Today I'm taking an overdue look at the new/current (at time of writing) starter set for Dungeons & Dragons; Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle.
Truthfully I kept going back and forth on my opinion about this set because every time I began to formulate an opinion I found myself challenging if that opinion existed in the appropriate context. Having said that this might be the first time I've reviewed something that I've landed on three completely different but in my opinion completely valid final takes on the overall product. Let's go!
Over the now 10 year history of D&D Fifth edition there have been five box sets released that are either intended as "starters" or simply as stand-alone adventures with rules. Those boxes in order are; D&D Starter Set, D&D Stranger Things, D&D Essentials, D&D Rick & Morty, and now Dragons Of Stromwreck Isle. The reason I wanted to lay that out is that even though the Essentials and Rick & Morty set weren't marketed as 'starters' this new set feels like a big step backwards from those two products.
Let's begin by talking about what great (and what's great really is great) about Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle. The production value, in particular the quality of the writing and the artwork are outstanding and exactly what someone would expect from a leader in the industry. The included adventure is extremely well structured for new or first time players in that although the narrative is very linear the game play experience feels a lot more like a sandbox that confers a lot of agency to the players. This has the dual effect of allowing the players to feel like they have complete autonomy while preventing them from going too far off the rails (the sandbox itself is relatively small). I also really like that the design team has done a great job of planting a stake in the ground for what they want 21st century D&D to 'feel' like in that some historically evil humanoids are recast as benign, while also painting D&D dragons as being separate and extremely distinct from dragons in traditional fantasy fiction. The adventure itself in spite of being relatively short has scenes that will satisfy a variety of different player styles. It's also worth noting that although Essentials came close this is the first box set that really leans into online support with D&D Beyond which has seen a huge upsurge in popularity in our post-pandemic world.
I'd also like to address what are in my opinion a couple of near misses. These aren't things that I think are bad, but they are things that could have been better. First up it bothers me to no end that in all the art the player characters are represented by the characters from the 80s animated series, but those are then not the pre-generated characters that come in the adventure. Either the characters represented in the art should have been the pre-gens, or the art should have reflected the existing pre-gens. This might seem minor but keep in mind creating new art of these characters to appeal to certain gamer's nostalgia was a conscious choice and then not following through feels like a bit a bait and switch. My other near miss has to do with the timing of the release. Normally a starter set has a fairly open ended and lengthy lifetime, this one does not. With the new iteration of D&D scheduled in the next 12-18 months it's not unreasonable to assume that this box has an expected life cycle of 12-18 months, that being the case it doesn't need to be evergreen and it doesn't need to tie to the larger world of D&D (The Forgotten Realms). So my question is this; if you're only going to sell this box for 12-18 months, and 2 of your significant features and going to be draconic humanoids and dragon mythology, and your next major release is the Dragonlance campaign setting...why isn't this starter set set on the continent of Krynn in the Dragonlance campaign setting?
And now, my actual issues with the product overall. At the start I referenced how this box feels like a step backwards from Essentials and Rick & Morty, that opinion is almost entirely based on the contents (or lack thereof) in the box. Both of the aforementioned sets included two things that I felt made them feel far more complete than this box. The first is they included 11 piece dice sets instead of 6 piece dice sets. Although it can certainly be argued that a product that doesn't include rules for character creation doesn't necessarily need the extra D6s the absence of a second D20 is pretty poor. For any opposed roles having the DM and player roll simultaneously is more fun, as well as being more immediate for advantage/disadvantage rolls. The other missing piece (and I'm honestly concerned this represents an intentional shift in philosophy rather than an oversight) is the lack of a DM screen. As a positive I mentioned that this product is really linked to and supports online play, but some of us still want to sit around a table with our friends, and for new DMs in particular the DM screen is an outstanding reference. If I go all the way back 10 years to the first starter box the contents match up pretty well, and had this box followed on from that one rather than having three other box sets fall between them it's shortcomings would probably be less obvious.
So overall what do I think? If you're completely new to RPGs and D&D Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle will get you started and its contents and value for money fall largely inline with what most other companies offer as quick-start sets. If you and your group have some prior experience with RPGs you will probably find you'll get a much deeper more satisfying experience out of the Essentials box set. And if you're an existing D&D 5e player you're paying for a 48 page saddle-stitched adventure for levels 1-3.
If Dragons Of Stromwreck Isle is right for you please pick it up from your friendly local game store. I got mine from my FLGS and they also have all the other bits and pieces I need for all my games.
Thanks for checking in
-Jay
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