I've had a chance to take a good look at the starter set and it's left me with mixed emotions. On the plus side, I really liked the counters which have some really nice art and are sturdy- just like the included dungeon tiles. I also found the DM's book to be pretty well done. It has a nice selection of low level monsters and just enough info to run a game - if you've played D&D before.
That brings me to the down side. The Starter Set is just woefully inadequate when it comes to actually being a starter set. I can't see how anyone who is new to rpg's would be able to take this boxed set and get near to playing what would be recognizable as D&D. It's not just that there's no character generation rules- other, better starter sets have done this before. This set is missing much more. What more do I expect? Examples, lots of examples and there are very few here. No combat examples. No example of play. The only real example is for a Skill Challenge which is probably the last thing a newbie needs to concern themselves about. Beginners need a lot more hand holding than this. And what makes this worse is the included "adventure" is only three encounters long. Three. So, you basically have about 2 hours of play time out of this before the fledgling DM has to start making up his own dungeons? The old 2e starter set had enough adventures to last at least a month of play time.
Another thing that I didn't like was the Quick Start book itself. It's basically the same that came with the Keep on the Shadowfell module. I didn't like it for two reasons. The rules are just a subset of what is in the DM's book so it's just a repeat of what you already have. That's six pages that could have been used for something else without having to raise the price any. Something else like a combat example or, I don't know, how a list of some stuff I could buy with all that loot I find in the dungeon!?! Yes, that's right. Treasure has no purpose in the starter set and is almost completely ignored. The other thing I disliked about the Quick Start book was that the pregen characters have to be cut out or photocopied to be able to actually play. This is just enough of an inconvenience to keep me from getting to play it. This is yet another mistake that the 2e version did not make.
I certainly hope that WotC puts more thought into their new boxed set coming out later this year. This set combined with a Player's Handbook would be enough to start playing. It's really more of a DM's Starter Kit than anything. By itself though, it's really incomplete as an introductory D&D game.
3/1 update: you can view some treasure rules that were left out here- Excerpts: Economy & Reward and you can get some more kobolds to use here- Kobolds!.
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It seems Starter / Introduction sets are the hardest thing to develop in roleplaying business. Why is this?
The Menzer Box for D&D was perfect in this regard – it got me and a lot of friends into the hobby back in the 80s without anyone of us having heard about roleplaying games before. This should be possible again, shouldn’t it?!
I think that the main problem is that they’re seen as a necessary evil. They make them but they don’t really want to, so no real thought or effort gets put into them. They need to do some work with groups of 10-12 year olds to develop a starter set that they could actually play without adult help.
The new Dragon Age boxed set is actually a very good starter set in this regard. It’s simple to play and a fairly complete game although kind of limited in scope. It’s much nicer than the D&D set although it should be as it costs twice as much.
I came to the same conclusion about the set. The actual content was no where near enough to actually play the included game let alone do anything on your own. Such a shame considering only a little more thought would be needed to actually make it work.
But the additional bits are really great. The dice are nice and old school style, and are actually my favourites becuase they are so plain and simple. The map tiles are good. But the counters are excellent, I use them all the time and they have made actually playing so much better.
I was tracking with you until you said “This is yet another mistake that the 2e version did not make.” Then I realized you just want to compare versions. 4e isn’t 3.5, 3.0 or 2e. No one version of this game is or was perfect, and no one version went published with out complaints. 4E has been out for 2 years now, can we get over it now?
sombody feeling raw assed
I appreciate the review. Not one for starter sets, but it’s nice to know what you’re getting out of them.
@thadeous – I took his comparison to be an actualy comparison of the material provided in the boxed set and not just more 4th ed sux flamming. I think you need to step back and calm down a little.
I believe there are two big mistakes that are made with “starter sets”.
1. The idea that new players need some kind of board-game-ish transition thing instead of a straight-up role-playing game. You don’t start selling people on RPGs by giving them some mash-up product. You sell them on RPGs directly. (And you have to recognize that RPGs aren’t for everybody.)
2. The idea that the “starter set” needs to as quickly as possible convert into a sale of the “full game”. It’s job is to sell the hobby rather than just a PHB.
I don’t think it is really that hard. TSR started making these mistakes under Williams, who didn’t understand the business she was in. I don’t know why Wizards has made these mistakes, but I suspect it has to do with being fairly short-sighted. (See also the lay-offs that follow each new edition they publish.)
@thadeous – I mentioned the 2e starter set only because it’s best one they ever did that didn’t include character generation. It’s not intended to be a edition war thing. The 2e starter was great for a few reasons:
They gave away the quick start rules for free. A printed booklet, not a download.
The box set included a town and several adventures. Enough to play for quite a while.
There was support for it in the form of a couple of inexpensive adventure modules that were actually quite good.
WotC would be well served to take a look at past products to see what could be done better.