Review: D&D Essentials Kit

TLDR Summary: The D&D Essentials Kit is essential for your D&D collection... but wait until September if possible.

If you haven't read my preview, you might not know that the D&D Essentials Kit is also set in Phandalin and can be used alongside the adventure in the Starter Set. However, it also stands completely on its own as an introductory box set for new DM's. The adventure within is independent of events occurring in Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Included in the D&D Essentials Kit is

• 64 page "Essentials" rule book (including character generation)
• Dragon of Icespire Peak, a new adventure by Chris Perkins
• 4 panel landscape DM screen
• Double sided poster map with the town of Phandalin on one side and the local region of the Sword Coast on the reverse.
• Quest cards, NPC cards, Magic Item cards, cards, cards, cards...
• Red crystal dice set with 2d20 and 4d6
• Blank character sheets
• Includes a key to unlock the adventure content on D&D Beyond and a 50% discount on the digital Player's Handbook.

D&D Essentials Kit announced at D&D Live 2019

UPDATE: My review of the D&D Essentials Kit is live.

A plethora of product news came out of D&D Live this year, some more or less exciting than others (looking at you, Eberron). However, I think the most exciting in the list is the D&D Essentials Kit.

The D&D Essentials Kit is being published as an "along-side" sister set to the D&D Starter Set. It includes a new adventure (with a dozen or so new side quests) in the Phandalin region of the Sword Coast. It can be played separately or along with Lost Mines of Phandelver.

Included in the D&D Essentials Kit is

• 64 page "Essentials" rule book (including character generation)
• Dragon of Icespire Peak, a new adventure by Chris Perkins
• 4 panel landscape DM screen
• Double sided poster map with the town of Phandalin on one side and the local region of the Sword Coast on the reverse.
• Quest cards, NPC cards, Magic Item cards, cards, cards, cards...
• Red crystal dice set with 2d20 and 4d6
• Will include a key to unlock the adventure content on D&D Beyond

There are several things to really like about these features. The Essentials rule book includes character generation with the four D&D Basic classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard) plus the Bard. The rules will also include an edited version of the Sidekick NPC rules from Unearthed Arcana. This will allow a D&D group to consist solely of a single player and DM. The adventure will also support this "lone wolf" play style alongside the more traditional 4 PC party, which is a fantastic idea, because it lowers the barrier of entry to D&D considerably. I have also long argued that an off-the-shelf beginner product should also include character generation rules, even with the existence of the free Basic PDF. 

The DM screen is also a welcome addition. I don't personally use a DM screen, but I still love them as art and a reference tool. This DM screen is less thick than the $10 stand-alone screens. It is made of heavy card stock rather than the thicker chipboard found in board games. If you have seen the DM screen included in the 4th Edition DM's Kit, you'll understand the thickness. It is a weakness in terms of long-term durability, but a relatively minor one.

Quest cards, sidekick/NPC cards and Magic Item cards are a great idea for a starting set. I've always liked the Pathfinder Face Cards for NPCs. I've also used my own system for Quest cards, so these are an excellent game aid for new DMs.

The biggest downside is that this set will be a Target exclusive over the summer (until September). This leaves out the Friendly Local Game Stores who have generally gotten releases a couple weeks ahead of large retail. I understand the move from a marketing perspective, but I'm not terribly crazy about it.

D&D Essentials Kit contents as seen on the D&D Live 2019 live stream.

Final Thoughts

As much as the Stranger Things D&D box set was a bit "meh", there is little doubt in my mind that the D&D Essentials Kit will be a home run. My "perfect" starter kit might also include some PC and monster cardboard tokens, but this comes awfully close to a perfect beginner box set. Hopefully, the MSRP won't be too high, but I expect $25 will be the price point.

UPDATE: MSRP is $24.99

UPDATE 2: The box set contains a D&D Beyond key to unlock the online contents. It also includes a discount key for the Player's Handbook on D&D Beyond.

D&D: A New Quick Start Tutorial Format

Too Long; Didn't Read?  Start with A Quick Start Primer, Revising the Quick Start and A New Primer for 5th Edition which encompass the primary points.

Several months ago, Angry DM posted a rant about how Wizards has been "challenged" in recent years converting new players into new DMs. Let's face it. DMing is a daunting task for a new D&D player. It's hard enough to learn the game as a player, and the new DM resources aren't the best at really walking a newbie through the hardest parts.

In response, I started to prepare my own primer for new players and DMs, but that hasn't progressed as quickly as I've liked because… reasons. (I'm a father of three who works behind a computer all day. Sometimes side projects suffer as a result).

A Quick Start Primer

Fast forward to 2015 and Monte Cook's peeps are proposing a National New Game Master's Month or "NaNewGaMo" as they are calling it, which lead to this short exchange on Twitter.

+Bruce R Cordell noted: "We're trying to encourage completely new GMs into the fold. A simple quickstart doesn't target or encourage NEW GMs."

(This was really about Numenera, but I'm going to speak about the context related to D&D. The ideas, however, could be applied to any game),

I think Bruce is only partly correct. He is correct in that current examples of Quick Start rule PDFs have not targeted new DMs. However, that's only because RPG publishers have never written a Quick Start with that goal in mind. Quick Starts are traditionally written for existing consumers of other RPGs to try and win their business over to a new system. As such, they are written for the experienced gamer. However, an RPG publisher with the right end goal could very easily write a Tutorial Quick Start PDF that teaches and/or encourages new DMs.

