Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots more art. It’s pretty good, and the painted ones in particular were nice to look at. Some of it is more cartoony and not my thing. There’s a problem here though. Look below in the cons.

• Lots of full colour maps. I like that.

Could Go Either Way

• Not much in the way of new creatures.

• Not much in the way of new character options. No power creep, and nothing new.

• A return to Phandelver. If you don’t care about it from the original starter set at the start of this edition, then it’s not a benefit or an issue.

• First half is a lot more typical D&D. 2^nd half is a lot more weird, almost horror like. Some people only want one or the other. But for people who like both, it’s a delicious combination.

• Adventure goes up to 12^th level. It’s a nice level range that allows for interesting challenges. But it also doesn’t go all the way to level 20. And high level play is an area many people feel is most challenging, and could benefit from some more aid to players.

Cons

• It’s a return. It should be possible to link the previous adventure here into a bit of a campaign. But it’s not an option as written.

• If you try to put these two adventures together into one, you’ll see right away that many maps are reused. That means if you did try to run one after another, your players would play through the same encounter locations twice. Without a break, it’s not so good. It’s more tolerable with a break, like if you haven’t played Mines of Phandelver since release. But really, it redoes that previous adventure and then continues forward.

• The reuse extends as far as the art and images. I don’t like paying again for something I already have.

* Denotes nitpicking.

The cover for Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk.

Introduction

It should come as no surprise that I like long campaigns, and also low level adventures. So I’m happy to see and read large adventures spanning large level ranges. One of the best received and classic adventures in this edition of D&D is Lost Mines of Phandelver. In this new adventure, players are back to the famous town. Is the return worth the time? Let’s jump right back in.

The Adventure

New Player Options

There is not much here. Moving on.

New Monsters

Not much here either. What’s nice is that some of the monsters here are less common, and they tried to give several a personality and motivations. I’d always take well designed encounters with

What You Need to Play

Everything is normal here. You’ll need the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master’s Guide. For monsters and everything else you’ll need to consult those books.

The Adventure Itself

The adventure takes players from level 1-12. The scale of things is also pretty wide. The players will visit many places, all centred around the town of Phandelver. Also integral to a previous adventure, players will get to know the area, town, and inhabitants well over the course of the adventure.

The adventure can really be split into 2 parts. Part 1 is a more typical D&D adventure. Goblins, rescuing villagers, adventuring, it’s pretty classic and also borrows many elements from the adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver. Those who like the more classic D&D experience will like this section. It borrows not only the location, but also maps and encounter locations completely. The encounters are different, as well a show it ties into the overarching story in this adventure. However, it means you’re getting a different version of an existing adventure. And instead of being an adventure from 3 editions ago, it’s from the start of this one. So it’s quite recent. You’ll probably have to choose Lost Mines of Phandelver or this one to run, as one character can’t really do both easily. And if they did, there would be too much repetition. I wish it kind of worked as a sequel that could be run right after as well, though over-levelled for a little bit until the events catch up.

The 2^nd part is the news stuff. It’s also where things get weird. The adversary the players fight against is a big threat to the town they grew to know. It’s also an alien threat. Reality can become complicated as it gets more and more warped. This part goes into a wildly different direction with elements of horror too. I liked this part, and I liked the characterization they have. No-one is very deep here, but what’s here is efficient and effective.

I personally liked that weirdness. It helped make the adventure not overstay its welcome by changing things up. However, it’s something your players need to be on board with. I can see some groups finding the start too derivative and boring, while others finding the 2^nd half to sudden and out there. But for those who like both, it really it’s really a delicious combination that you couldn’t get otherwise. The general progression of the story and where it leads is fun and interesting. So I had a lot of fun running it.

The ramp up from the earlier section is particularly handled well. The choices of locations help give a good impression, and there’s some dungeon delving for the parties who like that sort of thing. Still, effort is spent on giving character to the, erm, characters. It’s not to the depth of Strahd or something. Typically what you see is what you get. However, you do need some characterization to start the role-playing so it can evolve into something more.

The combat encounters are fine, but also not super special. It’s at its best when a puzzle element is at play, or some character building is being done. Often monster choice helps to tell a story through the environment. The tactical considerations though are not as exciting. The presence of cover, accomplishing other objectives, or quirks for certain encounters really isn’t here. I do wish at least one adventure in this edition really tried to go for some tactical encounters and be the best combat adventure of this edition. What these encounters do, especially in the 2^nd half, is bring the character of the location into the encounter.

