Review of the DnD Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands

With the new version of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Beyond 2024, a new Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set arrived in 2025, and it is better than ever – except for one small detail.

Let's start from the beginning. A Starter Set should be something that shows a newcomer what Dungeons & Dragons is all about in an easy and clear way, guiding them through the basic principles and rules. For this purpose, they chose a compromise between an RPG and a board game – and it works perfectly!

The combination of RPG rules with tokens, cards, maps, and character sheets is perfectly balanced, and most importantly – you will use many of these board game elements in classic RPG sessions later on. It is not something you will put away and never return to after trying this starter box.

Do you want to explore the Starter Set box with Gergon, the author of this article? Check out the detailed video breakdown.

The classic RPG part of the Starter Set

When you look at the classic RPG side, you will find a rules summary, which is a great structured overview. Every Game Master (Dungeon Master) should keep it handy, as it saves a lot of flipping through the entire thick core rulebook DnD Dungeon Master's Guide 2024. Don't be afraid to copy this summary for all players so everyone at the table has their own copy to write notes in and underline what is important to them.

The box also contains three booklets with adventures. Although it is one adventure, the division into booklets makes perfect sense, as each one relates to one of the pillars of classic RPGs. The Wilderness contains locations and maps of mountains and forests, and its main purpose is to teach players how to explore the world. The Fortress is focused on social interaction with plenty of small quests and NPCs. Here you can try out classic "roleplay". And the Caves are designed for combat and "dungeon crawling".

The adventure itself is a new take on the old classic Keep on the Borderlands, and it is the biggest weakness of the starter set. It is a pile of small adventure fragments that lack a substantial and interesting plot, unlike, for example, Lost Mine of Phandelver. Here, you just have various locations you can explore and complete small tasks, check off the number of completed caves and regions, and level up accordingly – essentially a board game system where the party levels up after exploring three caves, regardless of which ones they are or what the party did there.

On the other hand, this can also be an advantage, because the Game Master can toss the whole adventure aside and simply have three booklets full of locations, caves, and NPCs that they can use practically anytime and anywhere – in any other campaign they play. Which is a huge supply of material. Especially since there is a beautifully painted battle map available in the box for every cave (there are 11 in total).

Nevertheless, this fragmentation without a main story is the small detail I mentioned at the beginning, which is a flaw in an otherwise perfect whole.

Besides the booklets, the box contains a large number of the aforementioned maps, not only of caves but also locations in the wilderness, or maps of the fortress and the entire region. Naturally, there is an essential set of dice, and you will also enjoy the tear-off pad with Combat Trackers – a simple table where the Game Master can keep track of every fight. In short, a huge load of useful tools for everyone. And we are not done yet!

The board game part of the Starter Set

Now we get to the board game part. Because this box can truly function as a board game, we find many elements in it that we know from games like Descent.

The first is character creation. Previously, you either received a pre-made character you could play with, or you received rules on how to create one. Here you will find pre-made classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, or Rogue), from level one to three, and even with the option to choose a subclass at level three. Plus, you choose your own race and background. You will find both here in the form of cards that you attach to your character.

Additionally, you will find all available equipment, magic items, and spells in card form. On top of that, you get a pile of tokens symbolizing hit points, gold pieces, or stamina points, which can be used for various abilities to mark whether you have already exhausted a given ability or can still use it. This system is a great way to introduce DnD to a complete newcomer without them getting lost, because they have all the necessary information clearly on the cards in front of them, and removing tokens is always more fun than crossing out or erasing numbers on paper.

Another classic board game element is the character and monster tokens, which you will use during combat on the cave maps. Again, this is something that will be useful for many future party sessions so the Game Master doesn't have to buy expensive miniatures yet.

The box also includes a handy insert for cards, dice, and tokens, props like a letter, a tavern menu, or a local blacksmith's offer, as well as NPC cards and beautiful monster cards.

Final word

In short, this Starter Set is packed with many useful things that you will use not only during your first game but perhaps over the next decades of playing RPGs. It is slightly more expensive than standard starter sets for role-playing games, but this box is undoubtedly worth it, and you won't regret a single penny.

author Gergon