Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit (D&D Boxed Set)

The product is as I expected. It has everything I need to (hopefully) play D&D one day with friends under the same roof. The back of the box came pretty damaged. But it’s just a box, so I don’t care that much. This game has helped me a lot during the pandemic, though I’ve only played it online. I’m looking forward to enjoy a long lasting relationship with this new hobby.

Like all D&D it's nice

The box came absolutely mangled, but the contents inside were unharmed. The DM screen is made of cardstock instead of the nicer screens you can buy. There are a bunch of nice handouts that are beneficial for new players. Would recommend as a gift for a new DM.

Just starting 5th edition for my kids and I was an old school 3.5 edition DM. The box set gives you what you need to start out playing. The rule book is nice, and quick and easy to understand. The DM screen is fine, has good info in there, and makes it smoother running the game. Also I like the touch with the cards… though I don’t see the point of the initiative cards as it is just easier to keep track on a piece of paper than handout collect, handout and collect… although for a beginning group it might be fun? Spell cards would have been much nicer… and why ever they didn’t print out the basic stats on the sidekicks cards is a bit shocking. Yes, basic personality is good, but not nearly as useful. The dice, meh, they work. Kinda nostalgic for someone who started played 26 years ago. My major beef with the game is the module. I’ve ran a handful of starter modules… this is by far the worst put together one I have ran. Especially for a started DM. The maps are great, the descriptions are fine, but it’s not new DM friendly. No random encounter tables, the boxed text that is supposed to be read by the DM to describe the scenes are far and few in between. Storytelling and creating a mood is such a big part of DMing and modules, and this gives surprisingly few boxed texts to read to the players, leaving it to the DM. So many other modules do a great job of describing in boxed texts pretty much all bigger encounters and I never realized how much easier it makes it on the DM until running this module. Which is a shame… because it’s a starter.

Hoewel je deze ook niet echt nodig hebt zitten er wel wat bruikbare en handige items in. Wel prijzig voor wat je krijgt.

Le produit conforme, il y a de jolis dés rouge transparent, des cartes de sorts, une map, un livret de regles, une aventure (et d'autres choses à découvrir vous même) pour commencer Donjons et Dragons. Dans ce kit vous créez vous même votre personnage (il existe une appli si vous galèrer mais elle est en anglais) et une aventure à Phandalin et ces environs. Le colis n'arrivé pas, mais équipe réactive qui a proposé de me renvoyer l'article. Ils ont étaient très gentils.

TL;DR: Great quests in the book, especially for beginners, easily adaptable to other adventures, but does require some pre-existing knowledge of D&D, and a commitment to spend time fleshing out what's given to you. A lot of this might be due to my own negligence, but I was hoping this adventure would be a little more out-of-the-box. This was my first interaction ever with D&D, and it was a little overwhelming. I had to do a lot more research and preparation for it than I intended (which I love, but wasn't clear to me beforehand) and is the only thing that threw me off. The stuff that comes in this set is great, with a good rulebook to learn the basic rules and start playing, the adventure book (which will need fine-tuning from the DM), and all the handouts you would use during the adventure (love!). A big selling point of this particular adventure for me was that it could be run with just one player, which is definitely doable, and this set helps with that. It's easily scalable for more players too, which makes it more fun. For any first-time adventurers, I recommend either having played a game or two of D&D before, or going over the free "Mines of Phandelver" adventure on the DND Beyond website to get a better feel on how to run a campaign, then explore this set. The free adventure is more out-of-the-box playable, and lets you get a better grasp on how D&D works. Both are set in the same location (Sword Coast, specifically around Phandalin) and in roughly the same time period, so one adventure can lead nicely into the next, and the free adventure will give some necessary practice before going ice dragon hunting. The adventures/quests themselves are very nice, and can be adapted to fit any playstyle, both as a story or as standalone outings, with the book giving good introductions to the world, and some basic information on how to run encounters at each location (but as noted a few times now, the DM will need to have some experience already, as a lot of it needs to be adapted for the specific playstyle of their own game). The way I used this set was to expand on the "Mines of Phandelver" adventure with my friends, to give a more structured feel towards adventuring (as the quests in Icespire are very much sandboxy) and I think this works really well. Overall, I do recommend this adventuring set, as the physical items are super cool and the adventures inside the box are really fun, just be wary that it's something you'll need to put some work into before being able to play.

Otro enfoque diferente para iniciarse en la quinta edición de Dungeons & Dragons. Al contrario que en el Starter Set, en el cual te dan unos personajes pregenerados y una aventura más guiada, en este Essential Kit te dan las reglas para que crees tus propios personajes y la aventura es más abierta, más sandbox. Tanto esta como la otra caja de inicio son opciones muy buenas para introducirse en este juego, teniendo todo lo necesario para jugar las aventuras que traen. Aparte otro punto importante son las reglas de acompañantes o NPC que suben de nivel que trae el libro de reglas, con el cual se puede llegar a jugar la aventura solo con dos jugadores (1 Master y 1 jugador) y rellenar el resto del grupo con dichos NPC's. No todo el mundo dispone de un grupo de 5-6 personas para jugar regularmente, menos ahora con la pandemia. El producto esta en completo inglés.

My son wanted to try Dungeons & Dragons so after some research I settled on the essentials kit. Completely with the money. You get everything you need to play and more. The adventure is great. It's not some cheap boring intro to the game. If you are going to include people familiar with D&D in your game, they will enjoy it too. The rule book isn't the complete Player's Handbook, but you aren't missing anything you need to start playing the game. Good quality dice, a nice map, and a few character sheets on a higher weight paper.