An example of some of the better art from the book. When it's not reused, it can be really beautiful.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art is mostly what we’ve come to exist. Some of it is very good and done in this painted style that I like a lot. The scenes depicted are also interesting. Weird creatures, warped reality, and other such odd sights that is nice to see brought to life. There is also my less well liked cartoon-y style present, but that was a feature of this edition for a while already.

The big issue here is much of the art, even for maps, is from the older adventure. They call it a re-imagining, but it also means you get less new art in the book than others. For art lovers, it’s an important thing to consider. That said, the 2^nd half of the adventure is brand new and also completely new art. This includes new locations and maps. It would be nice for the maps to be slightly different, and completely new visuals being made for this book like some of the previous ones.

I had no issues with the book itself. Binding was good. There were no stuck pages, improper cuts, or any other issues I experienced earlier in this edition. Of course, I could’ve just been lucky this time. But it’s a good sign when my copy isn’t mangled. Instead it was as perfect as I could expect.

The sort of thing to expect from the 2nd half of the adventure. Weird, isn't it?

Price

It’s the new usual price. Nothing different here, though I do wish they tried to make each book cheaper. It’s hard to keep up.

PDF Version Critique

For a long time I’ve asked for a combined PDF and book version. We now have one, but they’re more expensive. Always worth noting. Really, it comes from D&D Beyond. If you don’t like D&D Beyond, you’re unfortunately stuck. Also, to access it you need to log in. That makes it not quite as convenient as a PDF you could just always access on your machine. The closest they come is to have an app so you can read the modules you purchased from your phone. It’s convenient, but still requires logging in so not really an option if you’re going up to your cabin with no internet.

What I felt was Missing

The adventure really would be interesting to people who played the previous adventure in this location, but there’s no way to tie them together. Not even a mention really. And in fact, many aspects of the first part of the adventure is recycles from the older adventure. So it would mean players play through the same maps twice. I really wish more of an effort was made here to make that first part more of a supplement to the original adventure, instead of a replacement.

Free Stuff

Nothing here. I really do miss those free introduction adventures for people.

Summary

So here we are. It’s an adventure that goes from a tradition fantasy into something more weird. That transition and the level range all make for an interesting adventure. The problem is that it’s also a re-imagining of a previous adventure for the first half, complete with reused images and maps. All of that makes the adventure less impressive if you’ve run Lost Mines of Phandelver before, and harder to recommend compared to other adventures. This is even more so the case if you’ve gone through Lost Mines of Phandelver recently. I did enjoy the 2^nd half where things got weird, but it’s also hard to recommend someone buy an expensive book for half of it. If it’s your first time visiting Phandelver, it’s a more appealing option. However, this adventure lacks the “ease of use” compared to its predecessor.

Keys From the Golden Vault Review

 Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots more full colour art. It continues to be a highlight of the edition.

• Different adventures have different flavour, and different settings. This contributes to a different feel.

• Effort is made to give each heist its own feel, and different characters are involved in each adventure. The setups are different, and cover a wide variety. From stealing money from a casino, an item from a museum, to artifacts of evil. There’s a reverse heist, where an item needs to be returned.

Could Go Either Way

• Not much in the way of new creatures.

• The adventure is very episodic. Each adventure covers a level, and is completely on its own. This gives it a feel more like an episodic TV show rather than a giant long running narrative. It also makes it easy to repurposed particular levels for your own games. From maps, to largely using the heist as presented when your players want to break in somewhere.

Cons

• A page or two for a unified narrative to tie together the adventures would’ve been nice. I tend to prefer adventures when they have a bigger narrative, but which I can ignore. That way I can use individual adventures as is in one of my existing campaigns, run a whole campaign using the book, or chop up the adventure for parts (usually maps and cool puzzles).

• Despite efforts of different settings, the adventure structure can get too similar. They involve a single location, sometimes with a twist at the end. I’d have liked to see some connective material leading to new locations, and some more twists. Maybe we need to hunt down a stolen artifact first, and then we have a smaller heist.

• There is some 3D art here which is below the standards I’ve come to expect of this edition.

* Denotes nitpicking.

The standard cover for the book. Not bad, but not my favourite.

Introduction

One of the classic D&D archetypes is the thief. A stealthy character who pickpockets, steals, or sneakily back stabs enemies. And now we have a movie playing with that archetype too. But in D&D, this often means a heist. I think it was my third session of D&D where I had my heist. And it’s an incredibly fun scenario to play. However, a good heist is not easy to make. Here we have a book that attempts to give us Dungeon Masters some heists to play through. How does it stack up? Let’s jump right in.

