D&D Miniatures: Set 5 -Aberrations
 

First Impressions by Gerry Smit

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Oct 21, 2004.

The first change I noticed was the total lack of shrink wrap. Both thestarter box and the Aberrationsbooster are sealed with glue! This raises two interesting (and scary)points: many shops have shrink-wrappers, so how many stores wereopening product, substituting less desireable rares for more , and thenre-wrapping?  and (ii)  I hope the glue holds for the year ormore they'll be on the shelves. (1 year based on the Harbinger starters still availableat stores here in Toronto).

Opening the glued Starter Set box was EASY. The glue snapped, muchpreferable to "the box ripped". (But see my earlier concern about theglue holding).

The contents were what you'd expect :
- 12 plastic bags with various miniatures.
- a stack of shrink-wrapped stat cards
- a bunch of tiles.
- a rule book
- some ads
- AND TWO QUICK START sheets  (not that I'm foreshadowing anythinghere).

The ads went into the recycle box. Something about "buy your PHB formore adventure".  (duh!)

The bags of miniatures were the same as always. Oh, the mix is 1 Rare,3 Uncommons, 8 Commons.   (I LOVE the Kobold Sorcerer. Andjust in time to drop into my playing of The Sunless Citadel, the module I'mrunning as part of our local World DnD celebrations).

The stat cards have had a fairly nice face lift. They're now all"brownscale", if you know what I mean.   Primary stats ofLevel , Speed, AC, and HP are down the left side. Typical abilities areat the top . ie Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Type.   And thenALL special abilities, including commander effects, follow as brokenout "bullet points". Making the card much cleaner, and easier to read.

The tiles are looking good, and clearly are meant to work with thosefrom the Harbinger starter.For example, the Assembly tiles are labelled "Assembly Tile 3" and"Assembly Tile 4". The "Aftermath" tile is hilarious. I always thoughtthat "defeated characters" should remain on the board and create"slowed movement zones".  If you agree, then you're gonna love"Aftermath!"   Given that the tiles continue from where Harbinger left off, I'm gladmy local shopkeeper took my advice. He'ld been opening Harbinger starter packs andre-stocking the single sales area for a while. I'd suggested he sellthe tile and counter packs.   Turns out they'll be moreuseful then either of us thought!

The rule book is entirely GREYSCALE.  Fine, keep the costs down.Put the money in the miniatures!!!  Great Idea!  I haven'tread it yet, but will on the commute home tonight. Shouldn't be anysurprises, the contents have been on Wizards site for a month or morenow....

THE QUICK START sheets !! Whoo HOO !!

I'm running a DDM bonspeil tomorrow for new players.  (Bonspeil is"league in a day" for those of you who know nothing of the ancient andhonourable sport of curling!)   The quick sheets will be justthe thing to kick everything off with.  What a great add to thegame, and new players!

Well, caffeine break is over, and my compile is coming back from themainframe  (yes some of us still do THAT!) , so see ya!

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