Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set –

Today, the new Dungeons and Dragons Starter Box lands on this side of the Atlantic, under the name Heroes of the Borderlands. A much heavier and bulkier box than the current Dungeons of the Isle of Tempest Starter Box, more expensive and above all with many more physical elements. What exactly does it contain? Is so much “tangible” content necessary? Is it worth the price? Does it provide anything for experienced or more regular Dungeons and Dragons players?

These are no doubt a lot of questions, but fortunately for all of you, we at Gamereactor have been going through every map, every adventure booklet and every polyhedral die for several days to answer all your questions. Everyone, come to our game room and make yourselves comfortable, the pizza will be here soon.

I’ve spent years trying to convince people to play role-playing games with pen and paper on the table, both with Dungeons & Dragons and other titles such as Pathfinder (and Starfinder), Vampire: The Masquerade of 7th Sea, just to name a few. Of all of them, it always seemed to me the most logical one to learn, the D&D ruleset, which not only has one of the most extensive collections of books, support materials and resources, but is currently experiencing a new boom in popularity, thanks in large part to the broadcasting of games via streaming platforms. Suddenly, I’ve noticed that playing Dungeons and Dragons now seems “cool,” really “cool,” and today, more than ever, it’s necessary to offer a sea of potential new fans an entry point that is as impactful, engaging and consistent with the current game as possible, without losing its classic roots. Heroes of the Borderlands achieves this perfectly.

As soon as we open the box, we find a four-sided sheet of paper with the basic instructions to get started. These four sheets summarize the most basic concepts about what a role-playing game is, what is in the box and which materials are for the eyes of the DM (Dungeon Master) and which are for the rest of the players. It also shows how these resources can be used in a specific layout on the table where the game is to be played. In short, it is the first document you should look at as soon as you open the box.

After that, you’ll find four more booklets. One called Game Guide and three others called Adventure. Put the adventures aside for a moment and concentrate on the Game Guide. This is actually a very condensed and light version of the Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, reduced here to the basics of how characters, races and classes, plus item, action and spell distribution work for characters from levels 1-3 of the four character classes included in Heroes of the Borderlands: Fighter, Wizard, Rogue and Cleric. All players will probably want to flip through it the first time, but it’s best left in a central part of the table for free reference as the introductory adventure unfolds.

The three Heroes of the Borderlands adventure books are intended as separate but loosely connected campaign scenarios for 3-5 players, each highlighting a particular aspect of the D&D experience. Wilderness is designed to teach the aspects of environmental exploration and mindfulness by exploring a wilderness populated by bandits and dangerous creatures. Through this we learn how to follow targets, collect gold and deal with enemy encounters. Caves of Chaos is a complex multi-level dungeon crawl that emphasizes combat and the use of team strategy to achieve victory (and ideally all in one piece). Finally, Keep of the Borderlands takes us to the fortress that dominates the Borderlands, where interpretation and role-playing are the dominant tone. All these adventures are in turn divided into different sections, and each of them can take up to an hour or an hour and a half to play, so we’re talking potentially up to 60 hours of guided play. Much better than the Dragons of Tempest Isle adventure, although the character level is the same: level 1 to level 3. The adventure books are DM material only, so only the DM should be able to read the contents, and they can be played in any order. Since all three stories are set in the same region, you decide which order you want to play in, or if you prefer to skip one. Even better, if you want to continue exploring the area freely after playing. The possibilities are, as always in D&D, almost endless.

The Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Box is not just for learning to play Dungeons and Dragons: it’s also for learning to play D&D games (and any RPG based on similar rule systems, for that matter). Right now, I can’t think of anything more desirable in the world of tabletop gaming than a good Dungeon Master, which is almost starting to be seen as a “professionalized” position. The beauty of this starter set is that in addition to the three adventures, there are endless visual resources and tools for this DM task, such as tables of weapon and equipment prices, individual item cards, NPCs and even the tavern menu. There are nine large grid maps to situate the action and characters in the game, as well as monster and enemy maps to help you understand how battles and positioning work. There are also maps for each player, where they can place cards (another important visual aid) with their race, background and active equipment, as well as life and gold counters. All in all, it is much more convenient for quickly explaining and assimilating all the basics of the game.

Finally, I cannot leave out the other fundamental element of playing Dungeons and Dragons: Dice. Heroes of the Borderlands includes a set of 11 polyhedral dice of 4, 6, 8, 8, 10, 12 and 20 sides, all of which are needed to play the game. Several six-sided and 20-sided dice are included to facilitate certain multiple throws. They have white lines on a classic red background, and also reflect well the classic and partly nostalgic component of this very special Starter Set edition. For Heroes of the Borderlands will also be a prominent collector’s item for any experienced player. The included adventures are revisions of the introductory Keep of the Borderlands module, published in late 1979, which featured early editions of Dungeons and Dragons from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and which was written by Gary Gygax himself.

So, is Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set worth it? The answer is a resounding yes. There is no easier way for newcomers to D&D to get both a starter adventure and the materials to run it and fall in love with the game, and it was described to attendees of his panel at SDCCM by the lead designer of D&D 5th Edition himself, Jeremy Crawford. It is designed for everyone to enjoy, whether they have been playing for 50 years or this is their first day, and it honors the beginnings of this influential role-playing game in popular culture. Players in the United States already have it in their hands, those in the United Kingdom have it on sale today, and for the rest of the European territories it will arrive in specialized stores on Oct. 16, 2025. Localized versions in other languages (German, French, Italian and Spanish) will be released in March 2026.

Rating: 10/10