The Adventure

New Player Options

There is not much here. Moving on.

New Monsters

There are a few monsters provided for this adventure, as we've come to expect. They are well fitted to the adventure and there aren't too many. This adventure, even at the level of monsters, tries its best to be creepy just like the module that inspired it. Quite a few of them are specific NPCs and a lot of material is given for playing them.

What You Need to Play

Pretty typical here. You’ll need the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master’s Guide. Everything not added in the adventure, which is a lot, is found in those books. I miss the days when all you needed were the basic rules and adventure. But that time has long passed.

The Adventure Itself

The adventures cover a wide range of levels, many scenarios, and items to steal. There is quite a lot of variety here. From infiltrating a tournament, stealing from a museum, to disrupting a magical ritual. The variety in the premise and setups of these heists is one of the strengths of these adventures. There are 13 adventures here, covering a level range from 1 to 11. Each level gets an adventure, while two special levels get 2 adventures. That also means there’s a variety of possible combatants and targets. It’s not all simple human targets.

There’s some options included to help make the adventures into a campaign with advice for players to make a base and make it into a proper operation. There’s also some advice on how to add complications to a heist by moving the target item. And a favourite of mine, there’s some great options for alternate crews that try to interferes and steal the item before the party does. Often, they have more evil plans for the item. This section was great. I wish it was longer. A nice 10-20 page section on different options would’ve helped take the book from a collection of adventures, to a masterclass in heist adventures. I hope future adventures look more at aiding Dungeon Masters, reuse, and look to address multiple different uses.

I wish there were more cool secondary items to steal too. Often the main target of the theft is the most interesting, but of course the party will be forced to part with it. I’d like some additional curiosities for the party to be able to pocket for themselves. They don’t all need to be powerful items either, as unique and situational items are also fun to receive. Something as simple as a cloak that can change colours can help make a character unique. Though some powerful items would be nice, especially given that we should be able to play these adventures as a campaign. One misstep here though is that it seems like a good party is assumed. Some groups like to play more morally dubious players, especially in a theft based campaign.

One of the big issues here is that there is no connective parts of a campaign. So running a full satisfying campaign is hard. Just doing one heist after another when they share a similar structure and there’s no overarching narrative is not the best player experience. As a result, these adventures are best in moderation for the heist component of a campaign or as one-shots. Or you as the Dungeon Master need to come up with good connective tissue to make an overarching fun narrative. It’s not an easy problem to solve, and I really wish there was something here.

The structure of missions is also fairly similar from adventure to adventure. There is a location described. A heist must be performed to get some important item (or in one case put it back in a reverse heist). There are often some tricks in the mission itself like decoys, a possible double cross at the end, and it’s finished. You don’t need to go to multiple locations. You don’t get role-play sessions of returning the object. You don’t get an extended chase, or find out the person you gave the item to is a doppelganger. They do try to give each adventure its own feeling and difference within that structure. But some wildly different structures would be nice too. Maybe even have a part 1 and 2 heist spread across 2 levels and locations?

One of the better examples of art within the book. I quite like this style.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The drawn art continues to be in the typical D&D style we’ve come to expect. The same slightly cartoony style is there. I wish there more realistic images playing with light, but it’s not bad. The maps are also well drawn with many nice details. Some look hand written. Some have tears in them and represent in-game maps. These look generally good, and what we’ve come to expect.

Wait, but I said drawn. Is there some art that isn’t drawn? Yes, unfortunately. Two adventures have pictures at the start which don’t look good compared to the art surrounding it. It’s done in this 3D style with what looks like posed 3D models. To be clear, I’m not against 3D art in general. I’ve seen some truly beautiful screenshots from video games. Movies and TV series are increasingly using 3D game engines like Unreal. And you can do some truly incredible art with truly beautiful lighting. However, the art here falls well below that. I’d prefer we get more art like I admired back at the start of this edition with beautiful hand drawn lighting, But if you need to do 3D, it should look better. Luckily it’s only 2 images in this book.

The book itself is the same cover and binding as the previous books. The cover follows the same art style. My copy had no physical issues either. All in all, the physical condition and quality of the book remains high.

One of the maps from the adventure. I like the art and character, and the way it looks like a real drawn map from the inside.

