D&D 5E What would you want in a new 5E box set?

[Jester David]

I used to be gung-ho about boxed sets back in the 2000s. Nostalgic for getting the cool boxes for 2e.
They are a nice way of getting a protected softcover book, and it's neat for adventures: a softcover adventure in one booklette and a gazetteer in the second. Plus other odds and ends like hand-outs and cards.

But, really, they're best used for delivering pretty minor bonus items. Stuff that could be sold separately in a dice box or a map pack. Or the Tarokka cards for Ravenloft. But having these sold separately allows those items to be of higher quality.

Baldur's Gate: Descent to Avernus is probably the best example of something that might have worked better as a boxed set. An adventure book and a separate guide to Baldur's Gate book plus the cards and poster map. But even in this case, the cards and the like are really just a nice perk and bonus to the dice and dice tray and not something you really care about having for the adventure.

The only product I really think only worked as a boxed set and wouldn't have functioned just as well as a hardcover is Madness at Gardmore Abbey, and that's because the deck of many things is a vital part of that adventure. But it's not like free printable cards or a separate product would have broken things.

 

[Jester David]

When you bundle things together, company's typically shed some of the cost off. If you look at Games Workshop for example, if you buy a "Start Collecting Set" you are paying less than if you bought every miniature that is in that box separately.

I won't dispute that a box like this would cost more than the Starter's/Essentials, it obviously will. But paying even $45 for a box like this is a steal.

How would such a product be different from:

Tomb of Annihilation | Dungeons & Dragons

Learn more about Tomb of Annihilation from Dungeons & Dragons.

dnd.wizards.com

?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

How would such a product be different from:

Tomb of Annihilation | Dungeons & Dragons

Learn more about Tomb of Annihilation from Dungeons & Dragons.

dnd.wizards.com

?

Other than that box being for an entirely different board game and not D&D? And it having considerably more miniatures (42 in total) than I suggested, bringing it's price up to $80?

I honestly can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse here, or if you really can't understand the concept I detailed in my OP.

Here's the concept;

• Slim ruleset, not very different from the Starter set or Essentials
• Dice
• 4 PC miniatures
• 6 bad buy minis (or far more as cardboard as others have suggested)
• Original short-ish adventure, like Phandelver or Icespire Peak

This doesn't exist as a product offering. Yes you can piece the same thing from several different products, but it doesn't exist as one product all together to save on cost.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Planescape, the Ravenloft Red Box, and Dark Sun Revised are the kind of boxed product I'd be willing to pay good money for. If the idea is putting modules into boxes, I think the Night Below boxed set is a good setup to follow.

 

[Parmandur]

Other than that box being for an entirely different board game and not D&D? And it having considerably more miniatures (42 in total) than I suggested, bringing it's price up to $80?

I honestly can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse here, or if you really can't understand the concept I detailed in my OP.

Here's the concept;

• Slim ruleset, not very different from the Starter set or Essentials
• Dice
• 4 PC miniatures
• 6 bad buy minis (or far more as cardboard as others have suggested)
• Original short-ish adventure, like Phandelver or Icespire Peak

This doesn't exist as a product offering. Yes you can piece the same thing from several different products, but it doesn't exist as one product all together to save on cost.

The Adventure board games are actually a pretty good deal to get a bunch of minis, and the rules are D&D rules, just...4E...

For an actual, pick up at Target box set, two good ideas spring to mind:

1. A Forgotten Realms full campaign Setting treatment, like unto the 1E or 2E set, with all the bells and whistles, explicitly set up to use Phandelin in the other boxes as the springboard for a full Continental Odyssey.

2. Something like the Expert Set, with details about Exploration rules and Domains...

 

[R_J_K75]

GOOD MAPS!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes, this is persuading me to try and sell more miniatures during a pandemic quarantine. Tons barely care about them even when they CAN physically get together to use them, so now is the perfect time to strike while the interest level is lowest!

Very funny, but you know what I mean: There is plenty of reason for a DM to use miniatures EVEN if he's playing online. One does not NEED to play with their own miniatures - they are a visual aid.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I would like to see a new starting point for the Realms in 5e. Move the next set of stories and campaigns away from Phandalin, and perhaps even the Savage Frontier. Find fresh material and happenings in the Dalelands and Daggerdale, the Western Heartlands outside of Baldur's Gate, or the kingdom of Cormyr.

Or maybe get crazy and do something epic, like a return to the Bloodstone lands where the Legacy of the Witch King threatens to bring war and death back to Vaasa and Damara. Battlesystem, anyone?

 

[atanakar]

Yes, this is persuading me to try and sell more miniatures during a pandemic quarantine. Tons barely care about them even when they CAN physically get together to use them, so now is the perfect time to strike while the interest level is lowest!

People collect miniatures. Interest in miniatures is always high. More so with wargamers. My friend who owns a store as not seen a decrease in sales. The players are assembling and painting more now that they are quarantined, since they cannot play.

 

[Mistwell]

People collect miniatures. Interest in miniatures is always high. More so with wargamers. My friend who owns a store as not seen a decrease in sales. The players are assembling and painting more now that they are quarantined, since they cannot play.

Yes I agree existing collectors of minis want more minis (because that is how addiction works ).

We're talking a WOTC starter box set.

I just don't think now is the right time for that.