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Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set (D&D Introductory Game) |  | Creator: Wizards RPG Team
Brand: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
Buy New: $78.03
as of 7/31/2010 12:45 CDT details
New (6) Used (10) from $76.66
Seller: goHastings
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 431432
Media: Misc. Supplies
Pages: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 11.5 x 9.1 x 1.5
MPN: 21712
ISBN: 0786948205
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786948208
ASIN: 0786948205
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
WOC21712 Game Starter Set Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game by Wizards of the Coast
This new box-set makes it easier than ever to start playing Dungeons & Dragons immediately.
The D&D Roleplaying Game Starter Set introduces the complex world of D&D play to new fans in simple, easy-to-understand ways while retaining the fantastic inspiration of the full game experience.
This product includes an introductory version of the 4th Edition rules, dice, map tiles, and an adventure to get started playing right away!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Quick Start alright. May 2, 2010
Jerry Perez (Springdale, AR)
This lightweight box is a nice introducion to the 4E roles of D&D. There isn't a lot of material for players here as it seems more geared for a DM to run a quick dungeon crawl.
There are 5 premade charachters for this adventure that can go to level 3. Very limiting as the feats and powers are decided for you. Some of them are also questionable builds.
For the DM, the booklet is quite useful and very good at explaining how to run it. The tiles are of good quality but the player and monster pieces are just cardboard tokens. This is fine for the price.
A nice setup to get started but if you want to keep advancing, you will have to invest in the real books.
 Wonderful intro to D&D 4e. April 19, 2010
M. Allen (Columbus, Ohio USA)
I ordered this product here from Amazon and recieved it for less than $15.00 with shipping. It's worth every penny and i'll tell you why. If you're starting from scratch, this set is what you need to get going.
Some reviews i've read have stated that you should download the rules for free from WotC's website instead of buying this boxed set. I think what you should do is buy this set, go to the WotC website, find "Try D&D for Free", and than download the freebies to add to your basic set.
The starter set includes a set of poly dice, a set of two sided dungeon tiles, 2 copies of the starter rules and one of the rule books contains a remarkably complete DM's guide. MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! you get a set of 50, two sided character/monster counters that are just as good as minis for learning the game! You ain't gonna download any of this from Wizards , believe it.
What you can download from Wizards are two very good starting adventures, a backup copy of the rules for your computer, and again, MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! a free character builder program for creating 1st - 3rd level characters. The character builder is great, takes all the hassle out of rolling up new PCs, and allows you to focus on the role playing elements of the new characters (background, personality, etc)
If you like D&D4e, everything in your starter set will serve as the foundation to build up your new hobby, If you don't, you're out $15.00.
 A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step... April 14, 2010
Owen Sloan (North America)
Well, like most folks, I wasn't too keen on jumping into 4e and blowing tons of dollars on the new books. So, when I came across this 4e starter, and with the somewhat reasonable price-tag, I thought I'd give it a go.
The contents themselves are pretty good. Like the description says, you get a a Quick Start Rules booklet (pretty thin w/ pre-made character sheets taking up about 1/2 of the booklet itself) and a nice sized Dungeon Master's Guide (with a tiny version of a Monster Manual in the back). Along with these books you get a set of dice: d20-d4 (all different colors so that perhaps new players can more easily recognize them) and very well made sheets of "Dungeon Tiles" and Monster/Character tokens. I was really impressed with the tokens, actually. They are double sided (just as the tiles are giving you twice the dungeon) and each monster has a number on the face of the token. This makes DM'ing very easy during combat. Just simply allowing you to reference the token number rather than writing the name of the monster down. Granted, this is pretty much how a lot of DMs keep track of the encounter battle but having it printed on the token itself is a nice touch.