This has been a goal of the D&D Primer that I have been working on (and to which I hope to get back to soon). For full-time RPG publisher, this idea should almost be a no-brainer (I say almost because I understand small press publishers need to target their R&D money carefully). While sales to existing gamers is critical, a modified Tutorial Quick Start PDF for DMs would not be too difficult to develop and could help win new gamers as customers. If done well, one could even use the same Quick Start for both experienced and new players/DMs, perhaps with a sections that experienced players could skip past.

WIP: D&D Primer Annotated Character Sheet

My D&D Primer series continues.

Last time, I attempted to illustrate the rules through a fictionalized example game between two friends. This time, I've taken a crack at annotating the character sheet (inspired by Pathfinder Beginner Box).

It displays best if you have your PDF viewer set to 2-page (side-by-side). There are a couple minor display artifacts I'm still cleaning up.

I'm still working on ideas for adding more "tips" to the sheet. Please share any ideas you may have to improve the sheet in the comments.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By4wksmFuwuSQzdlbk45RGZsTTg/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-wKC8kDw_zn1tpSByUwf2aw

WIP: A D&D Primer for new players and DMs

A couple months ago, the Angry DM posted a rant about how Wizards of the Coast has done a poor job in recent years creating a Starter Set that actually teaches new players and, more importantly, new DMs how to play and run a game.

Although I haven't looked through all the new player materials in recent years, I definitely agree with the Angry DM that the D&D Starter Set fails pretty significantly in this regard. The gist of the Angry DM article is that D&D often still requires someone knowledgeable about D&D to pass that knowledge on to the next wave of DMs and players. This is referred to as the "Older Cousin" sales model... which is a bad sales model because it places the burden of recruitment on existing players and DMs rather than on the introductory product itself.

I posted a similar critique of the Starter Set failing to be a good teacher in a recent article, but I didn't go quite as far as Angry DM. In retrospect, I should have emphasized this failure even more, as that would seem to be the most important goal of a Starter Set.

The Pathfinder Beginner Box does a much better job of explaining the basics of the character sheet and walking through character creation and the basics of running an adventure... However, even the Beginner Box doesn't quite present it in the best possible manner... and we're looking for a primer for D&D 5th Edition, not Pathfinder.

In that vein, I decided to try my hand at an example play session to help illustrate the Basic D&D core mechanics. I'd very much like to get some feedback. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but be gentle.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-q2EqROguspdCD8Jv_Kf9qkvYXCHUzZqyjObJ1IGLV4/edit?usp=sharing

This is very much a work in progress, but I would like to put it out there as a free PDF at some point and need insight on how it can be better. Give it a read and let me know. Thanks!

D&D Starter Set: Quick Critiques

Back in May, I took the D&D Starter Set to task for its contents (or lack thereof). Now, that I actually have one in my stubby little owlbear paws, I wanted to revisit some of those critiques and add some observations when I actually have it in hand. This is not a full review, but really some thoughts that came from my own unboxing reactions.

No doubt you've seen the contents list elsewhere:

• 32 page rulebook
• 64 page adventure book
• 6 dice
• 5 pregenerated characters
• 1 character sheet / advertisement

That's it. On the surface, the $20 list price seems pretty good, but when you examine what you are really getting, it seems less of a deal. For the Amazon discount at roughly $13, this set is worth the price of admission, which is a real shame because the local game store loses out on the perceived value in the Starter Set.

In my last article, I compared it to the Pathfinder Beginner Box, which has a higher retail MSRP of $35, but even at that price, the perceived value is pretty high because the Beginner Box has a lot of nice extras aside from the rule books. So, let me start by examining what the D&D Starter Set gets us.

D&D 5e: A few words on Diversity (or its lack)

UPDATE: Wizards of the Coast showed a sneak preview of Player's Handbook art that isn't just same old white guys in armor. I applaud them for taking the feedback from the play test community seriously. 

UPDATE 2: Since the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are out, WotC has proven that it can do artwork right. Interesting. Diverse. Not Sexist. Fifth Edition art is amazeballs.

When considering the races and classes for the OSR game I'm developing, I couldn't help think about the cultural impact on classes. Because my mind often follows stream-of-conscious threads, this started me thinking about diversity in D&D in a larger context... not just fictional diversity from an in-game standpoint, but how that diversity (or lack) impacts D&D culture outside of the game itself.

How inviting is D&D to a person of color? Are you a Black gamer? Asian? Hispanic? Do you feel well represented in the game? Do you feel included? My guess is probably not. My concern is that this unfortunate status quo will continue in 5th Edition.

D&D 5e: Starter Set Unboxing

In case you may have missed the live stream, here is the replay of the Starter Set unboxing with the talking points from Mike Mearls and Greg Bilsland. They reveal the contents and talk a bit about the Starter Set, Basic D&D and the upcoming Player's Handbook.

D&D Starter Set Fiasco

EDIT 05/27: This post was originally posted prior to the D&D Basic announcement. Some of the commentary loses strength based on this new revelation. However, some of my critique becomes even stronger in the face of this new knowledge (such as the lack of map and tokens). Let me know what you think in the comments.

I was having some Google+ conversations about the D&D Starter Set and thought I'd expand my thoughts here. I have concerns that Wizards of the Coast has not put enough content into their starter box to create even a reasonably good product. "Fiasco" may be a strong description, but it probably caught your eye.

On Starter Sets

What are the goals of a Starter Set?

Looking at the business goals, one would want to provide a low barrier-to-entry way for new players to get hooked on your product. This in turn grows the player base and creates new revenue from the sales of players "upgrading" to the larger product line.

In order to do this though, I also believe that there are game related goals (non-revenue related) a Starter Set has to attain in order to do the best job possible at achieving the business goals.

What I consider required for a starter set: