Saturday, April 9, 2011

A Bright Future

The new Dungeons and Dragons board game is fun to play even for RPG pen and paper players like us! This game is like the Dungeon board game from the 70s where you made your way through the dungeon battling monsters, outwitting traps, and finding treasure. It's like that but on extreme steroids. Here's the deal. The game doesn't include an actual playing board but instead dungeon tiles are used for the same purpose. Each tile is laid one player turn at a time to provide the same level of mystery as role playing. On the tiles you use player and monster figures. Supporting items include cards for character classes, treasure, monsters, traps, damage, and others. You only need to provide one thing - the familar 20 sided die. Unlike RPG the game advanced quickly in a three part process. The player starts by declaring an action such as attacking and/or moving. Then a dungeon tile is pulled for exploration of the area. Finally, a monster takes an action that may include attacking and/or moving. Weapons, spells, damage, and other key turn factors are simplified to reduce complexity and increase fun. To that end the player has a handful of character class selections that replace the familiar feats, skills, and spells. The result is a simple inviting format for fantasy gaming. There's still much to learn in terms of basic gameplay so the first few times through the game may take longer than expected (average is 1.5 hours). Get a group of up to 5 friends together and enjoy!