Greetings Adventurers! Today I want to share my thoughts (a slight review?) on the new D&D 2024 Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands.
If you want an unboxing video, I suggest Jeff’s fantastic The Gaming Gang’s unboxing video. He does a great job and I’m not going to attempt to replicate that. There are also many fine reviews of this product from Professor DM, Bob Worldbuilder and, of course, Jeff’s full review from The Gaming Gang, just to name a few. Again, I’m not going to try and break down or review this set for quality, components, value, or usability. Others mentioned above have come before me on that and I think their opinions are solid. What I am going to do is give 30+ years of playing Keep on the Borderlands from the perspective of a Grognard who played the original back in the 1980s, revisited it as Return to the Keep on the Borderlands in the 2000s (converting it to 3e) and finally brought it back from the dust with Goodman Game’s Into the Borderlands for 5e. That version started my current 5e D&D campaign that I’m running with my group right now (They are 7th level and way past the ole Caves of Chaos and are now running amok in Dyvers!) I’ll compare the content of the new version to the classic and let you know the major changes between the two (the classic 1979/80 and the new 2025 version).
Anyway, let me start out to say the components are well made, the layout is easy to read, the language used is easy to understand, the artwork is catchy (but a little bit woke for me at times, compared to the OG KOTB.)
What is an evil drow doing with the Castellan?
I would also say the writing of the content for beginners who have never played a RPG is “spot on” to get a group rolling d20s and interacting with characters and monsters. For any players out there- SPOILER ALERTS abound in the following review! With that said let’s get into the lore and content of this beautiful, boxed set.
The booklet of The Keep itself. While reading this the feel of The Keep seems more of a safe haven than a gritty outpost as previously presented in the OG version. The writing paints it as an idealistic, almost quaint, little castle. It’s not quite the last bastion of good keeping the monsters and forces of Chaos at bay as the original module depicts. Missing is the description of the desperate struggle the forces of good are having at staving “off the darkness that would overwhelm the land.” I think this is a bit of a lost opportunity, as well as a miss at setting the stage for gritty adventure. However, rather than the bland descriptions of The Keep and it’s buildings and businesses from the original the new version adds a nice touch. All of the main NPCs have been named and fleshed out. The Castellan is now Winvarle, the Provisioner is now named Ruckus and the Tavern is now The Drunken Dragon run by Umbrusk, etc. This is a nice touch. Another nice feature of the new version is that almost every location in The Keep has some sort of mini quest for the PCs to complete, if they choose to. Most of these are non-combative which I think is a great addition allowing for lots of roleplaying with a bit of “roll-playing” thrown in. The NPC/people of The Keep have been fleshed out a lot and my overall take is both good and bad for this. Some I think are great: like in the Bank, Inn and Tavern. Others…not so much. Some of the people have been made “cute” like Cornflower and her prancing goats from the stable (The Common Stable is now the Barn) who now offers the party a mini-quest to find some lost goats. Not sure if they are going for the “my little pony” audience on this or what, but it’s there.
A little too "cutesy" for me
Gone is the sly priest of Chaos hiding in the open at the apartments. The elf Advisor (formerly a male elf with questionable ethics called Marevak from other editions) is now an elf woman, Elandra, with very lawful agenda of quests for the PCs. I liked this slightly sinister underbelly of The Keep from the original. I thought it added another level to the location, rather than just a “goody-goody” rest place for adventurers as they raided the Caves of Chaos. Overall, the new Keep is a great spot for PCs to have as a base and a place to rest and buy supplies for the wilderness and the Caves of Chaos (COC). The only thing I’m a little sad about is the severely shortened lists of goods and services available at the establishments. The Provisioners Shop has a paltry 11 items for sale compared to almost 50 in the OG. The Smithy has no list of available items for sale and the Trader only offers 3 sets of armor, a shield and four weapons. I will say that having handouts for most of these is a nice touch though.
