Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon

Who am I: Middle aged married guy who loves Sci fi, video games and fantasy novels. Used to play D&D and then AD&D around twenty years ago. Haven't been involved with any serious groups since then so I have no experience with any editions of D&D that cause such a rift in the community. This means that I am not hopelessly in love with any specific Edition of D&D. -Note for various D&D Edition FanGirls and FanBoys- If you are a 4th Edition Hater and can't get past that, you most likely will not enjoy these games as they are based, in general, on the 4th Edition rule set. If you don't know what that statement means, or if you are capable of enjoying what each Edition has to offer, you should have no problems. Why I love the D&D Adventure Systems: Castle Ravenloft(CR), Wrath of Ashardalon(WoA) and Legend of Drizzt(LoD): They work as a stand alone product and offer a dungeon crawling, limited leveling, monster slaying experience with no previous knowledge of how D&D works. And all in sessions that can be finished in an hour or two. The minimal time commitment involved is fantastic. Or, if you find yourself filled with nostalgia and desire a fuller, longer campaign with further leveling options or new characters, these games can be tweaked to allow for that. Especially with some of the user created content online, the photoshop templates on boardgamegeek.com in particular are wonderful. Also this [....] address has a plethora of new content. The extra leveling options are definitely my favorite. The truth is that I screamed in happiness when I ran across them. I sounded like a ten year old girl getting a pony. A unicorn pony. with wings. A Unicorn Pegasus Pony that appeared in a shimmer of rainbow colors. And now I am deeply ashamed...........*sigh* I am such a nerd. The game system totally allows for expandability in many ways. It's kind of a gateway drug for D&D honestly. I find myself consistently wanting just a bit more of the actual RPG experience. We tweak the game a bit and suddenly our experience is just a bit fuller and more satisfying. Not nearly as detailed and time intensive as an actual D&D or Pathfinder game though. Such a great balance for us. They don't have to be expanded upon though, to be immensely enjoyable. Any of the three games are enough in and of themselves to be hugely gratifying and offer much re-playability. The expandability is just something that makes them extra cool and versatile in my opinion. All three systems use totally interchangeable materials. Some of the cards may be context sensitive and not seem to fit in a particular environment but other than that you can use everything in each of the games. This provides Awesomeness Bonus of +2. The map tiles and figurines both are an unbeatable value and can be easily incorporated into a "real" D&D session. Everything in the box, other than the manuals, is of superb quality. The figurines alone would easily cost you double what you pay for the set here. And if you paint figurines, which I do, you will have just gained around forty new minis to paint. Joy in and of itself there. Possible Cons: I saw in the review for one of the three games that some dude was just totally disgusted with how these games "punish" the players for almost every activity they engage in. The guy was totally a Hater. However, he wasn't necessarily wrong. The game does seem to be constantly throwing things at you that often don't feel fair. Notably, the Encounter cards. Which brings me to the next con and a solution to the "punishment" issue.... The instruction manual will not answer every question that will come up. It is left up to the players to decide how certain things should work. Which is how a "real" D&D game works. Your group plays the game the way they want to play it. If you simply cannot function without every rule spelled out for you, this may be a problem. Otherwise you'll be fine. And in terms of rule tweaking and the punishment issue- we decided to change how often we draw encounter cards as well as a couple other minor aspects of the game. This has served to make our sessions a lot more fun. Don't be afraid to tweak the rules in order to play the game how you want to play it. The manuals are pretty cheaply put together. They may not hold up well to use by younger players or spilled drinks. I took ours apart and put the pages in plastic binder inserts. We now have all the material for all the games in a single, sturdy, custom decorated notebook. Which is awesome btw. (Disclaimer for claim of awesomeness: I created the custom artwork:) Space. With all the cards and map tiles and bags of monsters and tokens that get used in a typical session, you may find you need a bit more space than an average board game. All of the aforementioned items can quickly end up being a mess. As a solution we have everything securely contained in varying sizes of ziplock bags. Including the map tiles in a 1 Gallon size bag. Perfect for storage and during play. There is no actual role playing or in town scenarios. If you want to get into a brawl over the serving wench's honor at The Yawning Portal Inn in the city of Waterdeep, then you should just find a gaming group and play Pathfinder or D&D(any Edition). Or perhaps, after stumbling into a gathering of Dirty Orcs in the Gloomy Forest of Gloom and Terror, you want to attempt to use an illusion to convince them you are a deity and sell them into slavery in the Land of Thay. As opposed to just killing them. Again, just go find a full-on game of D&D. These systems can be worked to allow for things like that to some degree, but they aren't designed to be open world or allow for anything other than a dungeon crawl with combat and a final, combat based, objective. So: If you want "real" D&D, then you may be more satisfied finding a group and getting involved. If you want a game that allows you to engage in D20 based combat, with figurines, that represent a character with minimal leveling capacity. And that can be played by anyone. These systems may be just the thing for you. Also of note: The Dungeon Command games have interchangeable map tiles, monster cards and figurines that can be used seamlessly with the Adventure Systems. I love this as it ads even more expansion options.

