Your Level Up Starter

A good starter set has to do a number of different things. It has to introduce and explain the roleplaying game it is a starter set for, whether that is the roleplaying game’s setting, mechanics, or both. It has to both tell and show what the players and their characters are expected to do in the setting and how they do it, first with the rules and then with a scenario. It has to provide everything that a group needs to play—rules, scenario, pre-generated Player Characters, and dice—and ideally more. Maps, handouts, tokens, and the like are all items that will help bring the world of the roleplaying game’s setting to life and give the players something to look at and interact with. Above all, a good starter should showcase the roleplaying game and entice both Game Master and her players to want to roleplay more with the rules and in that setting by picking up the core rulebook, and if the contents of the start set support continued play, whether that is providing an extra set of dice or maps for the setting, then all the better.

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The Level Up Starter Box for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition has an uphill battle ahead of it, because in hobby in which Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition predominates and in which Dungeons & Dragons is the only roleplaying game that matters to the world at large, it has to sell itself on the point that what it offers is more Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Or rather, more than Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Although designed to be compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, what Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition does is offer more choice, more flexibility, and more depth in combination with the same heroic fantasy roleplaying that you want from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. And this it sets out to do without added complexity. Published by EN Publishing, the Level Up Starter Box is not actually a starter set in the traditional sense. What a starter set typically does is introduce a roleplaying game and its setting, providing Game Master and players alike with everything they need to play—the rules, dice, pre-generated Player Characters, one or more adventures, and support for both the adventure and rules in general. The Level Up Starter Box has most of that. What it lacks is dice. This is because it assumes that anyone opening its box and looking through the contents will have roleplayed before—specifically, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Having done so, they will have dice, they will know what roleplaying is, and they know how Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition works and how it is played. In this way, the Level Up Starter Box is an introduction to Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition rather than roleplaying in general and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition.

So what is in the Level Up Starter Box? Inside can be found a sixty-six page ‘Rules Manual’, three sixteen-page booklets which together make up the adventure, five pre-generated Player Characters, five double-sided poster maps, and ninety-one cardboard tokens for heroes, villains, and monsters. The ‘Rules Manual’ explains all of the rules changes and additions. This starts with telling the reader that the name for the Game Master in Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition is ‘Narrator’, and that the Barbarian, Monk, and Paladin are expanded into Berserker, Adept, and Herald respectively, whilst the Marshal is a new Class. Exhaustion is divided between ‘Fatigue’ and ‘Strife’, physical and spiritual in nature, respectively. Two skills are added, ‘Culture’, representing knowledge of customs, laws, and etiquette, whilst ‘Engineering’ is used for building and constructing. Skills can work with any Attribute as can Initiative, depending on the situation. A Player Character does not have a Species, but a Heritage and Culture, the first being what he inherited from his parents, whilst the latter his upbringing. A Player Character can have Expertise Dice, granted by a Player Character’s Class, the situation, and more. These are either a four-sided, six-sided, or eight-sided die and are rolled in conjunction with rolls of a twenty-sided die.

For the players, there is a guide to the advancements gain by their characters at Fifth Level. For the Narrator there are some nicely done Journey rules, which underpin the exploration pillar of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. They take into account travel pace, supply, fatigue, weather, and so on. There are tables for encounters ordinary and social, travel scenery, boons, and discoveries as rewards for overcoming objectives, but the really fun aspect is the list of activities that go beyond those you would normally except for journey rules. So alongside ‘Cook’, ‘Hunt and Gather’, ‘Scout’, and ‘Track’, there is also ‘Busk’, ‘Chronicle’, ‘Gossip’, and ‘Pray’, which is rather entertaining. There is also a guide to the magic items that appear in the adventure as well as a bestiary.

The five pre-generated Player Characters include a Halfling Sorcerer who grew up amongst the Hill Dwarves who specialises in planar magic; a Human Adept who grew up in a Dragoncult and is a brawler; a Dragonborn Ranger who was a Wilding and is now a holy champion; a Dwarven Rogue with a cosmopolitan background who specialises in traps; and a Planetouched Cleric also with a cosmopolitan background and who is an oracle. All five have their own Destinies from which they can take Inspiration, plus a Background, and each has particular guides for exploration and social actions. All five are presented on four-page pamphlets that easy to read and use. All five Player Characters are Fourth Level.

