D&D5e Essentials Kit Info

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They're actually pretty neat. But yeah, it's a second character. I kinda wonder if those rules are ever gonna be in a full release book. I like 'em.
Thanks! These look pretty straight forward and useable as is!
 
I'm seeing it a lot on reddit. a lot of "I tried D&D and we had some fun but I want to do something that just doesn't fit with D&D"

re: the art, I was thinking of

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took me a while, but remembered Elmore's style and got there.
The only problem I see with that is it isn't clear the mage is making that Missle or is there an off camear actor firing a bow.
 
I think new art is the way to go. As much as we older guys find the old art amazing and awesome, I don’t think rehashing old stuff is the way to go.

True, but I think they could go for a more unique style - that cover just looks like a Pathfinder product to me
 
True, but I think they could go for a more unique style - that cover just looks like a Pathfinder product to me

It's a bit stiff. I see they had Fiona Staples of Saga do the art for their big L.A. streaming event. Mike Mignola did some art for VtM 5e, I'd love to see him do a cover, his Fritz Leiber comics are very nice.

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Man I wish the sidekick rules had been around back when I was running Storm King's Thunder. I had combined bits of Storm King's Thunder's opening with bits from the Lost Mines of Phandelver (Including a weird jump in space caused by one of the monoliths) and they had ended up with two goblin friends: Pojo and Derp (roll20 had named them on the map). I decided they were a mated pair and one became a shaman and the other became a warrior, and I kept bumping up their stats in various ways.

Finally they split off from the rest of the party and occasionally they would hear stories of what Pojo and Derp, who had become heroic characters, were doing, and occasionally they would run into them again.

It was one of the most fun random improvised things that happened just because those two goblins that they had agreed to help free their clan happened to be too close when the teleport happened.

(The teleport also removed them from "destiny" which made scrying them or trying to predict the future based on what they would do impossible, which was why in my version of Storm King's Thunder why the Giants are all concerned with what the party does. Pojo and Derp also happened to be immune to this too, just by coincidence of being too close at the time :B)

Anyway the sidekick rules would have made it much easier to bump them up.
 
Thanks! These look pretty straight forward and useable as is!
Mostly yeah. Though I’d say there are some hiccoughs in there. For instance it’s not clear whether or not you can benefit from more than one Expert inspired help at a time.
 
Never saw the point in Sidekick rules as I never use Lv 0 NPCs, let alone assume my NPCs can never experience lvl growth. My PCs are not the only heroes, and murderhobo-ism goes way down when you cannot quickly assume the level of people you meet. Scribbling up an NPC was easy enough beyond Personality, Motivations, Background, then Proficient Skills, Abilities, & Features -- and was only an addendum of stats away from regular PC rules elaboration.

That said, this product seems nice like a step towards Evergreen Basic. :shade: That's a good thing.
 
Generic dice sets long ago started including 2d10s for percentile rolls. I don't think D&D currently uses percentiles, but it's about time that D&D started providing not just the basic types of dice needed for the game, but the minimum expected number as well.
This is a thing that has bugged me about *all* of WotC’s dice sets; they know how many dice their game uses in practice, they should at least try to meet that number. Obviously more d4’s would be nice, but they do have cost to worry about; I think 2d20 and 4d6 is a fair compromise for new players.

Say what you will about Evil Hat, but at least they sell their obscure dice sets by the table’s worth.
 
I just realized that Target gets this thing six weeks earlier than other retailers. Does that mean it'll actually be in the stores or will it be only available on their website as seems to be their general approach to D&D products? Why Target? I'm trying to think if I've been in a Target store in the last two or three years...
 
Target keeps the D&D starter set on the shelves as a permanent product (as much as products can be permanent in brick n mortar stores these days) so not a surprise to see that happening.
 
I suppose I have a reason to stop by Target the week of the 24th. I'm hoping it has a clear and concise rundown of character creation. That'd be extremely useful for my players. That's been a recurring complaint about the PHB that my group has.
 
I believe the 5e assumption is a party of 3-4 PCs, which is way more viable than some of the older modules that claimed they were for groups as high as 8 players. Although I assume even then the idea was for the group to be supplemented with NPC henchmen.
It's worth remembering that those early D&D modules were mostly based off tournament games at conventions. Getting a full table isn't an issue there.

True, but I think they could go for a more unique style - that cover just looks like a Pathfinder product to me
And on the topic of old vs. new style, that Pathfinder style was the one Paizo was already using for Dragon and Dungeon magazines over the 3E-era. The Pathfinder style is not new at this point.
 
I bet it still only supports pc's up to level 3 which will make it gimped in comparison to actual basic/expert D&D.
 
I bet it still only supports pc's up to level 3 which will make it gimped in comparison to actual basic/expert D&D.
The Basic Set in both B/X and BECMI only went up to third level. Sure, the B/X Basic Set left me wanting more, but in a good way. Three levels of play is certainly enough to get a feel for the game.
 
And in addition to covering 1-6 for those classes, it isn't like the Basic 5e PDFs aren't free.
Now that you mention it the 5E Basic rules pdf cover the Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard classes. Those are probably the four iconic classes mentioned in the article. It occurs to me that they're including the Bard class precisely as a sample of something for which you'd want the PHB as you progress. Seems fair enough.
 
