Legendary Edition of Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (D&D)

First off, I really REALLY want to like this product. I really do. There are a handful of things I look for to enhance game play: handouts and battle maps. Not mini book-size maps that are already readily available, but BATTLE MAPS. This product advertised 32! BATTLE MAPS. Unless you're using a small bead or a sequin or something, most of these maps aren't any better than the ones supplied by the original content in the campaign book.

Yes, there are a handful of key ones, but I feel you guys took a cheap way out by printing the simple ones (Old Owl Well and Wyvern Tor, for example) and omitting the ones that DMs strapped for time will be hard-pressed to draw up (Thundertree is massive, where's that? Cragmaw Castle is poster-sized at best, where's that? The Redbrand Hideout? We got ONE ROOM. ONE.

I was aware that the minis would be kinda meh, 3 mind flayers (2 exactly the same mold, just painted differently--one red, one green iirc) and a pair of intellect devourers.

The big cloth map of the region would have been soooo cool if it didn't just spoil nearly every key location that the party is supposed to work to reveal. What we have is a cloth map that's basically only good for this side of the DMs Screen. I would have loved to been able to hand my players a map not made of paper and say here you are, where do you want to go? They would have appreciated it so much as well.

The factions pins are cool, and I do like the attention to detail with them. I like the completion coin, but am I supposed to cough up another $20 per player for a souvenir?

The player handouts were alright, but nothing to write home about. The paper quality was a bit less than I had hoped for, and I'm not sure how well they'll hold up over time. They do help with immersion, so I won't ding the overall product based on paper quality.

I haven't even opened the adventure chapter books yet since I'm just so disappointed in the things many of us feel are important for immersion. For the price I paid, I expect a truly LEGENDARY chunk of material. Give us the maps! There are roughly 32-33 maps including in the normal campaign book, how can you advertise that you have 32 battle maps when you have one poster that has all the maps printed in the same scale as the book?

So TLDR;
Relevant BATTLE MAPS! Not included (at least not 32 as advertised) 1 STAR

Regional cloth map! Has all the relevant points marked so ruins immersion 0 STARS

Pins and Coin! A nice addition, but you'd have to spend $20/player if/when you complete the campaign and want to give them a souvenir OR if you have multiple players running the same faction and want to give them each something cool. 3 STARS

Overall probably not going to spend the money on one of these again. Maybe think what DMs/Players want and include those next time? Definitely contemplating asking for a refund as this was maybe worth $100-150 not close to $400 with shipping. Ridiculous.

Whenever something comes out set in the world I created over fifty-five years ago, I rush to get it with both eagerness and trepidation: will it be good? YES! Legendary Phandelver & Below is beautiful. Love, it, love it! I will, of course, be adding lore, as every DM does. Feed your goblins well; they do great work!

I ordered this set having been amazed by previous standards set by other limited editions produced by B&G.
Just the level of thought and craftsmanship that has gone into producing this edition justified the purchase.
I like the way that B&G split the original adventure into separate books to allow the DM to easily find information without losing any of the quality from the original product.
The handouts and the maps are absolutely divine and meet the expectations from a B&G product.
Highly recommended to anyone who wants to take their campaign to the next level.

I was planning a Phandelver/Cthulhu crossover & this new release was spot on. However, the B&G Phandelver box was so amazing, so jam-packed with maps/handouts I just wanted to run the lost mines again just for fun.

I will start by saying that this is, overall, an excellent product with a lot of wonderful content, with the quality I've come to love from B&G. The separated books and broken-out art are handy, the handouts are on a varied and high quality assortment of paper, canvas, and cardstock which looks great and feels good in the hands, the accessories are lovely updates to the faction symbols (I personally prefer the more modest-looking, "worn" versions from the Dragon Heist box, but that's personal preference -- these new ones are bigger, flashier, great quality, and more eye-catching), the handful of minis are what you would expect from WizKids' prepainted offerings, and the maps are well-detailed and a great addition.

At least, the maps THEMSELVES are great. Their condition and packing is less so. For all previous Platinum, Legendary, and Gold boxes I've purchased from B&G have shipped their maps rolled in a sturdy cardboard tube with plastic caps and thematic art wrapped around it. This provides a great way to store and protect these maps, which are so nice as to serve dual function as maps and as in-game props. The maps and battlemats from the Phandelver & Below box, however, arrived in a faux-leather folio, folded and creased with their corners crushed. The folio offers no protection for the maps, requires that they be refolded and re-creased every time you put them away unless you purchase a separate storage solution, and need significant effort to remove the creases before using them.