If you are a fan of Dungeons and Dragons or other adventure/exploration games, you should definitely give WoA a try. My two kids (13 & 15) and I have not been able to stop playing since we got this. The game requires no "Dungeon Master" and it pits you and your friends against the dungeon beasts. Several scenarios can be chosen to launch the game, and these varying in difficulty and duration. We found that the first two scenarios were more about learning the flow of the game, but things really got fun in the third scenario (first one that used the chamber tiles). The game comes with predetermined heroes, from which each player chooses. Each has unique abilities, with cards to remind you of the damage, healing or characteristic of abilities. The dungeon is created from tiles that are randomly selected as the game progresses. Each dungeon tile explored has either a random monster, random encounter, or both. Monsters are "handled" by the player that drew them, but they come with an attack strategy. While the monster cards are not that great to look at, they do give a fairly detailed attack strategy that allows the player to determine which hero the monster attacks or other actions a monster may do (ex. Kobolds love to go looking for help from their friends). The monster and hero figures are high quality, but are unpainted. If you desire to paint the figures, do some web searching and you will quickly find a vast community of gamers willing to help you. My kids and I were ecstatic to find that our monsters from the Dungeon Command series were compatible with WoA. Mixing our monster cards from Dungeon Command into the monster deck from WoA makes things even more challenging. There's nothing more intimidating than revealing you chamber monsters and realizing you have to face an Ogre and a Dracolich, along with the baddies already in play. I do have a few minor complaints. The box is IMPRESSIVE and high quality. The choice of heroes is a bit strange, and I wish they'd included male and female version of both. The instructions manuals are printed on thin paper, and given the extremely high quality of the other components, they definitely should have made the manuals more durable. The artwork on the monster cards is boring compared to those from the Dungeon Command series. I wish they would have made the treasures that Increase Armor Class or Attack "stackable", so that they were easier to keep track of (as in Dungeon Command). I may mark my cards along the bottom edge to serve this purpose. Overall, this is a GREAT game, and well worth the purchase price. It has given us hours of enjoyment and quality time together, untethered from our electronic devices. The game lends itself to customization of monster sets allowing the utilization of monsters from other D&D sets (i.e., Dungeon Command). Although there is no true character design, as the heroes are a predetermined group, with some imagination, there is no reason that you could not design your own hero cards. Buy this game!

3 stars with out of the box rules. 5 stars with rule tweak suggestions by gaming community. With rule tweaks it became a great game that the whole family (including Mom) enjoyed. Also my son loved playing with his friends from ages 10-14. Standard Rules are very confusing and strict interpretation lead to 3 very unfun ending adventures where everyone always dies. In lieu of cheating on die rolls to keep it somewhat fun near the end, visited the website boardgamegeek for some consensus suggestions on how to fix the rules: 1) For drawing the per turn encounter cards changed to one card per tile if a character is in it instead of one per player. This usually limited the game tun to 1-2 encounter cards per turn instead of 3-4 (we played with 4 players). 2) The Campaign is a progression of 15+ scenarios which become tougher, but with the standard rules you achieve 2nd level for each character after 1 or 2 scenarios and then are stuck at 2nd level while the scenarios become tougher (not fun). Community has rules to modify campaign to achieve levels 3-7. With these rule tweaks, replayed the scenarios and it was so much fun that we played each day for four straight days over Christmas break and decided to have a game day once per week. Publisher should really modify the official rules to reflect community consensus for future printing, but since you can tweak the rules, not a show stopper.