Price

So, the price has gone up. I’ve been at this for a long time now. So I expected it to eventually come. But still, given the books would already benefit from a price drop, it’s particularly painful. Sales continue to be plentiful though, so it’s tough to get an exact price.

PDF Version Critique

For a long time I’ve asked for a combined PDF and book version. Now you can pay a bit more to get both. It’s good that this option exists, though the online version is D&D Beyond. Also given the costs involved, it would’ve been nice if they always came together at a lower price.

What I felt was Missing

There really needs to be some connective material to be able to run this book as a single adventure. The Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos book did a pretty good job of this. Each year could be run on their own, or combined to have a single cause of all the events. Here, they are very disconnected. Having 2-3 adventures to bring everything together, some kind of double cross, that sort of thing would go a long way. Games like Hitman have done this for years, while also being somewhat a close comparison. As it is, the adventures feel disconnected.

Free Stuff

Nothing here. I really wish we got some connective material here, and opening adventure, something. This part has gotten worse since the Curse of Strahd time. Or how about a teaser adventure at level 1 to get people excited?

Summary

It’s a good collection of adventures. They cover a variety of heists, with a variety of situations. The main weakness is that each one follows a pattern of arriving at one location, and trying to steal something. Running this as a full campaign can be tough, unless your party really likes heists. There’s no glue to hold a campaign together, except as an episodic TV show with a heist of the week. But combined with the structural similarities, I think they’re best run as one-offs or as the basis of a heist for your campaign, before returning to business as usual.

Shadow of the Dragon Queen Review

 Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• The art continues to be plentiful and good. In particular, the scenery and art involving Lord Soth has been a highlight.

• The intro adventures are interesting. They are different for different characters and backgrounds. So the wizard character gets a different intro than a fighter. You’d run them in small groups, or one after another with everyone present. It’s an interesting idea, and I hope to see more. Though be careful. Since not all characters play, it needs to be kept at a brisk pace.

• There’s some effort to give players characters they’ll remember. They typically don’t overstay their welcome and fit into an archetype. I think many players will like them, and appreciate how they are involved in the story.

• It’s Dragonlance! Well, assuming you like it.

• Combat encounters often have complications occurring on a particular initiative count. They can be beneficial or detrimental.

• Maps are provided for the combat areas. As well, 2 options are provided. A mass battle situation using the board game, or good old grid based D&D combat. There is also the idea of the “fray”, which keeps players on the map lest they get bumped by the crowd engaged in combat. I’m glad to see them experimenting with new elements/experiences and hope to see more, though the board game costs extra.

• There are some new monsters, dragon themed, and they fill in some nice earlier BR ranges.

Could Go Either Way

• The structure of the adventure is more guided than others. It still has freedom to go towards the objective, but it’s not a go anywhere type of adventure.

• There is some amount of puzzle boss going on. If you like doing everything using combat rules, you won’t like that. When done in moderation though, I personally like it. Also good for story telling.

• The adventure only goes up to level 10, which is lower than some previous outings. Though it also doesn’t skip past the early levels either.

Cons

• There are mass battle rules in the DMG. Here we have both classic D&D encounter options, and mass battles involving the board game. However, there is no option provided for using the mass battle rules in the DMG. What’s the point of those rules if even the official adventures don’t provide examples of it?

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

Cover for the adventure!

Introduction

Dragonlance is a classic D&D setting. There are many people I’ve met who have never played D&D, but they know Dragonlance. The books were incredibly popular, and helped bring many into the fantasy genre. The setting and adventures are famous classics. The cartoon is... alright, we don’t mention that one. The point is that it’s an old setting, and I’m happy to see it back. Slowly we’re getting all of the old setting back in this edition of D&D. Hopefully Planescape comes soon. So what do I think of this one? Let’s jump in.

The Adventure

New Player Options

Again, not much here. There are a few though, and some nice flavour. A big part of it is how the existing D&D races fit into the world. Halflings are kender, and there’s effort made to tie different races and communities into the world. Those are good things of course. Giving players ways to think how their characters tie into the world is very important for character creation.

New Monsters

There isn’t a large amount by count alone, but they made their appearance very strongly felt. Draconians are an important part of Dragonlance, and here they are. There’s also new types of dragons, and followers of Tiamat. One thing this adventure does particularly well in this regard, is that it uses these new creatures commonly. As a result of this, the adventure feels like there’s more new creatures than there is. That’s a good thing from an adventure perspective, but less good for reuse. All of this together gives the adventure more of a unique feel in presentation.

