oh man. Jealous
Highly intrigued. Please post thoughts as you find things of interest.
While I'm not immediately in the market for a new game/system, I do like seeing what other companies are doing with the general d20 system. I wasn't completely sold on the new system, but I did think that it would allow for a good balance between 3.X and 4e (more open than Essentials, at least) that still allowed for a fairly broad concept of "spells" and class abilities.
Theres an unboxing video available. Its unbearably long with Mearls and some guy. Ill head over to ENworld and get the link later when im home from work.
Dice are just a pack of typical gaming dice of a single color. Nothing special just a nice add in.
I seem to remember seeing posts from Mearls about the dice being speckled. Is that not the case?
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Feel free to post questions.
What's the thirteenth word on the twelfth page?
How sturdy does the box feel? Would you say comparable to a high end board game (at least as nice as WotC's Castle Ravenloft for example) or is it flimsier, maybe more like some of their 4E boxed sets (Gloomwrought)?
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Feel free to post questions.What's the thirteenth word on the twelfth page?
Stop, I'm having flashbacks to playing the gold box PC games in the early 90s!
Man, that is one impressive space taker in that box. I'm sure it actually feels like they filled it all up with useful material when you shake a closed copy :P.
Ok. In playtest and pdf basic.....I really like the rules
The artwork matches my vision
So the big question for me is.....does the starter adventure do what it should?
You don't get a battlemat or map of any kind for tabletop use, no tokens, no miniatures. So you cannot actually play out of the box without a fair amount of prep. For me, that makes this a failure as a starter set...
I mean the amount of value and adventure you get straight out of the PF:BB is amazing. I was really hoping WotC would step up their game this time, not give you less than you got in the 4e starter set. Colour me disappointed.
Who said you need a battlemat, token or minis to play? Red Box basic had two books and some dice and a crayon and it played just fine and was a great starter.
Also, Pathfinder BB lists at $35 and the new D&D starter at $20 (and Amazon has it for under $13). You have to cut out something to save $15+.
Who said you need a battlemat, token or minis to play? Red Box basic had two books and some dice and a crayon and it played just fine and was a great starter.
Also, Pathfinder BB lists at $35 and the new D&D starter at $20 (and Amazon has it for under $13). You have to cut out something to save $15+.
Ah, just watched the vid, did not know the huge price difference. Still, if I get a starter set of a tabletop game, I prefer to be able to play within a reasonable orientation period. Could do that with the 4e box. Could do with the Gamma World box. Can do with PF box. Just disappointed that you can't here. At least the art does indeed look pretty slick.
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I love grid-based combat, but you know, I started on Red Box D&D in the 1980s and I went years without any real serious use of miniatures. Also, we played at lunchtime in school using two pads of paper and some dice. So. I don't really see that as a problem.
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If the question is, how long does it take to start playing from the time you open the box, we will need more input from people when they get the box.
I don't know too many scenarios where people buy the box, take it home, open it, and immediately start playing. Typically the person buys it, opens, and peruses the contents in all its glory.
What a reasonable orientation period is to one person it different than another.
No grids. Huzzah
I skimmed the free pdf and I noticed that in various areas it said to turn to the Players Guide for information. I though the Pdf WAS the same as the Players Handbook.
The Pdf said to turn to chapter 6 to learn about feats. What can you tell me about them? Are they pretty much the same as in 3.5? How are they different?
What all came in the basic box set that you bought?
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I skimmed the free pdf and I noticed that in various areas it said to turn to the Players Guide for information. I though the Pdf WAS the same as the Players Handbook.
The Pdf said to turn to chapter 6 to learn about feats. What can you tell me about them? Are they pretty much the same as in 3.5? How are they different?
What all came in the basic box set that you bought?
The Basic .pdf is going to be an evolving document over the next few months. Right now it's the super slim rules from the starter set, but will grow to include DM options and then monsters until it is a complete book of the basic rules by November. There's not much to it right now, and that is by design.
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There are some pretty big differences between the boxed starter set and the free PDF download.
The Boxed set comes with 5 pre made PCs that if you play with just the starter set, tells you how to level them up to level 5. There are no character creation rules in the boxed set. Has all the basic rules to play the adventure that comes with it.
The PDF has all the character creation rules, has some of the rules repeated, but it is more extemsive.
I skimmed the free pdf and I noticed that in various areas it said to turn to the Players Guide for information. I though the Pdf WAS the same as the Players Handbook.
The Pdf said to turn to chapter 6 to learn about feats. What can you tell me about them? Are they pretty much the same as in 3.5? How are they different?
What all came in the basic box set that you bought?
The PDF released yesterday was just the Basic version of the game. It is a subset of the more "advanced" rules that will be presented in the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide to be released later this year. The PDF is really a "beta" release at this point as it will be updated throughout the year with additional information (and possible revisions) until it is "finalized" at the end of the year.
Assuming they remain similar to how they were presented in the play test documents, feats in 5E will be more comprehensive than those in 3.X/PF. One 5E feat will be roughly equivalent to 2 or 3 3.X/PF feats. Feat inclusion is presented as an option in the PHB for the DM to decide whether to include them in his/her game or not.
How much xp for killing a goblin, out of curiosity?
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I bought it Thursday and ran it at the store Saturday. I read the first 2 chapters.
4 players; 2 were playtesters, and 2 3.x/PF players.
We completed the first chapter in 3.5 hours with roughly 6 encounters and 3 traps. One short rest and then took a long rest after the small dungeon was completed.
That was sufficient to reach Level 2 which is the default progression.
Everyone had character built from the Basic rules instead of pre-gens.
The only rules mix-up I noticed was the rogue had rapier-dagger instead of short sword-dagger (two weapon fighting with 2 light weapons is free).
And one character died to a double crit against Disadvantage in the last room. We had some weird die rolls.
We completed the first chapter in 3.5 hours with roughly 6 encounters and 3 traps. One short rest and then took a long rest after the small dungeon was completed.
Good to see that the pace of play has picked up as that was definitely a goal of the new edition and one of my pet peeves with the newer games (3.X/PF/4E). I began playing in 1981 and I remember things flying along compared to most of the modern editions. I missed it.