It's not a deal breaker, but it is certainly not what I have come to expect from B&G products of similar price points, and it was a bit of a disappointment. I hope future products will see a return to the old map tubes. In fact, it has caused me to hold off on ordering the new DM Vault for Planescape until I can determine how the maps therein will be packed.

Aside from the issue of the map folio, however, this is an excellent set and a great way to revisit a beloved 5e adventure (or just add a lot of goodies to your own adventures around the northern Sword Coast) -- especially if you're not as map-obsessed as I am. :)

This is my 4th "Edition" purchase from Beadle & Grimm's. I've bought a regular Special Edition, a Silver Edition, and a Platinum Edition before buy this one. I can confidently and happily say that the Legendary Edition of P&BtSO is by far the best one out of them all. It blew me away with the quality of the content. I especially loved the suprise (was not advertised and cannot be found in any descriptions or picutures on site) high quality grey folder they threw in to the whole thing that came outside of the box to hold all of the Map related items. It is so nice and i plan on using it for other D&D related things! (I put in a photo of it from the back)
All around the best product I have seen them put out so far and really makes me look forward to the future projects by B&G!

As per usual, the quality is astounding. However, it's the map pack and DM screen I'm disappointed in. The faux leather case the maps come in is a neat touch, but this is a legendary edition; why are my maps folded!? Where's my Map Vault poster tube like in my Gold Edition of Absalom? It seems a shame my Gold Edition got better treatment than my Legendary Edition. Not only that, but the map case is soft sided. The majority of my maps are crushed along the edges and corners. As a plus, the Phandalin region map is stunning on canvas.

As for the DM screen, the print that's glued to the board is rigid and inflexible. The first time I opened it, the center seam tried to crunch and crack, and it looked like the glue was trying to release itself from the board beneath. Even opening it carefully, the seams bubble and bulge and look very unattractive.

Lastly, the faction pins broke loose from the packing and were rattling around in the bottom of the box. Luckily, there was no noticeable damage.

Everything else is beautiful and thoughtfully included, and the quality is what I expect of B+G. I'm a little upset about the things I mentioned, but I'm still very happy with my purchase overall. Three stars for the left over "if onlys."

One major reason I ordered it was the hope that there would be more maps but I understand they are expensive to make. Wave Echo Cave has so much going for it but you only put in two areas.

Liked the maps and easy to use materials

Legendary Edition of Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (D&D)

Love all the maps!

My players absolutely adored the pins that came with this set. The minis are fantastic, the maps and other goodies are top notch. Excellent purchase, well worth the investment.

The set is great and the battle maps and annotated maps are super helpful. I just hate that the handouts are not labeled in anyway. It's incredibly frustrating trying to figure out which ones they mean before each session. This has lead to several just being skipped because they are too vague.

If there was a key for the DM or a label on the backside like the artwork it would be amazing.

Beadle & Grimm’s really pulls the best of the adventures to the surface with nice and useful props and maps. And the exploded book editions make my job easier, when I can lessen my bag load by taking just the ones I need. Thank you!

Absolutely amazing collection of everything you need to run an amazing adventure

I'm really impressed. It has a lot of detail, making this perfect for first-time DMs.

I am really enjoying it so far. I have DM'd all the way to chapter four almost. The maps and stat blocks are so far the most useful. The reason for four stars is I wish this included all possible battle maps and stat blocks. Additionally the three mindflayer minis are meant to be stand-ins for the three near the end boss fight. However, they are just generic mindflayers. There are specific ones made by Wizkids that actually look like the artwork in the book. It would have been cool to have those. So overall this product is good. But with a few additions it could have been great.

Fantastic set, canvas looks great, and the maps are spectacular. Interesting DM Screen.

Legendary Edition of Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk (D&D)

I've been on vacation for the last week or so so had to put off playing till tonight but definitely looking forward to immersing my players in the forgotten realm setting.

I enjoyed going through everything in the box - it made me want to ask the group to play more often because I am excited to show everything to the players. As others have mentioned, I would have preferred if the nicer Sword Coast map were a player map instead of a DM map because now I can't use it with the players as early as I otherwise would have. Aside from that, I have enjoyed the product.