 Goto [ Index ] |
Unfortunately, many companies don't put enough work into these intro sets, often making them poor value for the money. Even worse, a badly done starter boxed set can turn potential players off to a game that might otherwise be a lot of fun. You never get a second chance at a first impression, they say. In my opinion, the D&D Basic Game does a good job at making a positive first presentation of the game.
Since it's designed as a forerunner for new players to play D&D 3.x and doubles as an interest generator for D&D Miniatures gaming, DDBG focuses heavily on the board game/minis aspect. You get 16 miniatures, pre-assembled and pre-painted and 4 double-sided map tiles to represent your first dungeon. You also get 4 pre-generated character sheets to represent the four classes available (warrior, sorcerer, cleric and rogue)---the 4 hero minis match these PCs, too. A nice solid colored full set of polyhedral dice is included as well.
One of the big smile producers for me are the pre-gen character sheets. Each PC has a two-sided, full color sheet that really gets across the spirit of the game. The character sheets have a full body illustration of the hero armed with the appropriate weapons and equipment. The hero's miniature is also pictured so there's no confusion as to which mini represents which PC.
The character sheets also explain a lot of the applicable game rules right there where you need the info, so there's no need to dig into the rules unnecessarily. Initiative, Weapons, Armor Class, Hit Points, Special Abilities, etc. are all spelled out. For example, I can see if Regdar the Fighter runs out of hit points, he falls unconscious.
Looking at weapons, if I want Regdar to attack something with his sword, I have an explanation of what dice to roll as well as pictures of the dice (which are color coded for even easier identification) in case I don't know a d12 from a d8 by sight. Skills listed explain when they might be useful (e.g., if you want to convince and persuade others use your Diplomacy skill).
For rules you get a quick start rules booklet, a first adventure booklet and an advanced rule "book". The first two items are small half-page sized booklets that give you a quick intro to the game concepts and a brief couple of encounters exploring the dungeon---you find out more about the rest of the dungeon and game rules in the box's advanced book. Basically, everything you would need---other than players and a place to play--- in in here.
The advanced book is 61 pages long. The first 26 pages form a scaled down player's handbook while the rest of the book is a mini-combo DMG and monster manual. The player section covers abilities, races, classes, feats, skills, equipment, combat and cleric/sorcerer spells. You can play elves, humans, dwarves and halflings and can play one of the four base classes. Zero through third level spells are presented so your magic types have a nice bit of variety right off the bat.
While these sections obviously do not cover as many options as the actual PHB, they do provide players with a good baseline of what D&D is all about. Intro games like this walk a fine line. If they spill too much, cheapskates like me may never buy another thing in the line, content to play with all the goodies provided. If they are too watered down, people feel ripped off or are completely turned off by a game because they didn't get enough information. I think WOTC made the right choice in this case. Players can do basically the same stuff that's possible with a hard cover set of books----they just don't have all the options.
The DMG and monster manual sections cover DMing the rest of the dungeon introduced in the quick start ala board-game style. Pre-planned encounters use all the neat monster minis included with the game, culminating with a possible showdown with a young black dragon. Basic DMing advice is given for the fledgling DM including the option to create 'unplanned' dungeons filled with hack and slash goodness. Essentially players are given the option of making this a board game with a lot of replay value and/or expanding into more role-playing at their option. Both styles of play are obviously acceptable and it's nice to see that they're both presented that way.
The miniatures are the same ones available in the D&D Miniatures game and include stat cards that allow them to be used as either RPG characters/monsters or as playing pieces for D&D Minis. You get a wolf skeleton, a couple of sword-wielding human skeletons, a dire rat, a troglodyte, 4 kobolds, 2 orcs and a young black dragon for monsters. The PC's minis are a warrior (human), a cleric (dwarf), a rogue (halfling) and a sorcerer (elf).
As a player of D&D Minis, I found the pricing for DDBG very reasonable---yes, I realize it's a loss leader kind of set up, but still. The buy-in for this starter game is cheaper than buying two boosters, which would also get you 16 minis. I found the set piece assortment to be a bonus since I was looking for skeletons and some of the other "common" low level monsters that DDBG provides. The set piece deal is intentional, of course, allowing new DMs to play out the intro adventure using the monsters and PCs called for in the quasi-mini-module from the advanced rule book.
The map tiles are thick cardboard and printed on both sides to be used to map the dungeon adventure described in the advanced rule book. They are sturdy and match up with the fold-out maps from the D&D minis game. You can easily use them to expand D&D Minis maps (I've done it) and the D&D minis game maps work nicely for the RP aspect, too.
Because there's nothing to build (and thus expand in this set), the sturdy cardboard box the game comes in serves as a good storage place just like your Monopoly box. This helps keep all your junk together in one place and prevents you from having to buy some sort of plastic container or organizer (some people do that with their miniatures) if you don't want to go that route.
Players have enough information on increasing their characters' abilities and equipment to get them completely through 2nd level using just this set. Actually, a half-way inventive group of players could get even more mileage from this game if they wanted to. The ultimate goal of WOTC, however, is to get players excited enough about this game to want to play with more options and/or miniatures. Every section (player, DM, monster manual) points out that you could get even more stuff if you simply invested in the full blown game. Normally these kind of hints turn me off, but they're not spread out all over the material and actually do serve to let buyers know what else is out there.
All in all, DDBG gives you a dungeon tile set, pre-gen characters (with excellent character sheets), monsters (and representative minis), dice and a concise set of rules to introduce the game to fellow players. I think the game does an excellent job of introducing D&D to new players and gives them enough to decide whether or not they want to invest further in the line.
