The new D&D Starter Set may be the first one I've been excited about in years

The new D&D Starter Set has broken cover, and it feels as if developer Wizards of the Coast has finally caught up to its competition.

Called 'Heroes of the Borderlands,' the D&D Starter Set was shown off in a video ahead of New York Toy Fair. Besides showing off a classic cover heavily inspired by old-school fantasy, the reveal pulled back the curtain on the wealth of accessories included within the box; it includes item, spell, and NPC cards to go with maps, tokens, enemy datasheets, what appear to be a handful of adventure booklets, and a character sheet that seems to take inspiration from the best board games thanks to slots for your spell and item cards.

This may not sound like a big deal considering how most beginner boxes for the best tabletop RPGs do this already, but it's worth noting that Dungeons & Dragons has always been a bit behind on that front. With the exception of the 2019 Essentials Kit, both Fifth Edition D&D starter sets have been threadbare so far as contents go. In the 2014 version you got dice, premade character sheets, a slimmed-down rulebook, a map, and the (excellent) Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. As for the 2022 Dragons of Stormwreck Isle pack, it didn't have that – you got the rules, a shorter adventure, character sheets, and dice. It also directed players online for advice on how to play, so it felt a bit like modern video games where you're just buying a digital code in a box rather than something on the actual disc. Because D&D is easily the biggest TTRPG out there, it felt oddly lacking – and fell way behind the likes of the One Ring Starter Set.

D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands - YouTube

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I'm particularly excited about the much more user-friendly character sheets included in Heroes of the Borderlands. This alternate design features empty boxes to put your items, spells, hit points, spell slots, and more so that you can easily keep track of everything. There's a boxout filled with advice on playing your specific class too, not to mention species and background cards so all the important information about your adventurer is to hand. I've always felt that D&D was more difficult for beginners than it had to be, and this solves the problem. That's especially true of the easy-to-use enemy datasheets that avoid the need to trawl through a Monster Manual.

Naturally, we don't know anything about the actual adventures themselves and whether they'll be any good (beyond the fact that over "40 hours of adventure" is included and they're based on 1979's Keep on the Borderlands by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax). However, all signs so far are good. We'll just have to wait for the box's fall release to find out if it lives up to the hype.

For more adventures, why not check out the best D&D books? You can also get some cool merch via our guide to D&D gifts.