I’ve had the pleasure of digging into some amazing Dungeons & Dragons editions from Beadle & Grimm’s. My first exposure to them was with the Silver Edition of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. I got to explore their very first Legendary Edition with Curse of Strahd. And most recently, I took a dive into the Shadowy Silver Edition of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Now, hot on the heels of their release of Critical Role’s Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn Boxed Edition, Beadle & Grimm’s has delivered both Silver and Platinum Editions of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, the most recent D&D adventure from Wizards of the Coast. And for the first time, I get to look into one of their Platinum Editions, which are Beadle & Grimm’s most deluxe sets. Even more deluxe than the Legendary Edition of Curse of Strahd? Let’s take a look!
As with my other coverage of the boxed editions from Beadle & Grimm’s, this is not a review of the Wild Beyond the Witchlight adventure book. For that, you can take a look at fellow GeekDad Simon Yule’s review from last September. Instead, this will be a review of the contents of the 20 lb box of goodies that comprises the Platinum Edition of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. To warn you, there will inevitably be spoilers for the adventure in this review. While that won’t be an issue for any Dungeon Masters looking into running the adventure, prospective players of the campaign may want to not look too closely at all of the photos to follow.
Some Spoilers for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Campaign Ahead!
What Is Beadle & Grimm’s Platinum Edition of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight?
Carefully packed inside of the shipping box, you’ll find the items pictured above. Needless to say, there’s a lot more inside the boxes and poster tube. Don’t worry, we’ll be taking a look at everything!
Butterfly Wings
First up, to my surprise and delight, there are four sets of wearable Butterfly Wings included in the box. These are given to the characters by the goblin ticketer Nikolas Midnight when they enter the Witchlight Carnival.
The wings are fabric pressed onto plastic and come in four different colors. Elastic straps on the inside of the wings make them wearable by the players.
Sir Talavar Plushy
This is a stuffed toy version of the NPC the players encounter in Hither. It can be used as a carnival game prize or any other use of the DM’s devising.
Sir Talavar’s wings have a wire inset, allowing for some poseability.
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Miniatures
As with most of the published Dungeons & Dragons adventures, WizKids produced a set of painted plastic miniatures of many of the NPCs from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Included with the Lengendary Edition is a selection of 17 of those miniatures.
And here’s a closer look at each of the 17 miniatures included in the set:
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Map Vault
Inside the large poster tube, you’ll find many oversized maps. One of these is a poster-sized map of Prismeer, printed on canvas:
Here’s a closer look, where you can see the quality of the printed canvas:
There is also a poster-sized map of the Witchlight Carnival, the entry point of the adventure. This is printed on heavy canvas paper.
Also included are original design gridded Battle Maps, printed on the same canvas paper as the Witchlight Carnival map:
The Battle Maps are from seven key areas of the adventure.
The Main Box
Now we come to the main attraction, the massive box that holds the bulk of the materials for the Platinum Edition. The box has a linen-bound cover with a magnetic clasp and is a sight to behold and quite the handful. To get an idea of just how big it is, here’s a comparison with the Shadowy Silver Edition of Ravenloft:
I’m going to cover the contents as they’re found, layer by layer as you descend into the depths of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight box. When you first pop open the lid, you’re greeted with a leaflet containing a welcome letter from the team at Beadle & Grimm’s, as well as a full listing of the contents of the Platinum Edition.
Not to mention, nestled in a foam cradle, a Unicorn Horn which will be found by the players at some point in the adventure.
Underneath the leaflet is a folder, containing all sorts of assorted area maps and handouts.
The nine area maps of Prismeer are on sturdy paper, with space on the backs of each for notes.
There are also several pieces of correspondence. (With more to be found later in the box—spoilers!) These, like letters in previous Beadle & Grimm’s editions, are printed on various types of paper and with different handwriting to give a more immersive feel.
Next up is a handy, double-sided story tracker. This is printed on sturdy laminated paper, so you can use a dry-erase marker should you want to run the adventure again.
Similarly, the Snail Race tracker can be written on with a dry-erase marker.
Rounding out the contents of the folder is a Unicorn Carousel Puzzle:
And a random table of Bullywug lines, for a potential encounter in Downfall:
Underneath the folder, you’ll find a custom DM screen, with original art by Patricia Pria of both the Witchlight Carnival and Prismeer.
Inside the screen are tables and content geared specifically towards running a The Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign.
Under the DM screen, there’s a stack of various in-world handouts. Right at the top, one of the most charming items to be found in the box are some beautiful Carnival Tickets, representing the tickets given to the adventurers when they enter the Witchlight Carnival. The stubs on the tickets are even perforated, so you could tear them off upon entry.