What You Need to Play

As usual, the Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide required and referenced at the start of this book. For the option mass combat stuff, the board game Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is also required. If you don’t have those books, this is probably one of the easier ones to run just using the included monsters and the SRD. There’s just such heavy use of the creatures including with the book.

The army on the march. I particularly like the water and armour appearance.

The Adventure Itself

The adventure is organized into chapters where major events occur before going onto the next one. It starts with a funeral and a small town, introduces characters to their main adversary and source of chaos the forces of Tiamat, sees them leave as refugees to a new kingdom and fight back. Typically Dragonlance isn’t known for being the most open of campaigns. I’d say that also carries over here, but it is also more open than I remember the original AD&D Dragonlance campaign I played originally. At parts a few different objectives need to be accomplished to proceed. The order and specifics of how to handle them is left to the players, but they must be accomplished. There’s some surprise twists, that caught my players and was a blast to see. It makes sense and is for the course for published adventures. But still, keep it in mind.

One thing this adventure does differently than others is that depending on their background, there are mini-quests just for their players at the start of the adventure. This is interesting and new as a concept. It is also a good way to get the ball rolling right after making characters. However, not every player is engaged in playing at the same time. For this reason I’d suggest breaking the party into groups so characters can be made, and their special short session can be run so no-one is left out. Alternatively if your players enjoy watching D&D too, you can run through everyone in one go. But for this I think a brisk pace is necessary so that the next group gets their chance to play.

Typically the adventure is included in the book. Sometimes there’s a supplement provided with some maps, that sort of thing. Here however, there's an entire board game that can be used. The reviews seem pretty decent for it too. What is it used for here? There are times in the adventure where mass battles can occur. One way to resolve these is by using the board game to play through the battles. It’s quite an interesting idea, and I hope more attempts are made to play around with the concept and gameplay of adventures. The downside though? We already have mass combat rules provided in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. And here, the perfect time to have used these rules, they are unused. It’s like the creators themselves forgot it existed. You can even provided a free PDF for it. So that it’s completely left out here is astounding. Are the mass battle rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide are so bad even the authors of Dungeons & Dragons don’t want to use it? They should say something if so, and at least have some errata replacing it with something better. 

 

The iconic Lord Soth makes an appearance, as well as various forms of dragons and draconians. This isn’t a campaign where the end features a fight against the goddess Tiamat (you want Tyranny of Dragons for that), but is about disrupting and pushing back her evil dragon aligned armies, and stopping their current plot. Soth the scariest of them I’d say, and the adventure does spend some time and encounters building him up. The majority though, is working with a kingdom/army against the enemy army, and facing officers. I enjoyed it, but the conflict and villain(s) go a long way to defining what a campaign feels like. Some scenarios don’t work for certain people, or they want something different. So be aware.

The army of the Dragon Queen. The dragon in particular looks great.

The combat encounters try to do interesting things. In some ways, I’d prefer if both regular combat and mass battles could be run one after another, or a good balanced proposed in the book. In encounters where larger battles are occurring, there is a “fringe” on the outside of the map. Getting close to it causes issues, thus forcing players into a particular area. This is good and bad. Bad because it restricts the combat to an area, but good for multiple reasons. It doesn’t force you to make up map space, and it has a mechanical effect to those that get close to it. It’s also an in world barrier as opposed to an invisible wall. We can’t go there because tons of people are fighting there. We can’t squeeze through, and trying gets us bumped or worse. To keep things more interesting, many encounters here have complications occur on a certain initiative count. This could be a wounded enemy joining the encounter. However, it can also be beneficial. It’s something that I don’t think should be overused, but something to consider in your own encounters to help keep things more varied, chaotic, interesting, and replayable. This adventure particularly tries to be more creative with combat encounters. There is also a very important encounter towards the end that’s not so direct, but makes sense in context and is a story telling opportunity.

There’s quite a few characters here. They occupy many different roles, from villains, to allies and ties to the world. They are competently done, and the cast does add to the adventure and give a motivation to the events. It’s not just going into dungeons for the gruff looking quest giver. They aren’t super memorable or do something I’ve never seen before, but they’re effective for the story being told. I do recommend adding some more interactions with one particular character, who also grows through the adventure and is introduced to the characters early. The adventure already does it, but more characterization would really help. One thing that gets a little messy is that since we’re fighting an army, there’s quite a few different bad guys. Bad guys have bad guy bosses, and it means you really don’t directly deal with the main bad guy until the end. And even they aren’t the tip top of the hierarchy. It’s to be expected, but some people do like to see the main bad guy play a more direct role from the start. It’s also not the easiest to make them all land, but they do help build up the dragon army. And Soth in particular gets attention, and lands I think.

