Where we sit conflicted

I am holding the brand new Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set. I was immediately nostalgic as I held the shrink wrapped box. It is the same size and heft as the good ‘ole Red Box D&D. The inner geek in me did an awkward fist pump and tore open the wrapper. I went to slip the top off the box…only to find there wasn’t one. “Wha…oh dear” escaped my lips as I found the flap at the top of the box. Man, from nostaliga to “aw crap” in like 7 seconds. Not a new record, but impressive nonetheless.

So, what’s in this kinda crappy flip-top box?

• 50+ Full color character and monster tokens
• 3 sheets of double sided Dungeon Tiles
• 16-page 4th edition quick start rules (uh-oh)
• 64-page Dungeons Masters book
• 6 dice (!)

for $16.99.

Ok, price is GOOD. It’s not GREAT, but it is good. It feels like it’s trying to be a loss leader at a slightly too-high price to pull it off. I might have seen what I could have done for $2 less. Sounds meaningless in the greater scheme of things, but it’s even easier for a kid to talk his parent into it at $14.99. The tiles are fine, but kinda blah. I know “wow” factors might not be the best idea for terrain features in an intro game, but again, something I might have done to get people excited enough to try the box out. The tokens have some appeal, and I might go so far as to say I wouldn’t mind seeing these expanded and sold as a product by themselves. (Yes, yes, I know you can make tokens…but I don’t much find time to make anything nowadays. Build it, and they will come…) The dice are vanilla dice. Maybe in the meh category…but, hey they will get you there.

Now, here is where we get to the meat of the thing. The player QSRs and the Dungeon Masters Book. This is where we start to get more conflicted. At 16 pages, I have to say I am massively disappointed in the player QSR. It’s really no better than the QSR you find in “Keep on the Shadowfell.” In fact, I don’t have it in front of me, but it sure doesn’t seem that different at all. Having played the game now a few times and run it an equal amount of times, I am pretty certain this is enough to gve you an ever so slight taste of the game, but I am not sure if it’s enough to make you wanna keep playing. In some ways, when 4th edition flip-floped the “priorities” in the DMG and PHB from the way they handled 3.5, a lotta meat of the game went squarely into the players’ hands. This 16-page slice of ham just isn’t enough of a meal. I think I am conflicted because, while it is enough to get started, it could have been a lot more.

The DM’s book is a lot better. It has enough rules to get a DM running, a nice little adventure, and a slice of the Monster Manual all in a nice 64-page book. It also might be trying to do more than it really can in 64 pages, but it feels like it steps the new DM through the process better than the players’ QSR steps the new player through. Perhaps my reaction to both of these books is from just how good of a job the core hardcovers do in explaining what D&D is to the uninitiated. I have been into RPGs since the 3rd grade, and the 4th edition DMG and PHB do the best job I have ever seen of explaining how to roleplay I have ever read in a commercial product. I mean, heck, the chapter on the social aspects of gaming in the DMG alone is worth it’s weight in gold. I guess I am just a little disappointed at how far this box didn’t go in those terms. Maybe it is good enough, and maybe it isn’t. But, as I do every year, at least a handful will go in this years Salvation Army Toy bin with the hope that it is indeed enough for a new start.

Oh, one final mention about the box. It’s going to be impossible to use to store the stuff in it once that same stuff is punched. It may be an insta-toss. Foo.

1. Daniel M. Perez, October 23, 2008:

   Wow, and I was so looking forward to that starter set as a way to introduce my wife and some kids at the synagogue to D&D. I think mentally I’m there with you; I was also hoping for a new version of the red box. It doesn’t sound like it hits it. The PHB actually is easy-to-understand enough that I can just use that, handed out in chunks, and then take the rest of the burden on me, which is probably what I’ll end up doing.

   I might get it for the tokens and tiles. Might.

2. Cam Banks, October 23, 2008:

   I’m with you on the choice of packaging and on the QSR. I am fond of the idea of providing quick modular pregens in a starter set, giving the idea that you can make your own character even if it doesn’t give you all the options. My favorite boxed game set is Run Out The Guns, which has pairs of sheets that you combine together, add up the numbers, and write onto a third sheet, creating a new character. I believe this to be possible with 4E, I just don’t know who would do it.

   At the end of the day, I won’t be buying this product. I think, though, that I am not its audience.

3. rob, October 27, 2008:

   The box really, really saddened me.

4. Adam Jury, November 20, 2008:

   I grabbed the Starter Set a couple of weekends ago, and I totally feel the same way about the box itself. I was surprised at the lack of pre-planned encounters in the DM’s book, as well; there are a few, but I had hoped to see more, with rising complexity.

   Haven’t had chance to actually use the box yet. I bought H1: Keep on the Shadowfell at the same time, and was quite impressed by it. I only wish that H1 came with a sheet of appropriate tokens — that was the main reason I grabbed the Starter Set.