I was skeptical about 'Castle Ravenloft' despite it having received mostly glowing reviews so I decided to skip it when it was released last Fall. Having played a lot of Dungeon and Dragons Miniatures 2.0 [DDM 2.0] 'til it died in 2008 [and kept alive via fans and members of the design team, some of whom worked on CR and Wrath of Ashardalon [WoA] and enjoyed D&D and AD&D from the original Gygax offerings thru 4th Edition, I wasn't sure if this self-contained boardgame would offer enough entertainment variety for me and my fantasy RPG combat-heavy loving friends. Having read all of the positive reviews on Amazon as well as other sites including ars technica and mtv.com of all places, I felt as if I was duty bound to acquire this game for some reason. The main draw for me was that it contained additional elements beyond what was offered in CR [which again, I hadn't played]. Once I received WoA, I couldn't have been happier that I took the plunge! The quality of the gamepieces and punchout tiles and tokens are top notch. The last time I purchased a boardgame was September of 2009 when Games Workshop re-released their latest anniversary edition of Space Hulk; that was an exceptional product overall and cost $100. D&D: WoA felt nearly equal in quality once I removed everything from the confines of its ginormous box; pretty good for something that cost less than $50 via Amazon.com! I've played several of the included adventures with people whose ages ranged from 8 (my eldest son) to 38, some with boardgame or RP/miniatures skirmish based experience and some with none at all; it was very easy to introduce the rules to all of them and in every instance we all had a great time. Some of the people I 'snookered' into playing this were sold on the concept that they would essentially be playing a tangible, 3-D ver. of the classic game 'Gauntlet' or Rogue-like dungeon crawlers that are still popular today [on phones or the DS/PSP, etc.]. It's greatest strength is probably due to the fact that it's a co-operative game; we all definitely enjoyed the pressure of meeting the required goals and succeeding at them, yet also each having the ability to deter us all from completing those goals due to every Encounter card draw or Monster/Villain action per player's turns. I've since received D&D: Castle Ravenloft as a gift, and have come to enjoy that tremendously as well. I look forward to future game sessions where we'll mix and match the components of either game. D&D: The Legend of Drizz't can't come out soon enough....

The short, short, version: Wrath of Ashardalon is exactly what it says on the box--a D&D boardgame. If that seems too obvious to be worth stating, read on. Like probably millions of other aging geeks, I have fond memories of loooong nights at the game table with friends in high school and college, roleplaying until our eyes bled. But now I have a real job and a family and I'd be lucky to get a group together monthly for half an evening. So I was pretty excited when I saw Wrath of Ashardalon, because I was hoping that it would deliver the sugar high of a good dungeon crawl without the prep work or running time of the RPGs I used to play. Now, in its defense, the game does pretty well. The bits are very nice, the rules are mostly clear, and the DM-less play works okay. It's not perfect. Occasionally you may run into situations you have to house-rule. I'm okay with that, but YMMV. This game is sort of the epitome of Ameritrash (and I say this fondly, as someone contemplating buying a 3rd version of Risk): loads of theme, loads of violence, and loads--LOADS--of randomness. I realize that's part and parcel here, but it really sucks to work your way into a great (or at least survivable) tactical position and then watch your carefully hoarded powers and hit points disappear in a flurry of bad rolls (come to think of it, that sucks in Risk, too). One thing I did not expect is that the game can drag on for hours. Except for a few special powers, no-one can kill more than one monster per turn, but you often get one monster per turn. Several of the encounter cards grow the dungeon for you whether you want them to or not, which keeps adding monsters. Then there are sentry monsters, which can open up new areas and thereby bring more monsters into the game. More than once we've had to retreat to a narrow hallway, bottleneck the ghastlies, and just pray we could mow 'em down before we got Walls of Magma. But if you're careful, and a bit lucky, you can just barely stay alive by clever use of powers, especially if you have the cleric and the paladin in play to keep healing folks. Again, part and parcel--"stay alive until you just barely win (or just barely lose)" ought to be the definition of suspenseful, dungeon-crawly satisfaction. But in actual practice it feels more like, "stay alive until the dice finally kill you (or fail to)". At which point you may think, "why am I playing this instead of an actual RPG? I could use all the same bits, do all the same stuff, take just as much time, and have more options and more fun?" So, in the end, that's what I did. This game drove me back to roleplaying games, first by tricking me into feeling like I was playing one for a while, and then by grossly running over its stated duration of play on more than one occasion. WoA is just what it says on the tin, a boardgame rather than a roleplaying game, and it is certainly cleverly done and has high production values. I like it. But I don't love it.

