Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Boardgames

The Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Boardgame System is a series of  high fantasy dungeon crawls. The components of all three boxes are compatible, so you can mix them all together and get one huge game. It´s a coop game, wich plays perfectly solo.

Gameplay is simple and very straight forward. You move your character and attack. A simple die roll against your combat value will do. If you ended the movement on the edge of the map, you explore and place a tile and a new monster. If you don´t explore, you draw an event card, wich is always bad. If you win a fight, draw some treasure like weapons, armour, blessings…

This is basically it.

You have to fulfill a mission. In general find a special room and fight a boss there. Sometimes go in and find a specific item….Simple things like that. Each box comes with 13 missions, so overall you´ll have 39 missions, dozens of monsters, events and treasures. There are about 15 different heroes, each with it´s own abilities and attack styles…

The minis are some of the best that I´ve seen until now. Some of them come in an impressive size and look just fantastic. Map tiles are also of an outstanding quality. You´ll get tons of little markers for items, conditions, doors, traps and all kinds of things, all solid cardstock. The only weakness componentwise is the lack of art. It´s so sad because here they really wasted an opportunity to make this fantastic game a perfect one. The cards have no art at all, except for the monsters with a small black and white sketch. Map tiles nearly all look the same…clean and empty. It´s astounding that the game has still so much atmosphere. The fast pace, the simple rules capture you completely. With the backstories of the D&D world and all the stuff you get, you feel really in a huge world.

Absolutely one of my favorites!

 

 

 

castle ravenloft cover

Believe it or not, but this twirp who looks like a 13 year old punk on halloween is the mighty Count Strahd, lord of Castle Ravenloft, and he´s terrorising the villages nearby. So on various missions, the heroes will explore the castle, kill Strahds minions, find the tomb of the cruel vampire and teach him a lesson (meaning kill him).

Thematically, this box focusses on undead monsters, but of course you can mix them with the others. I´ll do a playthrough here.

 

 

 

wrath of ashardalon cover

The mighty dragon Ashardalon has it´s lair deep in some fiery mountains. Many adventurers tried to loot his hoard. Few came back, and the ones that did found only horror and pain….great! It´s all left for us then!

The heroes enter the dungeon beneath the volcano where Ashardalon lives, awaiting bravely the terrors and monsters that fate holds for them.

Playthrough is here.

 

 

 

 

 

Legend of Drizzt

This box follows the hero Drizzt Do´Urden, protagonist of some D&D novels, and his companions on their deadly adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  • Stephan says:

    I have watched your playthroughs and enjoyed them a lot.
    Have you tried Temple of Elemental Evil? If so, what do you think about it?

  • Leobyn says:

    These are fun games and I can’t wait for Temple of Elemental Evil! However, Shadows of Brimstone seems to have stolen all the playtime from my other games of this type.

    • A lonesome Gamer says:

      I still love to play these. Sometimes, I prefer the high fantasy theme. Also the fast pace sometimes is an issue when I choose what to play.

  • Finbar says:

    Ya – this game is amazing. The more i have played it, the more respect i have for the system. At first i tried variants to have monsters act differently, use less encounter cards, etc. But soon i went right back to playing it with the official rules, because in the end I think it’s a masterful work and is balanced so well that variants are not really needed. It’s amazing to me how most of the time (not always, but mostly), no matter the scenario, it comes down to the wire – you win, but just by a hair, or lose but almost win. The system is elegant, and has endless playability. I’ve painted all the Ravenloft minis – took me so long! But with the minis painted it just brings so much more to the game.

    You know, the lack of art on the cards doesn’t bother me at all, as I enjoy picturing what they are talking about – which is kind of like what you do in the D&D RPG. I fully agree with you though with regard to the tiles. They are very good quality, and function perfectly (clever that they made them fit like puzzle pieces) but wow are they BLAND. Compare them to the tiles in Claustrophobia and it’s easy to see what a lazy job was done on them. I mean, im no designer, but I myself could have made more interesting tiles! And its important for them to look interesting, as thats the thing you’re staring at the whole time. Anyway, thats really my only complaint – and you are totally right about the mini’s – top notch for sure. Actually, i think for the price of these games, it is the number one best value out of any games in existence.

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