That sounds pretty nice. You could run an E6 game with that.

Does E6 even work for 5e? I thought it was dependent on the system of feats found in 3e/PF for 'progress' beyond level 6.
 
Now that you mention it the 5E Basic rules pdf cover the Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard classes. Those are probably the four iconic classes mentioned in the article. It occurs to me that they're including the Bard class precisely as a sample of something for which you'd want the PHB as you progress. Seems fair enough.

Makes me wonder if their surveys also found the Bard a popular class.
 
I expect I’ll pick this up for my son and his friends. He has a couple close by that he can play with.
 
Makes me wonder if their surveys also found the Bard a popular class.

The bard is the classic jack-of-all-trades class, capable of helping out in the areas already covered by the four classic classes (as well as being the best 'face' for the party). It makes sense for a fifth class. All of the others are variants of the classic four.
 
Does E6 even work for 5e? I thought it was dependent on the system of feats found in 3e/PF for 'progress' beyond level 6.
I suspect you'd have to tweak it a little, but it should. My recollection of E6 is that you advance pretty much the usual way for the first six levels, and at this point a lot of the numbers essentially cap out. Hit point progression is greatly slowed, bonuses top out, and so on. Later levels allow for additional feats and such. The key is that you could do something a lot like E6 with little effort, I should think, even if it isn't exactly the same as the original E6 rules set.
 
3.x/PF feats are very different than 5e Feats.

The easiest way you can tell this is to look at the number of them. 5e Feats are meant to have characters take like 1 or 2 over their entire career. 3.x/PF feats are meant to be taken near constantly.
 
I had forgotten about this, but it popped up in my Amazon recommendations. As far as Amazon is concerned, it doesn't come out until September, but there was already a review stating Target already had the set available and for sale. Checking Target's website shows it listed and already out of stock, and definitely not available at any Target store within miles of me.

So, did anyone manage to snag a copy yet?
 
I had forgotten about this, but it popped up in my Amazon recommendations. As far as Amazon is concerned, it doesn't come out until September, but there was already a review stating Target already had the set available and for sale. Checking Target's website shows it listed and already out of stock, and definitely not available at any Target store within miles of me.

So, did anyone manage to snag a copy yet?
I picked it up last weekend.
 
I am happy to see that folks aren't being elitist over the hobby becoming more mainstream. This is a perfect gift for my nephew-in-law.

I find the artwork uninspired and prefer the crazy Erol Otus artwork of B/X but understand that my weird taste in fantasy art isn't gonna sell books.
 
Gonna post the cover here for those who don't follow the link. I think it will attract kids and is a nice call back variation on the Red Box classic. And is this is a rare, perhaps the only, example of the iconic Magic Missile spell on cover art.

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What a noob! Magic missile against a dragon? Hahahaha Tha halfling is going "what are you doing you idiot? I'll throw it some sausages."
 
I am happy to see that folks aren't being elitist over the hobby becoming more mainstream. This is a perfect gift for my nephew-in-law.

I find the artwork uninspired and prefer the crazy Erol Otus artwork of B/X but understand that my weird taste in fantasy art isn't gonna sell books.

I’m not going to be totally happy until RPGs have the same amount of shelf space in bookstores that they had in the late 80s. I got my DC Heroes boxed sets from Walden Books back then, not to mention some of my Marvel stuff.
 
I’m not going to be totally happy until RPGs have the same amount of shelf space in bookstores that they had in the late 80s. I got my DC Heroes boxed sets from Walden Books back then, not to mention some of my Marvel stuff.
The more likely outcome is that bookstores will cease to be.

I mean, are there even two major book chains anymore? Or is it just Barnes and Noble?
 
Barnes & Noble is actually downsizing.

I read an article which stated that independent bookstores are on the rise.
 
That's got nothing to do with book stores, and everything to do with book publishers. Amazon is still killing all the major book store chains.

Not sure what it is like in the states but in Canada the ‘major’ bookstores only really came into existence in the 90s. Seems to me the market is just adjusting back to the local level again. In my home town there are still lots of bookstores, just fewer chain bookstores.
 
I got started with D&D at Toys-R-Us by purchasing Mentzer Basic D&D, Expert D&D, and the original Forgotten Realms boxed set. I probably could have played a life time of gaming with just those three boxed sets.
 
I find the artwork uninspired and prefer the crazy Erol Otus artwork of B/X but understand that my weird taste in fantasy art isn't gonna sell books.
You know how Monopoly can be bought in a zillion different versions? WotC ought to do that with a D&D boxed set. Repackage the same base rules, only with different style and artwork. They could do one retro Otis-style, one with a majority of girls playing, one with lots of vampire pictures, or dragons, or whatever. Crank out a zillion of 'em and flood the market. :grin:

For more ideas, check out the pictures that Dumarest posted here:
 
Not sure what it is like in the states but in Canada the ‘major’ bookstores only really came into existence in the 90s. Seems to me the market is just adjusting back to the local level again. In my home town there are still lots of bookstores, just fewer chain bookstores.

We had some big-ass book chains for a very long time. Now there's really only one left that I'm aware of

Barnes & Noble was founded in 1873, still extant.
Borders Group was founded in 1971, defunct in 2011.
Waldenbooks was founded in 1933, defunct in 2011. Though it had apparently been bought out by Borders Group at some point.
 
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