There’s a bunch more correspondence and other documents, including a series of Wanted Posters that the players will find throughout Thither.
A familiar sight to those who’ve experienced Beadle & Grimm’s sets before is the collection of pre-generated characters, so you can jump players right into the action. In this case, all of these characters have been tailored towards resolving encounters without combat. For those of you unfamiliar with The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, the entire adventure was designed in a way that you can always find ways to progress the story without combat, should you want to play in that style.
This is a Writer’s Guide for Endelyn’s Play, which will help the characters prepare for the play.
And a poster, to introduce the players to the Witchlight Carnival:
Next up we have Fairy Tales From the Warehouse, a set of bonus encounters that tie into a location on the map of Prismeer that isn’t fully explored in the Wizards of the Coast adventure book. There are three included encounters, each of which emphasizes roleplaying over combat and include original artwork.
And as with all of the Beadle & Grimm’s sets, the book The Wild Beyond the Witchlight has been broken down into six smaller, softcover books. This allows the DM to more conveniently access the chapters they’re currently using.
Lifting out the books reveals even more contents, most of them nestled in custom foam. The first of these is a Sun/Moon Bag. It comes loaded with Stagefright’s Line Prompts, which are handed out to players during the A Tragedy in the Making encounter.
A metal Weathervane token can be used to track the mood of the Witchlight Carnival.
A wearable Valor’s Call Badge is worn by Strongheart in the adventure and can be received as a reward for completing one of the bonus encounters.
This metal Completion Coin can be used either to celebrate making it all the way through the adventure, or as an inspiration token. It’s the first of a complete set of completion coins that Beadle & Grimm’s will be offering with each of their Editions moving forward.
One of the game aids that I was surprised and delighted to find in this set was a deck of NPC roleplaying cards. These will be very handy references for the DM throughout the game. While the deck is arranged in alphabetical order, below each name is also shown the chapter in which the NPC appears.
Of similar use is a deck of quick reference cards for the magic items found in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. There are 52 cards, which may be given to the players—once they’ve identified the magic items, that is. The cards are double-sided, with art on one side and the item description on the back.
The penultimate items found in the main box are a large stack of folding cards which reprint artwork from the book. These can be hung over the DM screen to share the images with the players.
Finally, there are 60 included Encounter cards. Like the artwork cards, these are designed to hang over the DM screen, with the artwork of the NPC they are facing showing to the players, and all of the DM info on the reverse side.
Why This May Be the Best Beadle & Grimm’s Edition Yet
Wow, that was a lot of stuff, wasn’t it? To be fair, when I told you how much the entire package weighed, you probably had a pretty good guess as to just how much would be found inside Beadle & Grimm’s Platinum Edition of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Still, knowing is not the same as actually seeing with your own eyes.
This is the 4th Platinum Edition of a D&D adventure that Beadle & Grimm’s has put out, but the first one that I’ve gotten in hand. I was just floored by all the great content. Having reviewed a few of their sets before, I was fully expecting the loving attention to detail found in the maps, handouts, and artifacts. But a genuine surprise to me was many of the game aids. As a DM myself, anything that can make prepping and running an adventure easier is extremely valuable. In fact, one of the items that I got the most excited about was the deck of NPC roleplaying cards. While not as flashy as many of the inclusions in the Platinum Edition, these cards are a welcome addition and one of the many reminders that the team over at Beadle & Grimm’s are roleplaying gamers, first and foremost. My one minor nitpick is that I would have loved for the cards to come in a deck box, as with the Magic Item cards.
The Platinum Edition is a fantastic blend of utility and aesthetics. The design work by the Beadle & Grimm’s team blends seamlessly with the artwork from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Everything inside this edition will be of use by the Dungeon Master, whether in making it easier to run the adventure or in enhancing the experience for the players.
After looking at all the contents, it probably won’t surprise you that a set this comprehensive comes with a matching price tag. The Platinum Edition of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will set you back a cool $499. While you may initially balk at the sum, you are receiving an enormous amount of content. And with a party of four and a DM, that’s $100 per person… a small investment for everything you’ll add to a campaign which for most people will take a year or two to complete.
I’m looking forward to getting The Wild Beyond the Witchlight to the table, and I know I already have at least one player who has their eyes set on that Sir Talavar plushy… Dru, I’m looking at you! Beadle & Grimm’s Platinum Edition of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is strictly limited, but copies are still available at Beadle & Grimm’s webstore. There is also a smaller Silver Edition available for $175, which has some of the great content to be found in the Platinum Edition. But once you’ve seen all the amazing content in the Platinum Edition, you may find it hard to settle for less.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received a copy of the Beadle & Grimm’s Platinum Edition of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight for review purposes.