The alt cover. It continues the tradition of me loving the alt covers often more than the standard.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art continues to be plentiful and well made. It should come as no surprise that I like realistic art by now, and quite a bit of the art here is less so. But despite that it continues to be well made and evocative. I've included some of my favourite pieces above in the best quality I could. When it's good, it's very good. The adventure covers a wide variety of characters, and locations. Dragons always look great in art too. All of it together makes for a great read. The covers, both the standard one featuring flying dragons, and the alternate one featuring Lord Soth, are great as well.

The quality here was excellent throughout. But as always, if you can, take a quick look through the book. Check the bindings, stuck pages, improperly cut pages, and major issues with art. In the past I’ve experienced all these issues and more. Though thankfully not here.

Price

MSRP is as we’ve come to expect, $49.99 USD and $64.99 Canadian. And as usual you can find it for lower on sale if you look. The board game Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is more expensive, though the new website doesn’t have an MSRP. Seems to be between $72 and $75 US dollars from my quick search.

What I felt was Missing

A PDF of the adventure would be nice (like always I mention this), and having a supplement provided online with the monsters so the Monster Manual would not be needed. They used to do this, they can do it again. This adventure absolutely should have supported the mass combat rules from the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The absence of this is astounding to me. It’s like they forgot these rules existed. It could work as an exemplar for these rules. Or did they decide they aren’t good?

Free Stuff

Not much here. The PDF rulebooks for the board game can be found here. Besides that, nothing really.

Summary

So here we have it. Dragonlance is back. The adventure we have here is interesting, varied, and handles combat encounters in ways that keep them interesting. There’s some elements of exploring, combat encounters, examples of storytelling, and some creative novelties like the separate mini-adventures at the start based on character background. If it sounds like I like this adventure, I do. But all of that comes with the important detail that it does what it does well. Set piece encounters, characters, story telling, and novelty. If you wanted a compromise of story and role-play, or a sandbox, this isn’t it. You need to be onboard with its style.

D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots more full colour art.

• Probably the easier starter set in this edition to run for new Dungeon Masters. The adventure gives advice, and often goes over the main options players have. I see this as being incredibly useful for new Dungeon Masters.

• It probably handles combat in the easiest way of all starter sets. When escape is easy or possible, it lays out what will happen clearly and concisely. First time Dungeon Masters often get stuck in thinking of turns and attacks. They forget the option of escape, and some players don’t realize it’s an option either. Laying it out so plainly ensured the Dungeon Master is aware of the option. I really like it.

• Allows some player choice of where to go, resulting in some branching

• Instructions for scaling encounters to a higher level. This is related to the branching choices presented.

• Pre-generated characters. Easy, cheap, and very helpful for new players. Even if they change things after, a starting point close to the archetype they’re thinking of can really save time and get people playing. I’ve also seen it being way more fun for people than reading through rule books. Of course, not for everyone. Some people really do like the customization and learning the rules. But hey, this way we have both.

• Pre-generated characters give the characters a goal to reach in the adventure. Particularly for new players, such a direct tie to the world for their character is a good thing.

• The dice actually look pretty good.

Could Go Either Way

• Not much in the way of new creatures. So if you don’t plan to run an introductory adventure for anyone.

• Also nothing in the way of new character options. It’s fine, and to be expected. But for the Dungeon Master with a wall of books, such a thing could improve the value.

• Not much to reuse, besides the dice and adventure. No creature tokens. No battle map, etc. When I hear “starter set”, I think of something to get people playing. Maybe a small number of tiles, some minis (yes, I know how expensive they are, but I can dream of a day when they are cheap enough) or some monster/character tokens would go a long way.

• There is an alternate ending included in the adventure for if the villain escapes, and the players fail to do something important. It’s actually really good. The only problem is that it’s probably better than the standard one. There’s more options, ways to distract the dragon pictured on the box, and the environment itself. It also clearly ties into the events of the story. So I’d suggest considering using the second ending from the start, or to add more options to the combat environment.

• There really isn’t a good classic dungeon delve like the style of Lost Mines of Phandelver. It’s a more cinematic adventure focusing on story telling. I love both play styles, but it seems the aim so far has been for each starter set to be different. Play them all, and you have a taster plate of different adventure styles and games. Oh, and the Essentials kit which is kind of similar.

