D&D: ‘Heroes of the Borderlands’ – The Biggest Starter Set With the Most to Do

Tomorrow D&D’s biggest ever starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, hits store shelves. Here are our first impressions.

Heroes of the Borderlands proudly hails itself as D&D’s biggest ever starter box. Packed full of shiny new cards and tokens and boards, it certainly does have the most stuff. But it kind of needs to—the design team sets some lofty goals for this big box. Not only is it a tool for introducing new players to the game, and a one stop shop for dice and maps and tokens; it’s also meant to be a complete full boxed experience for a group of people that have never played D&D before.

Meaning all those people who’ve heard about D&D from whatever means, but who have never tried it. And there are a lot of folks like that out there. One of the hardest things about D&D is that if you want to play, someone kind of has to know how before you can. All tables need a Dungeon Master. And usually your experience kind of depends on them.

Which is the secret third option here—Heroes of the Borderlands wants to help get new DMs up to speed. And, if it accomplishes its goals, could be run out of the box by someone who has never run a session of D&D before. Now, that’s a hard question for me to answer, since I’ve run D&D for many years now. But I will say, overall, Heroes of the Borderlands reads as one of the most accessible starter sets D&D has ever put out.

Heroes of the Borderlands – What’s in the Box

But before we can get into any of that, we have to talk about how lush this box feels. Opening it up is like cracking open a new board game. One of the good ones that comes with its own storage/organization system for all the various components. Which is good, because you’ll need it. There are a lot.

In the run up to the release, Wotc has shown off the character boards, and given us glimpses of what all lies within. But truly, there’s a ton of stuff here. Players have cards for their backgrounds and ancestries—if you play a Dwarf Acolyte, you’ll find both of those cards here.

And then, of course, there’s the Class Boards. These are somewhere between character sheet and player board from a game like Wingspan. If you missed the preview of them, you can take a much more in-depth look at these components right here. It’s worth checking out if you are considering buying this but are still on the fence. Personally, the Class Boards are the make or break element of this box and you’re either gonna think they’re cool (I do) or a waste of space.

But they’re not the only cool innovation. Aside from all the stuff to help the players—there’s a fair amount of DM kit as well. You have a deck of NPC cards and Monster Cards. And map hand outs Whenever they show up in game, you can just pull them and have the relevant info at your fingertips.

And all the tokens are real nice, too. This box really does feel like it’s a nicer board game. Which is a lot like how it plays. This straddles the line between board game and RPG—but it manages to find the balance pretty handily. Especially once you settle in to actually start playing the game.

A Return to the Borderlands – D&D’s Original Starting Zone

One thing worth pointing out is that this box isn’t just for new players and new DMs. WotC has set its phasers to nostalgia for sure. At the heart of the adventure as presented in the starter box, is a return to a part of D&D’s history that will be familiar to many who cut their teeth in 1st and 2nd Edition: The Keep on the Borderlands.

And it just captures that classic D&D feeling. This is much more of a sandbox type adventure—players can find quests on their own. There’s no big overarching story in Heroes of the Broderlands. no looming villain that the players have some ind of personal connection to. Just NPCs who need some help. And maybe there’s a cult somewhere out there.

It’s an interesting choice, considering how narrative-driven many D&D tables are. I’m not necessarily against it. But if your first brush with D&D is something like Critical Role or Dimension 20 or NADDPOD or Dungeons & Daddies or Gals & Goblins or Worlds Beyond Number or The Adventure Zone or Tales from the Stinky Dragon or DND404 or—you get the idea. There’s a lot of examples of how people tell stories with D&D. But what I like is that the choice to not have a big narrative throughline lets the starter box do what it sets out to do: teach people how to play D&D.

If you’re playing for the first time, and you’re learning the rules, getting invested in who your character is and how they fit in the world comes second. First you’re trying to get your footing. Trying to figure out how and when and what to roll. The play aids are certainly helpful here. But even with the Class Boards, just look at all the new info a player needs to have.

The encounters and quests in Heroes of the Borderlands are designed to let you take baby steps into putting that all together. It’s very much a gradual build as you go through the levels, until you feel like you actually are in command of your character. The fights are simple. Each one is an opportunity to learn more about your character and what they can do.

And the story? That just emerges naturally from the game. I think a lot of people will see just how much story there is in helping someone in need. In going out and finding out what happened to the wagon—the idea that your characters are out there doing stuff is a potent one.

The DM’s Conundrum

I think the person with the hardest job in the box, is the DM. Which is how it usually is. That’s the big “problem” of D&D—a lot of the experience rests on the DM’s shoulders. And while they are by no means the only one carrying the burden of “make this game fun and easy” they do have to at least kind of know what they’re doing. And I think that’s one place that Heroes of the Borderlands might stumble.

Mostly because there’s just so much to keep track of. And the adventure booklets are chock full of text that is for the DM’s eyes only. And if you’re DMing this straight out of the box, that’s a lot to digest. Especially if your group just decided someone was going to run the game. I think the box is probably at its est when there’s someone who knows what they’re doing that can gently guide the game on track.

There are a lot of places where the driving action is left up to the players—and in my experience, most total newbies need a little prodding before they figure out what they can do. And once you’ve DM’d for even a little bit, you develop a sense of how to gently keep things moving. Or not so gently. But if this is your first ever time, it might not be as smooth.

But that’s not to say that Heroes of the Borderlands is useless at teaching DMs. Just that if you know you’re going to run this box for your friends, you’ll probably want to read through everything beforehand. Because with all the hand outs and tokens and cool things at your disposal, this is a fun adventure to run.

Again, coming to back to board games—if you’re going to be teaching your friends how to play a new game, it usually helps if you know it at least a little bit before you sit down and explain why everyone is so interested in Mecatol Rex or all these trains or birds or having the best experience going down the Hokkaido road. It’s a classic “read and maybe play a couple of turns (or encounters)” situation.

Heroes of the Borderlands—In Conclusion

But summing it all up, this box is a good friend. If you want to learn to play. If you want to teach your friends to play. Heroes of the Borderlands has you covered. It really is a one stop shop. You may find a little bit of rockiness as you jump from the simple, streamlined rules of the game to actual D&D, full on. But I think by then the game gets its hooks in you.

And then it’s just having fun telling stories and playing games with your friends. So if you’re wondering if the new box is worth the price, I think so. It does what it sets out to do, by and large, and is a great way to bring people into the game.

Look for Heroes of the Borderlands everywhere September 16th!

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

Read the Comments (0)

Read more at this site