D&D (2024) What's In D&D's New Starter Set?

There's a new Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set, titled Heroes of the Borderlands, coming in September. WotC has given us a quick peek at what's inside! The set is designed to be replayable, and comes with maps and cards, which are presumably part of the tile-based character creation system WotC has hinted at recently. The video doesn't reveal much else, but we should have more information over the coming months.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There is something unsettling about the bright and cheery graphics, aiming at more family friendly vibes, and.. gnolls. Gnolls that need to be slaughtered because if the party goes down, they'll be torn apart and eaten. I'm not sure this is the way to modernize "Keep on the Borderlands."

Delicious in Dungeon and similar fantasy anime have similar stakes and tone and are wildly popular with the younger audience.

 

[AlViking]

I don't think it's fair to compare any starter set they create now to Phandalver. Phandalver was released before the rest of the books and was as much an introduction to 5e as it was a starter set. It was aimed at bringing in people who were already playing or had played DnD in the past. It wasn't targeted at just introducing the next generation of players to the game so it had a different style and tone. Not to mention it was produced by a small group that was doing what they thought could be some of the last books ever published for the game.

 

[TarionzCousin]

So, yes, Hasbro is going to sell to that audience, rather than to a much smaller audience that wants something different but who are likely hoarding books that they paid for decades ago and won't necessarily buy anything new anyway.

"... my preciousss... 2E sourcebooksssssss...."

 

[Arilyn]

Delicious in Dungeon and similar fantasy anime have similar stakes and tone and are wildly popular with the younger audience.

Yeah, it's all a bit unsettling. But I'm old. I know kids can be savage and I do love hearing Ben Milton's stories about running games for kids. They have no mercy.

D&D violence is the not bloody kind. But this just feels like it might not have much room for the encounters to be anything but combat. My OSR games have less violence because, well, violence easily leads to death.

Hope I'm wrong. I think the cards are a great idea. This set looks like it'll have cool goodies and not just be a module in a box, like Phandelver.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't think it's fair to compare any starter set they create now to Phandalver. Phandalver was released before the rest of the books and was as much an introduction to 5e as it was a starter set. It was aimed at bringing in people who were already playing or had played DnD in the past. It wasn't targeted at just introducing the next generation of players to the game so it had a different style and tone. Not to mention it was produced by a small group that was doing what they thought could be some of the last books ever published for the game.

I introduced new players to D&D through Phandelver, to great success. I don't see why it shouldn't count.

 

[michaeljpastor]

Cards on the character sheet? The doors Daggerheart opened.

Return to the Dark Tower had a playmat with cards as well, so not unique to Daggerheart

 

[Jacob Lewis]

If you want to play a fantasy RPG with a dark and gritty tone, I'm not sure 5E is the right choice to begin with, with its PCs that are hard to kill and harder to keep dead, powerful magic, etc.

5E is bright and heroic by default. You can start ripping parts out in an attempt to make it play differently, but you could also just play any of the other fantasy RPGs out there (of which there have never been more and never more support for non-D&D games in general) that are built around that.

If you want dark and gritty, Mork Borg, Blades in the Dark, Shadowdark and a host of other games are are right there and excellent at doing that sort of game, right out of the box.

Sure, and that was a general shift that players discovered for themselves by actually playing and deciding if this edition was right for them. But D&D has always had dials that could be adjusted because it supported not one style or tone of play, but all of them, so everyone could play how they wanted. This shift, which has been getting more and more obvious with every year since they released 5e, is pushing towards a favored or preferred style a play without expressly telling anyone they can't do it another way. It's just getting harder to do so now then it used to with little things, like happy-go-lucky pictures of characters living a carefree life in a world full of monsters, who are now no more threatening than a saturday morning cartoon henchman.

But when you tell D&D fans who've played for decades that the game is no longer suitable for them anymore, what's the message you're really sending, other than just a polite dismissal to go play somewhere else? Or to suggest something almost every veteran player knows what to do to make the game play differently to cater to their own needs? No one forgot how to do that. They don't suggest they forgot how to do that. It's simply getting harder each time to do that. Has nobody considered why that is? Well, not the ones who don't see a need to do it themselves, so they're not going to give much thought anyway. But thank you for your advice that nobody was asking for.

 

[Von Ether]

"... my preciousss... 2E sourcebooksssssss...."

We laugh, I've seen it.

One GM of mine had the table vote for Forgotten REalms back in the later days 3.5e. One player brought egg crates full of 2e books and a big smile on his face.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This shift, which has been getting more and more obvious with every year since they released 5e, is pushing towards a favored or preferred style a play without expressly telling anyone they can't do it another way.

All true. And the marketing sometimes confuses the issue by acting like the game does a better job of supporting alternate tones than it really does. But as you say, the reality isn't particularly hard to see.

But when you tell D&D fans who've played for decades that the game is no longer suitable for them anymore, what's the message you're really sending, other than just a polite dismissal to go play somewhere else?

That Dungeons & Dragons is a product owned by a corporation that has as its primary goal maximizing profits.

I have a horrible track record of falling in love with cereal flavors that are then taken off the shelves (RIP, Nut N Honey Crunch) because that's not what the overall market was buying. I don't think Kellogg's has it in for me, it's just business. Same here.

Has nobody considered why that is?

Shareholder value. Hasbro is pretty clear about this and it'll remain their guiding principle.

But thank you for your advice that nobody was asking for.

I mean, this is a discussion board, so discussion will happen.

And it's well-meant advice: I do think you'd probably love a bunch of those other games I mentioned. I am a huge fan of Shadowdark and Pirate Borg (a derivative of Pirate Borg in a grim supernatural Caribbean).

In any case, I hope you find a game that works for you.

 

[Scribe]

There is something unsettling about the bright and cheery graphics, aiming at more family friendly vibes, and.. gnolls. Gnolls that need to be slaughtered because if the party goes down, they'll be torn apart and eaten. I'm not sure this is the way to modernize "Keep on the Borderlands."

I highly doubt anything of the like will be brought up or emphasized.