The rules cover several Conditions, including ‘Fatigue’ and ‘Strife’, which are tracked. Warriors can have combat manoeuvres. Disarm, Grab On, Grapple, Knockdown, Overrun, and Shove are basic combat manoeuvres, whilst the majority are divided into traditions, which are divided much like spell Levels, from First Degree to Fifth Degree. Four are included the Level Up Starter Box, including ‘Biting Zephyr’ for ranged attacks, ‘Mist and Shade’ for feints and distractions, ‘Rapid Current’ for speed and agility, and ‘Razor’s Edge’ for strikes and parries. Some combat manoeuvres require the defender to make a Saving Throw against, but all require the expenditure of Exertion Points. New actions in combat include ‘Press the Attack’, ‘Sprint’, and ‘Tumble’.

The adventure in in the Level Up Starter Box is set in the Albia, a highland region in Elissar, which is home to clans that feud and war for dominance. One of these was Clan Erin, which was disbanded centuries ago and many of its lesser clans picked over and absorbed over time by rival clans. Only Clans Carnoc, Kerdac, and Warlaw remain and they have now decided to come together to re-establish Clan Erin. Unfortunately, not all of the Clansmen are happy with the proposal and seek to prevent it from coming to pass. The Player Characters are hired as extra and neutral security for a moot where the terms of their re-uniting once again will be settled.

The adventure is divided into three booklets. The terms of the moot will be settled in the first part, ‘Clan Erin’s Moot’ by Akeem Favor’, but not without an attempt to stop it and the discovery that the legitimacy of the new clan leader cannot be confirmed without the Crown of Clan Erin. This has been lost for centuries, but there are clues as to where it might be. The Player Characters are asked to undertake this quest, detailed in the second part, ‘Valley of Misfortune’ by Mother of Goblins II. The quest will take them through a forest poisoned by souls and enables the Narrator to bring the Journey mechanics into play. Here the emphasis on combat and interaction of the first part switches to exploration and combat and one of the pleasing story elements about the situation in ‘Valley of Misfortune’—unconnected to , ‘Clan Erin’s Moot’—is that there are no real villains. In ‘Crypt Erin’, the third and final part of the scenario by Anthony Alipio III, the Player Characters locate and travel to the crypt where the Crown of Clan Erin might lie. Although the final scenes of this third part take place underground, this is not a dungeon in the classic roleplaying sense and although there is the possibility of combat, the resolution of the scenario lie in solving a puzzle and interaction rather than a fight. By the end of it, the Player Characters are likely to have discovered some clan secrets, resolved them, and enabled the peaceful re-founding of Clan Erin.

Altogether, the scenario provides a good mix of playstyles and activities, moving first from intrigue and interaction to exploration and combat and second the puzzle solving and interaction. The first and second parts will take the longest, likely two sessions each, whilst the final part can be played through in a single session. The scenario is supported by the three double-sided poster maps and the two sheets of counters which are perfectly scaled for use with the poster maps.

Physically, the Level Up Starter Box is well presented. The artwork is good, the explanations of the rules are good, and so on. In places, the scenarios are overwritten.

The Level Up Starter Box succeeds on its remit of, “We hear you like playing Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Here have some options to make your play more interesting.” The changes and additions are clearly presented and explained, and the scenario is a good mix of interaction, exploration, and combat. In fact, if the players have any experience in roleplaying, they could probably understand what is presented in the Level Up Starter Box without necessarily having played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The use of Fourth Level Player Characters showcases much more of what Player Characters in Level Up are capable of rather than First Level Player Characters. The Level Up Starter Box is a solid and easy playing introduction to Level Up for when the Game Master wants to become a Narrator and her players want to keep playing, but want more of what Dungeons & Dragons offers.