D&D General Who is this made for (Not Beginners) - the New D&D Starter Set
- Thread starter GreyLord
- Start date
Imaro
Legend
Character creation (modified for the boards/cards/pregens) is located in the "Read Me First" booklet. Honestly if the OP hadnt claimed to have 4 diifferent copies I'd believe they got a very faulty copy of the boxed set.
The whole original post seems odd. I mean why the heck is each player receiving their own entire Starter Set to begin with? That's like wanting to play Settlers of Catan and buying a separate copy of the game for every player rather than just playing the game for the four players that are included in the single box. It makes no sense.
GreyLord
Legend
I have both the Read Me First and the Play Guide.
In the Read Me First all it says is
It goes over the card items in the component Overview (Pg. 3), but it never really goes into...Okay...this is what you are going to do with these items.
None of my players put 1 and 1 together, and it doesn't really go through...hey...this is how this works.
There is no guidance on step by step like there is in the PHB (heck, it's bad when the PHB is better at guiding someone through creating their character than the Starter Box).
I'm betting all those who are saying it's so easy are experienced players like me. These are new players that I thought would have an easier time with this set (I should have looked at the set first myself). There is nothing there that actually WALKS them through the process. The Read Me first is the only thing...and I just printed out the entirety of the Background and Species information that is found there. Sure, the How to Play book has more, but it's just a Component overview which points out the areas of the card.
That said, since everyone is saying it's so easy...give me the page and quote where it states that your Spell Save DC is found in the Bottom Center of your Class Board.
We LOOKED hard for this one during the game. The section on Saving throws is 3 paragraphs. The first is an intro and doesn't tell you what the numbers are. When you get to those two paragraphs all it says is...
If you never watch the videos, you don't get this information. However, if you have a specific page and quote where it shows the exact place where the Save DC is located...you can tell me. Sure, it's on the picture of the Class board, but it doesn't specify that this is where the DC is found, and it is not something that just jumps out at you (probably because, though this may all seem easy peasy to you experienced players, this is a LOT to digest for a new player. Things like this are not obvious to them).
AS I said, this is the worst starter set I've ever come across. I think they had experienced people playtest this without just handing it to people who had never played the game in their life and seeing if they could figure it out and how long it took them (without watching the video...which...is not in the box).
For experienced players, I'd say the adventure is actually nice. If you want all the components, they are nice to have also.
But this box is the very last thing I would suggest for someone wanting to learn to play. I'd even suggest they just hop in with the PHB rather than use this box.
And I'm a pretty hardcore boardgamer (so you'd think something like this box would be right up my alley).
If you find the instructions on the SAVE DC, or detailed instructions on character creation...shoot me the page and actually quote the section where it states (and I'm not talking some component overview which shows what each section of the card does...I'm talking a better step by step than what the "Read this First" goes through and does.
This is even before we get into someone being the DM. There is almost nothing that eases the DM into that role...and with a Sandbox, you at least need one or two trial scenarios or something. They have descriptive boxes on the first two pages of each booklet for the "DM" that tells you what items do, but nothing to really "guide" the DM through their first experience of DMing.
For comparison...the best Basic/Starter Boxes that I've seen in this capacity are the PF1 Beginner Box and the Red Box (BECMI). These guide new players on how to Roleplay, what to do, character creation made easy, etc.
I got these boxes because I thought it would be a great intro for new players and with everything looking to be more free form than previous Starter Boxes, it would be a great way to ease people into it and have a lot of replay.
I was wrong. This isn't a good box for that.
In the Read Me First all it says is
It goes over the card items in the component Overview (Pg. 3), but it never really goes into...Okay...this is what you are going to do with these items.
None of my players put 1 and 1 together, and it doesn't really go through...hey...this is how this works.
There is no guidance on step by step like there is in the PHB (heck, it's bad when the PHB is better at guiding someone through creating their character than the Starter Box).
I'm betting all those who are saying it's so easy are experienced players like me. These are new players that I thought would have an easier time with this set (I should have looked at the set first myself). There is nothing there that actually WALKS them through the process. The Read Me first is the only thing...and I just printed out the entirety of the Background and Species information that is found there. Sure, the How to Play book has more, but it's just a Component overview which points out the areas of the card.
That said, since everyone is saying it's so easy...give me the page and quote where it states that your Spell Save DC is found in the Bottom Center of your Class Board.
We LOOKED hard for this one during the game. The section on Saving throws is 3 paragraphs. The first is an intro and doesn't tell you what the numbers are. When you get to those two paragraphs all it says is...
Guess what, we LOOKED all over that Spell Card and didn't find any DC (because the DC wasn't there! Obviously. This also isn't told in the glossary either.
If you never watch the videos, you don't get this information. However, if you have a specific page and quote where it shows the exact place where the Save DC is located...you can tell me. Sure, it's on the picture of the Class board, but it doesn't specify that this is where the DC is found, and it is not something that just jumps out at you (probably because, though this may all seem easy peasy to you experienced players, this is a LOT to digest for a new player. Things like this are not obvious to them).
AS I said, this is the worst starter set I've ever come across. I think they had experienced people playtest this without just handing it to people who had never played the game in their life and seeing if they could figure it out and how long it took them (without watching the video...which...is not in the box).
For experienced players, I'd say the adventure is actually nice. If you want all the components, they are nice to have also.
But this box is the very last thing I would suggest for someone wanting to learn to play. I'd even suggest they just hop in with the PHB rather than use this box.
And I'm a pretty hardcore boardgamer (so you'd think something like this box would be right up my alley).
If you find the instructions on the SAVE DC, or detailed instructions on character creation...shoot me the page and actually quote the section where it states (and I'm not talking some component overview which shows what each section of the card does...I'm talking a better step by step than what the "Read this First" goes through and does.
This is even before we get into someone being the DM. There is almost nothing that eases the DM into that role...and with a Sandbox, you at least need one or two trial scenarios or something. They have descriptive boxes on the first two pages of each booklet for the "DM" that tells you what items do, but nothing to really "guide" the DM through their first experience of DMing.
For comparison...the best Basic/Starter Boxes that I've seen in this capacity are the PF1 Beginner Box and the Red Box (BECMI). These guide new players on how to Roleplay, what to do, character creation made easy, etc.
I got these boxes because I thought it would be a great intro for new players and with everything looking to be more free form than previous Starter Boxes, it would be a great way to ease people into it and have a lot of replay.
I was wrong. This isn't a good box for that.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Nope, they did pretty extensive tests just giving the box to completely inexperienced players and watching their reactions.
@FitzTheRuke you had run a bunch of new players with this box, how fif they find the experience?
MonsterEnvy
Legend
It does, none of the complaints here make any sense given my copy of the box
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Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
I do believe this group had problems: but this experience doesn't seem to be a generalizable, structural phenomenon.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
Silly thing didn't post properly.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
I literally have the book in front of me right now.
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