In October 2021, the new Starter Set for Dungeons & Dragons hit hobby shop shelves, online retailers like Amazon, and international retailers. The new starter set, containing the introductory adventure Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, supersedes the original starter set that was released in 2014.
With One D&D set for a wide release in 2024, the new Starter Set will likely be the final introductory-tier product to be released for the fifth edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. Piggybacking on a line of successful D&D starter adventures weaving all the way back to Basic Dungeons & Dragons in 1981, the newest Starter Set is a new look for players being introduced to the game for the first time.
10 The New Starter Set Started As A Target Exclusive
The Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle was released on August 3, 2022, to customers of U.S.-based discount retailer Target. This early release allowed Hasbro to capitalize on its longstanding relationship with the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based retail giant.
The set released to hobby stores and direct customers on October 4, 2022. While this arrangement bothered some players, especially overseas, outside of Target’s entirely U.S.-based retail footprint. The release strategy capitalized on the newfound popularity of the game with viewers of the TV series Stranger Things, in which D&D is a major plot point.
9 Dragons of Stormwreck Isle Makes The Best Use Of D&D Beyond
Lost Mines of Phandelver was designed before D&D Beyond was released. While available for free on the D&D Beyond website, it has distinct limitations for that venue. The adventure acts like a conventional adventure on D&D Beyond.
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle has not only the adventure in D&D Beyond, but the boxed set also includes a QR code for new-DM and new-player resources on the website. With these videos, the new player and new DM have valuable insights into their new hobby’s basic skills.
8 The Character Sheet Is Optimized For Brand-New Players
The character sheet of Dungeons & Dragons is a list of everything a player character can do in the game. A player character in D&D is the player’s avatar in the game, and the character sheet is the way the player knows what that avatar is capable of.
A new player might stumble over parts of the pregenerated characters in the original Starter Set, released in 2014 when 5th Edition was brand new. The Stormwreck Isle character sheet is designed to explain every part of the character to a new player in plain English.
7 It’s The First D&D Boxed Set Since 2014 Not Set In Phandalin
Phandalin is a tiny town located right between the Sword Mountains and the Neverwinter Wood. With a cast of colorful characters and a number of dark secrets for players to explore, it’s an ideal starter location.
Between the original Starter Set and the 2019 Essentials Kit, Phandalin is entirely explored. The game needed a new starting area, and Stormwreck Isle, a tiny, previously unnamed island just north of the iconic city of Waterdeep, was a perfect candidate.
6 It Adds The Paladin To The Starter Set
Paladins hold a special place in D&D. The game’s famous paragons of goodness, the Paladin is a popular class that combines the martial prowess of a fighter with the spellcasting and undead-repelling power of a cleric.
The Paladin in the new Starter Set replaces the Bard in the previous starter set and the Essentials Kit. Adding more divine magic to Dungeons & Dragons is a good move for this game, and the Paladin’s unique features, like their oaths, add some new wrinkles to the storylines available.
5 The Evil Dragons Aren’t Just Target Practice
Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak, the two previous introductory adventures, use their dragons more poorly than they should. With little buildup and for the draconic encounters, these adventures use dragons as a combat encounter without much social consequence. Young white dragons, as in Icespire Peak, are bestial creatures with little to no capacity for human interaction.
This is the least consequential way that dragons can be used in the game. A green dragon, such as the one used in Lost Mines, should be a devious foe. The chromatic dragons in Dragons of Stormwreck Isle are intelligent and dangerous, more like what dragons should be.
4 The Rulebook Has Shrunk
Dungeons & Dragons is famous for the length and detail of its rules. The rulebooks in the starter sets have always tried to cut the game back to the minimal rules set needed to run the game.
Much of the famous core trilogy of the Dungeons & Dragons game is illustrations of gameplay. By cutting the game down to just a handful of levels and only five classes, Stormwreck Isle creates a sufficient rule book without loading the player down with detail.
3 The Dice Are The Same As The First Starter Set
This doesn’t qualify as a new feature for the new Starter Set. Keeping a few touchstones the same in a new starter set for the game is important. Wizards of the Coast has been experts at introducing new players to D&D and other games since the fourth edition of Magic: The Gathering back in 1994.
The six simple blue dice in this game set, one each of four-, six-, eight-, twelve-, and twenty-sided dice and two ten-sided dice, don’t seem like much. But they are just enough to play a character in this Starter Set.
2 The Adventure Introduces Good Dragons
Many dragons in D&D adventures are simple enemies for the party to overcome. Yet the game includes some of the most powerful and iconically good dragons in all of fantasy fiction. These dragons, the Metallic Dragons, are just as important a part of the D&D world, if not always as prominent.
The metallic dragons are an important part of this Starter Set, including the player characters’ first patron, a Brass Dragon. With metallic dragons recruiting human companions to fight with their Chromatic cousins, this set introduces a huge conflict that the players can help resolve and will likely make this one of the more interesting pre-made D&D stories.
1 A Variety Of Monsters Creates Challenges From Simple To Complex
With a wide variety of dragons and dragon-related monsters in Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, this is one of the more dragon- and roleplaying-centric intro modules ever produced for D&D. With so many intelligent opponents, it creates more incentives for both the DM and players to pursue non-lethal solutions to problems.
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle’s variety of monsters includes kobolds, myconids, undead, and dragons. With a variety of monster tactics and types, it’s designed to give new players a taste of what Dungeons & Dragons has to offer.