A nice surprise today. The Starter Set arrived in the mail after around 2 weeks (ordered on the 17th). To get it to New Zealand it cost an extra $10 so it was $23 or so. Adjusted for inflation its about the same price as the AD&D 2nd ed starter I bought in 1999.
I am a sucker for boxed sets as well and the cover art is quite impressive I had seen it online of course and the contents but holding it in your hand is always nice. At $23 I do not really expect a lot and I got more than I thought I would as the booklets inside were in full colour and on glossy paper.
If I lived in the USA at $13 or whatever on Amazon the boxis an absolute bargain unless you have a stark raving hatred of 5E. I can probably get my players to at least try it out and group 2 is DMing it on around the 23rd so I get to play as well. Personally I would buy just about any D&D at $13 just to add to the collection and espicially a boxed set with kewl art. I paid more than that for the 1983 Greyhawk boxed set a month or so ago although at the New Zealand price it was roughly thesame price as that.
It was also my birthday 2 weeks ago and I have not chosen a present yet so I am thinking about the PHB or maybe a real copy of the ACKs book or the new colour C&C book IDK. There is still a lot in 5E I do not like so maybe sticking with what we have or just Basic D&D and buy some adventures might be a better plan.
I have not read a huge amount of it but quite liked a few of the magic items in the back of the book as well. One of my players has had a look at the pregens and is considering playing the Rogue or using Basic D&D to create a PC.
They did however miss a monster I thought should have been in there even if it was not in adventure. I am talking about the humble Kobold as it would have been nice to have some low level mooks for an independent adventure as the Bugbear and Hobgoblin do look very nasty. I do not think there will be buyers remorse over this as in a worst case scenario I can use the maps or tweak the monsters for "elite" encounters in other D&D games. I have only really had buyers remosre form 5 D&D books ever though (6 if you count 3pp).
I got mine over a week ago, sent to the Central Highlands in Victoria.
Personally I'm grossly disappointed that there were no maps included. I guess for the USD price I shouldn't have expected it but for the Aussie price I feel a little bit stiffed.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen is chock full of kobolds and also looks as good as Lost Mine of Phandelver. After swearing off WotC adventures after 4th ed and LFR, they've not only got me buying their books but involved in OP again. They've done a great job at launch. Here's hoping it continues.
I'll be interested to hear how you go. I had my first game on Saturday with a group of lapsed 3rd ed players (one Pathfinder fan) and they quite enjoyed it. The rules don't play how they read, I should have a write up later this week.
As for price I bought mine from the FLGS in Australia. Cost me $25. Considering a set of dice cost $10 it seemed like a good bargain to me!
You look back far enough for 3.0 you had map tiles to scale, and figures (as well as dice)
Over time the figures become little cardboard circles but you get some maps.
Then you get no circles or maps. But you get some dice!
And the next starter set will be...
There's no maps because 5e has stepped away from the miniatures/grid system of 4e which was the only previous edition to really focus on such a layout. That's why movement is back to feet/round numbers instead of squares, and all measurements are the same way. You can optionally do minis (I always prefered them even back in redbox days), it's just not the default. This is why there's no provided maps since a map with a grid on it would reinforce the idea that minis are required. I have my dining room table set up geek style: a white table with a 1" grid drawn on it and laminated with a dry-erase friendly surface so I can draw maps on the table directly and use minis (courtesy of Ikea and Office Depot for supplies). And to convert 1 square = 5' so it's not difficult math
I'm fairly certain that the D&D Basic rules will contain kobolds, when the PHB syncronized version is released.
The artwork in the Starter Set is among the best in all D&D products.
Too bad the one featured in the Player's Handbook has let me down thus far.
Ah well, here's to hoping that I haven't seen all of it yet.
Mr_Treegins wrote:
Grazel wrote:
VanRicter wrote:
VanRicter wrote:
September freaking 2nd? Man, I hope I get it earlier like I did with the Starter Set 
Everything comes at a price.
Thankful to be here in the US and have a Amazon Prime account. My stuff comes on the day of the release (the two day shipping is already factored in to make sure I have it on release day!)
mboss77 wrote:
Yeah, I'm feeling the same thing--form a support group maybe?
I plan on buying two copies of the PHB from my FLGS this Friday. One for myself, and one in the name of the various haters around here who crap all over these threads in an effort to trash 5e. Since they won't be buying one, I want to do my part to help get them represented in the sales figures anyway.
ChrisCarlson wrote:
CelticPaladin wrote:
You guys rock! 
Thank_Dog wrote:
CelticPaladin wrote:
Yeah I'm buying the PHB and adventure this Friday at my FLGS. I want it early and also want to support them. Can't say I'll buy a second copy though. If anything I'll be buying more tokens or pawns to use at the table.