I was lucky enough to snag a copy of the new D&D Essentials Kit at Target a few days before release date, and I unboxed and reviewed it on twitter.
If you’re wondering how this compares with the other 5e box, the D&D Starter Set, my opinion would be that this is definitely the better of the two. The adventure included, Dragon of Icespire Peak, is a sandbox, quest driven adventure that puts the heroes against a dragon, and it seems easier to run for newish DMs than Lost Mines of Phandelver, from the Starter Set.
The box includes everything needed to play: a set of dice, rules for character creation, initiative cards, treasure cards, quest cards, maps, and a gorgeous DM screen with what is in my opinion the best 5e art I have seen yet. The screen itself is made of flimsy material, but this product overall is rock solid.
The much talked about 1-on-1 rules for a single player and DM campaigns are rather light, the sidekick character is basically a tag along NPC with a monster stat block that can take actions and provide support. Not very deep.
I noticed a few things: No mention of the much lauded Forgotten Realms factions (Harpers, Zhentarim, etc) that were so important when 5e launched, no mention of Adventurer’s League anywhere on the box, and no mention of tactical gridded combat at all, not even as an option.
But rather than re-write everything I wrote on twitter, here’s a link to the thread itself via the thread reader website. Go check it out.
My recommendation: Get it. Great box.
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medievalmike
June 23, 2019
This looks pretty cool. I’ll probably pick it up. I’m a big fan of the original Starter’s Kit and have recommended it to many as a place to start. Hopefully people won’t lose their minds about 5E Essentials the same way they did about 4E Essentials products. Oh no it’s 5.5E lol. 🙂
newbiedm
June 23, 2019
I don’t think so only because it changes nothing about the game itself. Not the presentation, not the underlying math, not the monsters, nothing. It’s just a new on-ramp to the game itself.
medievalmike
June 23, 2019
Is there zero errata compared to the starter set? Do they give the exact same rules with no additions, exactly the same basic rule book as in starters? Are the 1v1 rules new? The buddy NPC system? Seems like there might be some new content not presented before or a new way to play. Something to justify it besides new art. At least I’d hope so. They’ve learned a lot about the game and how players use it since 2014. I’d hope they’ve updated some presentation and developed the rules explanations to reflect that. Plus updated any errata.
sixoffcenter
June 25, 2019
Honestly after reading through the Essentials Kit myself I can’t imagine recommending it to a new DM. The module offers very little structure to the overarching story, and leaves far too many gaps to realistically expect a new DM to fill in.
HMTKSteve
July 26, 2019
I tried to pick this up at my local Target but they were sold out. They had a few in stock at a more distant store but I wasn’t about to waste a couple hours of driving on a chance that their inventory numbers were accurate.
How would you rate this for getting younger kids into the hobby, middle school aged?
I was looking at either this or the Strangers Things D&D set.