The Wilderness booklet. This pretty much lines up with the OG. Lizard men, check. Spiders, check. Bandits, check. The Hermit is now a lady, the cool tree house is now a simple hut which are strange choices and making her banned from The Keep an even stranger choice. Several other encounters are added which I think are welcome additions to help a DM see how varied wilderness encounters can be. Sadly, there is no mention of Quasqueton (or of Rogahn and Zelligar for that matter?) Or even a nod to any further locations (dungeons) for a new DM to try their hand at crafting. I think that the designers missed out on a great opportunity here. This would be a great spot to showcase an area for the DM to create or add to. A page about creating a tiny dungeon or simple encounter using components already in the box would have been a really nice edition here.
The Caves of Chaos booklet. I really think that this is where this product shines. The maps are beautiful. The simplified encounters are perfect. The tokens and the cards make it easy to understand where things are and what the monsters can do. All these components really make it easy to understand the flow of an adventure and how to run the encounters. Each is very compartmentalized, and I think it works. The COC is smaller, but the classics are still there. The Kobolds, The Ogre, The Owlbear, The Minotaur, and of course the Cultists. A few are missing like the Orc fraction but overall, the feeling is there. I’m not a fan of the “humanizing” of the Orcs that WOTC has done. These guys are classic monsters right out of Tolkien and should be the barbaric, raging hoard of evil striking fear in the hearts of PC and NPC alike. An army of Orcs should be terrifying not your next trading stop. Anyway, my thoughts. Back to the COC. I like the way they linked the encounters to player level, so a new DM knows what the PCs are getting into (either “spot on” or “in over their heads.”) The encounter areas themselves are smaller than the OG but I think it works so that it is easier to understand how much the PCs can take on before having to leave or take a long rest. I also love the way that the PCs can only take a long rest in The Keep. This prevents the “sleeping in the dungeon” problem and avoids the PCs being slaughtered in their sleep. Unfortunately, keeping the encounter areas compartmentalized creates a slight downside that there is little interaction between the areas. Like in the OG you could pit the Hobgoblins against the Bugbears or form an alliance with the Goblins etc. There were rivalries within each fraction, and this provided some cool options for the PCs if they wanted to explore the “parlay” option rather than the “murder hobo” technique so frequently employed by beginning adventurers. I do understand why this bit was omitted but it was a neat option in the OG.
Final thoughts. Wow what a great starter set. A few changes I’m not wild about but overall, a great product. I really wish I’d had this at the start of my 5e campaign. It would have been everything I was looking for. The old school meets modern that I wanted when I started my campaign. Reading through the booklets made me really want to run this and while I was looking at the maps I was thinking of ways I might use these in my campaigns or one-shots. The maps are just that cool. If ever I run into a situation where someone approaches me and wants to “Learn D&D” this will be my go-to. The components are very “new-be” friendly and I absolutely love that it sticks to the old school classic Fighter, Thief (ok Rogue but I'm an old Grognard!), Cleric, Wizard for starter characters. I made the mistake with a group who had never played D&D giving them all the character class options and it was a nightmare trying to get “newbies” to understand the nuances of playing advanced classes like Barbarians, Bards, and Warlocks. I have the D&D 5e Essentials Kit from 2019 and it is ok but a bit overcomplicated for newbies, the Rick and Morty one (it’s fun but more of a novelty than a “working” product), and I’ve looked at the D&D Starter Kit: Dragon’s of Stormwreck Isle (2022) and both Stranger Things ones and I think that this one is the best out of all of them for 5e. Sure it’s not “Redbox”, Moldvay or Holmes but I think it will do. Is it worth $43.99 on Amazon. Yes. For sure. If you want to learn modern D&D 2024 in an easy to digest box this is it and it takes you to third level. Now, if you want to really play an old school feeling game like you're playing D&D in the '70s and early '80's go get you a Dungeon Crawl Classics First Time Fan Kit for $50 at Goodman Games.
You get the rulebook (508 pages! but don't freak there only like 30 pages of rules), dice, Judge's Screen and the unbelievably amazing Sailors on the Starless Sea Adventure (and a few others in the main book) and it is the FULL game taking you to 10th level (the equivalent to 20th level in D&D) or if you're scared of that mega huge rulebook check out the DCC FREE quickstart. That takes you to 2nd Level (D&D 4th level equivalent.)
