. So, no, I don't think it's a problem.

 

[Nebulous]

You know, I- and a lot of other people- started running D&D after like one or two sessions run by a friend. I bought the old Basic Set (Erol Otus art FTW!) and there was far less hand-holding in there. And we did just fine.

I think the notion that a bunch of excited 12-year-olds would have any trouble grasping D&D and how to play it to be rather amusing, honestly. My guess is that 12 year old kids aren't going to have any trouble at all.

Not only that, as others have posted, the 5e Starter Set is VERY handholdy. It walks the DM through everything. It's an adventure with training wheels on- and a pretty good one, at that. So, no, I don't think it's a problem.

I don't think they would either. If they make mistakes it would be because they've never played a pen and paper RPG, not through any fault of the starter set.

 

[Henrix]

The only mistake they could make is not having fun.

 

[Bupp]

My 14 year old daughter has run us through a couple sessions of Lost Mine after playing just a few sessions, and I thought she did a great job. After she even told me about some parts that she had changed and some different rulings that she made and they all fit pretty well.

 

[painted_klown]

Hey all,

I stumbled across this thread while looking for information about the D&D starter set.

I have been elected by my non RPG playing friends to be our DM (nobody else wanted to do it, and I really wanted to, so I guess that worked out well), and will be using this starter set to get us going.

Thus far, I have yet to play any RPG, but will be joining a Pathfinder game that is ran by a co-worker. The players in his group are all experienced d&d and Pathfinder players, so I think I should be able to pick up enough from those sessions, and combine it with the starter kit to get us all rolling some die and having some fun.

The cool part, is that from talking to my non experienced friends, they are all just excited to get playing (as am I) and we all seemed to agree that groups seem go by their own "house interpretation" of the rules for some things, and are able to rigidly adhere to "the rules as written" for other stuff. We will learn and adjust as we go along type of thing.

I gave them all the forewarning that I will not have a clue of what I am doing, but they didn't seem to mind as they don't either. LOL!

 

[delericho]

I’ve read more than a few folks out there who have complained that the Starter Set fails to properly teach and/or explain how to run and play D&D. The idea being that there’s no way a group of kids who have never played before could buy this box and just start playing. Is it safe to say that the lack of in-box handholding is one of the biggest knocks against the Starter Set?

Nah. As Morrus said, it does plenty of hand-holding as it goes. Even better, it starts off with very basic lessons and then gradually encourages the new DM to take more and more control as he goes.

It's a really good adventure, and it's very well done.

 

[wedgeski]

It's a really good adventure, and it's very well done.

I agree. Four sessions in and I've found it really fun to DM. The players, busy pumping money into the town to rejuvenate it as a base of operations, likewise.

 

[Nebulous]

It's a really good adventure, and it's very well done.

Yes, it is. Because it's thought of as "newbie" some folks might think it's watered down, but it's really not. It's an extremely solid, fun adventure.