Cons

• There’s no percentile dice. This is a problem for a starter set. Dungeon Masters will from here, to using the core books or basic rules. And there they’ll find percentiles. Yes, you can roll a d10 twice. However, it’s much easier to just use percentile dice. Technically, you can use the D&D Beyond dice as well. However, this should be open without logging in like the old dice roller that was on the Wizards of the Coast website.

• Why not go all the way and provide scaling instructions based on the number of players? Of course sometimes you’ll only be able to find 2 players. Or 5. Yeah, I can do it myself. But for a starter kit, it should be as easy as possible. And really, it did a good job in regards to scaling otherwise. The advice in this set is to allow people to control multiple characters and choose one as the talking character. Yeah, it’ll work. And possibly even be more fun for more experienced players. But controlling one character can be difficult enough for a new players.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

Introduction

Every game needs a way for new players to enter. From card games, video games (thank you DLC), or tabletop games, the starter set has been a long standing fixture. D&D is no different, and in this edition we have already had 2 sets. Lost Mines of Phandelver was well received, and for a while a common recommendation for new Dungeon Masters for 5^th edition D&D. It was heavy on the dungeon delving, and I really enjoyed it on both sides of the screen. However, I’d argue it wasn’t really the best for explaining combat to new players or Dungeon Masters. The Dungeon Master understand combat is particularly important for it to run smoothly. So, does this set live up to the previous one? Let’s jump in. But first, I need to be very clear. The start set is a set of dice, an adventure, pre-made character sheets, and the basic rules. Just like the previous one. If you want a starter set with tiles you can reuse, player and monster tokens, maps, reference sheets, Dungeon Master screen, or whatever else, this is not it. It’s light. Comparably cheap. And really mostly an adventure. With that out of the way, let’s jump in.

What’s Included

There are 2 booklets, and a set of dice included in the set. By set, it’s 6 dice, one of each. The booklets are stapled, the pages aren’t the same as the hard cover books, and these are soft cover. I guess the box can be used to store everything too. There’s actually lots of extra space too, so it’s not a bad place to keep extra dice, tiles, tokens, etc.

The Adventure

New Player Options

Nope. It’s older stuff here. But it does provide enough to start playing up to level 3. That’s how these start sets have always been, and it’s the same way again.

New Monsters

Nope. Also, there’s not that many monsters in the adventure itself. It is a starter adventure. Moving on.

What You Need to Play

For a nice change from regular adventures, all you need to play is here in the box. Though if you want more player options, the basic rules or Player’s Hand Book are available to make a character from scratch. And as always, the basic rules are free.

The Adventure Itself

First, as the box shows the end involves conflict with a dragon. A very cool way to end a low level adventure, and also has a different combat style compared to humanoids. Where there’s a dragon, there’s breath weapons, flight, and so on. A problem with some adventures is that the enemy is underwhelming, but here it’s a fitting threat.

The layout of the adventure involves a quick introduction at the start where players can introduce themselves to each other. They arrive by boat to an island, and so meet during the trip. As usual, feel free to allow players to write backstories that tie them together before the boat ride. Maybe two players decide they were sent together. A paladin and cleric for example were sent together on a mission. A cleric and a hired fighter for added muscle. That sort of things. Afterwards, they get an introduction to the location. Following that, there’s 2 sites of interest that players can choose what order to visit. From there, it’s a race to the finale.

Those above features I think help make it a good introductory adventure for new players. The adventure provides multiple options for players, and communicates them clearly to the Dungeon Master, which is essential for new Dungeon Masters. It’s very easy for a Dungeon Master to see a combat encounter, and forget that running is an options. The first possible encounter here against zombies clearly gives a reminder that zombies are slower so players can outrun them. It also reminds the Dungeon Master that even enemies can take the Dash action. This is exactly what I want to see. What I’d like to see in the future is adventures that help teach players about all the mechanics. Have some climbing or jumping options. Both of these can really help make encounters more dynamic, and also teach these often forgotten rules. And if it’s just an option, it’s a tool in the players toolbox. And a starter set adventure should ideally be fun for all Dungeon Masters, but also help teach new ones how to run the game. I think it’s a good step in that direction.