The Quick-Start Rules are very basic but the Dungeon Master's Guide gives a good amount of info. Within its pages are the Quick-Start Rules as well, quite a few tables (ex: Skill Challenge Ratings, Difficulty Classes, etc.), a section on how to make your own dungeons, a monster manual for the tokens included in the tile set and most importantly, a very short dungeon setup (only 3 small levels) that includes a small map printed at the bottom of a page. This short adventure is absolutely meant as a starting point and by no means is meant to be a standalone adventure (as has been mentioned before). I had never DMed before so I really enjoyed having this starting point in the book (it gives a very general description of Harken Village, Government, Inn, etc. and I was tasked to flesh out the village a little bit but I didn't mind).
There are some problems with this starter though. As much as I enjoyed having to put my own twist on the adventure, it was actually a necessity. Had I not fleshed out the village (I actually had purchased Dungeon Tile sets outside of the starter so I had a wide range of locales) by creating a physical Aunt Nonnie's Place and Cliff Side Tavern (which I actually turned into Cliff's Hide Tavern, the local Gay bar for some comical interactions with the PCs) the adventure itself would have been quite bland. Of course, the DM's job is to make the adventure his own and I couldn't agree more and for that matter, much of the village can be Role-Played rather than setup with physical tiles (my session used both elements) but my concern is that those unfamiliar to the game will get this starter, play through the vaguely described village and go straight through the short dungeon encounter only to feel that they just played through a table-top strategy game rather than an RPG. So really, I advise you to make sure you've got your creative juices flowing because in order to turn your friends (or even yourself) on to 4e, you'll have to use the info this starter gives you for the setup and add a ton of flavor to make it live but of course, this may be common knowledge and perhaps I am now babbling.
All in all, this starter provides a person with the bare-bone basics of 4e and with the nice little Harken Village quest and the dungeon tiles/tokens, one can really make the adventure into something much larger. I have to say though, after giving this game a test drive with this starter, I have decided to go back to 3.5e/Iron Heroes only because those games fit my playing style better but that's just me. So, if you find yourself asking the question "Hmm, is 4e really any better?" than by all means, pick this thing up, call your friends over, break out the beer and mead and settle in for some adventure (albeit a short one).
 Not for the new, and not for the "haven't played in 20 years" folks March 15, 2010
Michael N. Vasquez (Arizona)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm with the other 2 star guy. I'm over 40, and played in the 80's.
The other day, cleaning out my garage with my son, I found a notebook full of old modules. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. White Plume Mountain. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. The Village of Hommlet. Against the Giants...
And my son was like -- wow, cool! Let's play dad?
So I dig around online, check out a local used book store and settle on going with the new 4e rules. We pick up the starter set: 16 bucks at Borders, that'll work.
I decide we'll do the first encounter included in the manual. We sat down last night and played it out. I wasn't too concerned with which token was the goblin. Beats me. Looked goblin enough to my kids.
And then I'm like... ok... it's been 20 years. I know how to figure how much damage... but where does it say how to determine if I actually HIT the guy? HITTING comes BEFORE damage?
For something so basic, if it is truly a starter set, I should not have to look up something on google so basic to play. It should be in the book.
And, try googling it. It's not the simplest thing to find.
I finally decided that the player rolls a d20, adds his attack modifier, and if it's higher than the targets AC, it's a hit. I think that's right.
Anyway: regardless, the kids had fun. I need to figure out how to organize it a bit better so combat can go quicker. "What's your modifier again?" gets old after a while.
I think it was more fun 20 years ago.
fails for n00bs February 20, 2010
brent d (ohio)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
i went to a local gaming store with some friends, and purchased this, by recomendation of an employee. he claimed it was a great was to learn the rules and to get some basic knowledge of dnd. he was wrong. there was no clear explination of how to fight monsters, and it took us 5 mintues to decide how to deal damage. our wizard was almost killed in one hit by a grossly OP goblin.
later on we made up some rules and my friend dm-ed and i controlled all 5 pre made characters in a dungeon he made. it was fun, but making up completely new stats for the monsters was a drag.
the dice have been criticised by many reviews i have read, but i liked them. they were simple dice, and colored differently, which helped avoid confusion because i could just say roll the orange one instead of looking for numbers to see what die it was. the dungeon tiles were also pretty cool, but weren't worth the price (18$ after tax)
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