D&D Player's Kit With Free Miniatures Booster With Cards

by Wizards of the Coast

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 10.8 x 2.7 inches ; 3.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: 0786943092
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,452 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Designed for beginners, worth the price for veterans., June 24, 2006

By 

B. Allen-Trick "Meatrace" (Madison, Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: D&D Player's Kit With Free Miniatures Booster With Cards (Hardcover)

Dispite being designed for beginners and "graduates of the D&D Basic game" this box is worth every penny for players of every experience level (pun intended).
For a $30 (less than 20 here on amazon) box here's what you get:
1)A softbound Players Handbook. The PHB is a $30 value on its own, so this itself earns the price of the box. I myself have been clamoring for a softcover PHB for years.
2)A pack of D&D Minis Abberrations. This set is out of print and easily fetch $15 apiece at online retailers.
3)A set of dice that don't suck. They look and feel like dice that a self-respecting gamer MIGHT buy at least. Also it's a 10-die set with 4d6s, which is better than the woefully inadequate 1 that most die sets come with. $5 value easily.
4)Some things just for beginners. A solo adventure (and I do mean SOLO, i.e. no DM necessary. basically a glorified choose your own adventure)to teach you the ropes, a quick start guide, character creation guide, and a better-than-copier-paper character sheet.

So, all in all, this box is a great product that anyone can use, especially those who play both D&D and DDM. If nothing else the hard box can be used to store papers and campaign notes.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great buy!, August 2, 2006

By 

Cedric "Washu" (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: D&D Player's Kit With Free Miniatures Booster With Cards (Hardcover)

The D&D Player's Kit comes with a PHB, premium dice, and bonus box of eight random miniatures (an Aberrations boosters, for those who play D&D Miniatures). It retails for [...] (and make sure you're getting the free miniatures), but Amazon sells it for [...].

D&D Player's Handbook, softcover: I'm happy with it. The binding and paper quality are better than most d20 softcovers I own and, like the hardcover, it's in color. The cover looks the same as the PHB, and, from a distance, even looks like the hardcover.

Premium dice: The dice set are four 6-sided dice, one of each of 4-, 8-, 12- and 20-sided dice, and two 10-sided dice (percentile dice). (One of the ten-sided dice has the tens digit, and is rolled with the normal 10-sided dice.) The dice are a mixed color of black and another color, with the numbers outlined in gold. Unfortunately, my dice had far too much black, giving the dice a black, mottled look. It shouldn't be too hard to find better dice at the local game store. Nonetheless, these dice are a definite improvement over the blandly colored dice in the Basic Set. (You'll have to get your own Royal Crown dice bag, though!)

Character sheet: Only one character sheet is provided, as a master sheet to make copies from. The sheet is cardstock and durable. (You can also download this sheet from the [...] website.) I would have liked to have at least five or a pad of sheets instead of one.

Quick Start booklets: These 8-page color booklets are quick start rules for character generation, simplified quick-start rules, and a short solo adventure (a "choose your own adventure" with some NPC interaction and three monster encounters). The Basic D&D set is obviously a better starting point to learn D&D, but these booklets might be useful to give new players an overview of the game.

Eight Free Miniatures: As these are random, your satisfaction will vary. (For those who play the D&D Miniatures game, this is an OOP Aberrations booster.) Myself, I received three miniatures which could be used as PC's (elf archer; gnome thief, which could be used as a halfling thief; and human with shield and flail; no spellcasters), two usable monsters (an orc and a mongrelman, who could pass for a goblin), and three exotic monsters (a cool Cthulhu-like Mind Flayer, a one-eyed spider thing, and an overweight grey guy in armor with an ice cream cone sticking out of his forehead). The paint jobs are quite good (more detailed than HeroScape), though on the small side.

The Box: Yes, the box counts. Your first impression will be that it's far too big for a book -- and you're right. The box is the same size as the D&D Basic Set, so my guess is that it's a standard size from the printer WotC uses, so is cheaper than a smaller box. Of course, it's useful to store your D&D stuff.

With the free booster and low online price, this is no-brainer for anyone shopping for a PHB, who doesn't mind a softcover. Use the miniatures to bribe the GM out of your share of the pizza, unless you find some use for an overweight grey guy with an ice-cream cone growing out of his head.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the kit to get as a beginner..., March 1, 2007

By 

Robert Bell "Tukka" (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: D&D Player's Kit With Free Miniatures Booster With Cards (Hardcover)

Others have already reviewed the "value" of this item and I must agree with them wholeheartedly, it is a terrific value. The PHB (Player's Handbook) alone is worth 30 bucks, the full set of decent quality dice, eight miniatures and other goodies are (tasty) icing on the cake. As I write this review, amazon is selling the product for $19.77 which is just fantastic, there's really no reason not to buy if you have any interest in D&D whatsoever (unless you already have or don't need all of the contents of the kit -- and even then, it never hurts to have a spare PHB).

The only real drawback that I can see is that someone might purchase this thinking that they are getting a decent gaming experience right out of the box, which is not the case. You will quickly exhaust the included "solo adventure" of every scrap of entertainment value it has, leaving you with nothing to do besides imagine what it is like to play -- unless of course you have a D&D group available, which of course is the whole point of D&D.

If you plan on purchasing this kit for yourself (or as a gift), make sure you (or whoever you're buying it for) already know of a D&D group that will have you, or make sure you have a group of friends/acquaintances that are interested in playing and have a degree of patience. You need someone to "DM" (Dungeon Master) to get the full experience, and to effectively DM you need the Dungeon Master's Guide (and preferably a Monster Manual) as well as enough creativity and/or patience to create an adventure, or else buy a pre-made adventure module and study it.

So just be aware that this isn't your typical board game, nor is it a solo video game and that you will need other players (preferably at least a few of which have their own PHBs or player's kits) and a DM to really get your money's worth.