A big part of D&D is player choice. I’m very happy to see the players getting a choice of where to go next. They need to go everywhere eventually, but even that small split is a good element, and gives some ownership. I wish the Spelljammer adventure had something like that, but that’s another topic. The problem that can occur from such splitting is that the party level may be too high. However, the adventure makes that easy for the Dungeon Master too. It tells how to adjust the encounter depending on where they go. It’s a good things to see. I wish they also considered it for different party sizes. Instead, it’s assumed players can use multiple characters. One character is chosen as the character who speaks. That’s a fine tactic, but I also know players who only want to control one character, and feel very close to them.

The choice of villain is a good one for this adventure. It ties well into the adventure, the location, and non-hostile characters. The potential for engaging combat encounters is there too, being a dragon. That’s not really a spoiler, it’s right on the cover of the box. They also give lines that the villain will say in the event of a combat encounter. Their attitude to combat, as well as their goal is covered. That makes for an easy to understand and run villain for the Dungeon Master.

The final encounter is fine, but there’s an optional version in the event of retreat or failure. This one I’d say is actually more interesting. There are objects in the encounter that can be messed with, random effects, and so on. So I’d suggest looking at both and if you feel like me, you can consider running the second version from the get go. The original also has an additional element. They can free a potential ally to help in the fight. Or try to sneak and do it before it starts. This is a good too. I do wish more encounters had some more environment or encounter specific details. Combat can be very tactical too, and giving players an early taste goes a long way. This is largely a criticism of encounters in this edition in general. Maybe add some fires we can push enemies into. A bridge we can push people off of. Maybe the level of water is rising in our sinking ship as we try to escape. This adventure isn’t horrible in this department, but I hope to see more, and I hope that future adventures consider such options.

The Art and Build Quality

The set contains 2 booklets. As previously mentioned, they are flimsier than the normal books. No hard cover. Stapled pages. This is what was also present in the Starter Edition. The basic rules are available on the website, and the SRD has additional material. It’s much longer as material. This comes with new art. From inside the booklets, to the maps, to the box itself. It actually looks pretty good. I wish more of it went for photo realism, but that’s my personal preference as usual. There’s some in the dark playing with light. And from what I saw from new players, they appreciated it. Of course, more would be nice.

Actually, these dice look surprisingly good. They’re that dark blue with quite streaks that I think I first saw from the 4^th edition D&D dice set. That makes it look actually really good. You can spend about the same amount to buy just one set of dice as you can for this set. So, what’s the catch? The problem is that where that set had 4 d6 dice and a percentile, here we have only 1 d6 and no percentile. Six sided dice are easy to find, but percentile absolutely should be in a starter set that the Dungeon Master will probably purchase.

Price

The MSRP is $24.99 USD. As always, local prices may vary and sales occur.

What I felt was Missing

It’s a starter set. I’d want to see some reusable elements. The Essentials set had cards and even a screen. It doesn’t even have to be in the box. Commission an artist, or buy an existing set so that players can print tiles off for free to make their maps. The fact is tiles really do help many, and they eventually move there. Monster tokens, map tiles, screens, initiative trackers, status effect cards, that sort of stuff should be included.

We had a dice roller for years on the official website. There should be an easy to access dice roller provided and linked. No login needed. Just do it on the client browser. We should not have lost this. There are non-official dice rollers too. Many of them work great too. But I think there should be a guaranteed safe and official dice roller for those who are not so tech savvy.

Free Stuff

The new pre-made characters are provided. This is great. When I run these, I usually keep the ones included as a master and make copies. Now I can just print them directly. That way, players can write all over it as much as they want. And when it’s too messy, we can easy get a new sheet. Unfortunately, there’s nothing more.

What About Lost Mines of Phandelver?

Does it dethrone Lost Mines of Phandelver? I’d say no. That adventure is bigger, longer, and I’d say generally more replayable. But what this adventure does well is provide something that even new Dungeon Masters can run confidently, and well. And enjoyable so new players can get hooked. In fact, I’d say it works like the best gateway we have. Potentially, you can even run Lost Mines of Phandelver after. Using the same characters they’ll be a bit strong at first, but it’s nothing a Dungeon Master can’t handle or fix. Or just allow players to enjoy their strength...while they can.

Summary

Here we have a new Starter Set for D&D. The adventure is solid and does a good job of being easy to understand even for new Dungeon Masters. That’s its real strength. It’s probably the easiest adventure to run for complete beginner Dungeon Masters, and does things in a way that helped teach them. Options are presented and their motivations. It also presents actions that may not be obvious to beginners, but any experienced player would be aware of. Options like trying to escape, and not needing to always resort to combat. It takes players through different interesting locations and encounters, and choices.