Heroes of the Borderlands
Heroes of the Borderlands is a boxed starter set for Dungeons & Dragons, written by Dave Cook, Harold Johnson, Jon Pickens, Michael Price, Evan Robinson, Lawrence Schick, and Stephen D. Sullivan and published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Aaron T. Huss
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Heroes of the Borderlands is the latest starter set for Dungeons & Dragons, coinciding with the revised mechanics of 5th edition. Unlike previous starter sets, this is not a kit designed for regular tabletop RPG players; this is a kit designed for those who have never played. It is a rehashing of Keep on the Borderlands from decades ago, providing a group of 5 (1 DM and 4 players) with everything they need to make their first delve into Dungeons & Dragons.
I’ve made this statement before but I will say it again. Wizards of the Coast, as the owner of Dungeons & Dragons, the reportedly most popular TTRPG in the world, has an important position within the tabletop roleplaying game industry. As the owner of the most well-known TTRPG IP, 90% of the industry (this is not a hard fact, just a statement to make a point) relies on them to bring new players into the hobby to keep the industry going for decades to come. In the past, many of the starter sets for D&D were more targeted toward those who already had some type of familiarity with hobby games. Unfortunately, the gaming industry has grown significantly and it’s time for a new direction to rope new players in. Heroes of the Borderland is the answer to that need. Why? Because it looks more like a board game or card game and is way more interactive compared to just picking up the core rulebooks and getting started. It is a self-contained kit of everything you need to play many gaming sessions, but only until the PCs evolve from Level 2 to Level 3. Once they reach Level 3, it’s time to seek out the core books and continue the fun.
How is this achieved? Class boards (similar to many hobby games where the “board” is designed for the player to utilize the mechanics of their portion of that game to the fullest extent), illustrative and descriptive cards, tokens, and of course maps (but that’s usually a given). The fiddly bits of D&D are completely stripped out and everything a player needs is within those items. The DM, of course, will need to read and understand the booklets that guide the adventures. But the players? They don’t even need to know how the mechanics of D&D work or have ever played a TTRPG before. Literally! Everything they need is presented in a way that they don’t need to know anything about the game. They can just pick their character type, grab the correct board, and off they go!
This is why this particular starter set is so important. It does the one thing many starter sets have failed to do in the past – allow a player to play without having to read and understand the rules. This is how you get new fans into tabletop roleplaying games.
Your average grognard, longtime D&D players, those familiar with TTRPGs, and especially those in this industry might have completely different viewpoints. The content is not very dramatic, it mimics the play style of some MMORPGs, is visually-appealing on the outside but not so much on the inside, and would likely balk at using the same maps for multiple encounters. But then, this starter set IS NOT designed for that audience. This audience might find some tools to use; more so DMs than players, but honestly just move on. On the other hand, if you want to start a D&D club for people who’ve never played D&D let alone TTRPGs, then everything you need is in this kit. In fact, the box itself even describes this to the buyer by calling it “An Open-and-Play Entry into the World of Dungeons & Dragons”.
I personally think the Heroes of the Borderlands starter set is brilliant. This is the kit that can bring new blood into this industry; which is definitely needed. I think the approach is perfectly simple and I love the huge glossary of rules that make a perfect at-the-table reference. I’m not ecstatic that it stops once the PCs hit Level 3, but I get it that you need to start somewhere and then pivot your new fans toward the core rulebooks. I truly hope the adventures herein can be easily fed into subsequent products to keep the players going without having to start over, but we’ll see where WotC takes it from here. There’s not a lot of artwork in the booklets, but really the visual appeal is on the cards meant to make the gameplay that much more exciting. I do think the box artwork is fantastic, capturing the feel of an exciting D&D game. I also think the vast quantity of in-game bits (tokens, cards, maps, etc.) are perfect for bringing those board and card game fans into roleplaying games. Although the players might always expect that level of in-game tools! Hopefully the DM doesn’t go broke after playing through these adventures.
I feel that Wizards of the Coast has made a bold marketing move that could potentially help keep the entire industry afloat for decades to come. I just hope that other people in this industry understand that.
