Golden Goblin Games just attended Gen Con for the very first time in Indianapolis, USA. Walking down the alleys, we stumbled upon the Wizards of the Coast play area where a successful Persuasion check allowed us to peruse the upcoming D&D starter set: Heroes of the Borderlands.
The box itself is a lot thicker than the three previously released starter sets and includes a useful insert to store cards and tokens (more on these later).
Players will be able to choose between four pre-generated characters: a rogue, a fighter, a wizard, and a cleric. The species and the backgrounds are suggested but can be interchanged to create more possibilities. In the example below, the rogue is a halfling with a criminal background.
The character sheets, friendlier for beginners, have a lot of explanations. Cards are also given to the players for weapons, armors, feats, and spells. A nice addition. On the backside are the stats for level 2. There is also a character sheet with two options when reaching level 3.
The dungeon master will be able to choose between three adventures or locations. Above the booklets, you can see a set of eleven red translucent dice.
There are plenty of maps in Heroes of the Borderlands. Over 20! With these maps come circular cardboard tokens to represent the heroes, monsters, and NPCs. Once again, a nice upgrade compared to the previous starter sets.
Monsters have their own cards. A nice picture in front to show the players what they are fighting and the stats at the back so the dungeon master doesn't have to use his fingers as bookmarks.
Overall, Heroes of the Borderlands, officially releasing in October 2025, seems like a nice improvement over the previous starter sets. The components, clearly of higher quality, have increased the price tag but who doesn't want to make that very first RPG experience a success?
Disclaimer: I haven't read or played the adventures yet so cannot assess how good the story is.