When I think of dungeons and dragons ... I imagine Dungeons AND Dragons, which is exactly what this is. You fight the biggest, meanest, most voracious Dragon the demigod Ashardalon in his dungeon. There is no Dungeon Master, just players getting together for an express D20 getaway. Are there other games? Yeah Perhaps they are more detailed? Yup Deeper? Indeed But I had a blast with a game that to me can be lighthearted and quick or (with a little imagination) an in depth full on DnD experience with many steps in between with the more characteristic features of the grandady of all RPGs. I absolutely love it. This reminds me of the game called Dungeon that made many a happy afternoon when the NES was the hot thing in the market and dinosaurs ruled the earth. Figures are very well made, as are all the other assets... Fully compatible with normal DnD Check let's plays to see if the game style is your kinda thing; some hate it so check it and judge that aspect on its own merit. But even if you thought the game sucked... You can switch it up, with a little bit of imagination (or a good ol google search) you can turn it into a 4th edition campaign or roll your own for 3.5/pathfinder (personal preference), 5 or ... even original DnD type of game. Even if you still think it's a junk game (I disagree, but it's a common statement and everyone is free to have their own opinion) then ... you have a very low cost alternative to get great minis The point is, I see many reasons to love it. Either as a whole or subset worthy of nothing short of 5 stars. See videos and make up your own mind, and let the good times roll (d20)

Loads of fun. If you've played any of the other D&D boardgames, this is more of the same. This set (Wrath of Ashardalon), in my opinion, is the most well-rounded among them all. It includes gold tokens which you can spend on buying treasures between adventures, a balanced set of heroes with memorable and unique abilities without being overpowered so as to make the game too easy, and the most relatable setting. For those of you who haven't played the other boardgames, you don't have to own them all. Each one is a standalone game, but the rules, board pieces, cards, and characters are all interchangeable with each other. This game is a dungeon crawl, where each turn you explore a new room of the dungeon and deal with the things you find there - be it a monster, a trap, an encounter, or any/all of the above. It's fully co-operative; there is no need for one player to be a dungeon master who plays by different rules from the others and acts as the "villain," so you can even play this game solo if you really wanted to. The "AI" or rules for each of the monsters that you encounter in the game is determined by its card, so you don't have to worry about making people feel like they're being singled out (i.e. this game won't break friendships unlike Risk or Monopoly). It's very approachable and you don't have to have ever played a game of Dungeons and Dragons to understand or even appreciate it. On the other hand, this could actually be a great way to introduce people to D&D if you're so inclined, as the rules are distilled and simplified versions of the actual tabletop roleplaying game. A typical round of play, including set-up and pack-up, could last anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 hours on the extreme end.

This was the first of the D&D board games that I bought and since then I have also purchased Castle Ravenloft. Like all the Dungeon and Dragons board games they use the same game mechanics and play system. I bought my first box set for the minis figuring that if I played the game that was a bonus. I played this game with my son (age 7) and daughter (age 17) and we all had a blast. My son really enjoys these games and we play them about once a week. The game plays with a simplified D&D combat mechanic using only one 20 sided dice. I watch the YouTube Watch It Played video prior to playing so it was pretty easy to pick up and play. I found that even with the game rules you may still need to make some small "home rules" for specific events and how you read the rules. The plan is on evening when my home group is supposed to get together but we are missing a couple players we may play this game instead. The minis are pretty good. They are decent quality especially when you think about the fact you are paying about $1/mini and you get 2 large and 1 huge mini. I use these in the two D&D games that I run. Overall a great purchase for just the minis but I am finding that I am also really enjoying playing the game with my kids and hope it will serve a gateway to my son playing D&D in the future. (My daughter already plays)

Für Nerds, Neugierige und Rollenspiel-Beginner ein super Spaß, mit vielen Facetten, toller Dynamik und unendlich viel Spielzeit! Ich möchte mit diesem Review nicht groß das Spielprinzip etc. anspoilern. Das wird schon zu genüge hier getan :) Ich möchte trotzdem das Spiel für jedermann empfehlen. Das ist mein Schwerpunkt und möchte das nachfolgend auch erläutern. Als Kind bzw. angehender Jugendlicher ist sicherlich jeder einmal irgendwie in Berührung mit Rollenspielen gekommen. Entweder hat irgendjemand mal davon erzählt, man hat sich selbst einmal eine Runde "Das Schwarze Auge" angesehen oder auch bereits einen Charakter für "Dungeons & Dragons" erstellt. Auch hat man sich in der Schule einmal den Kartenspielen "Magic" oder meinetwegen auch "Pokemon" hingegeben. Entweder blieb man dabei oder verlor sich wieder im kindlichen Alltag. Klassische Rollenspiele überfordern viele Spieler mit unfassbar vielen Regeln, Sonderregeln, Mods und dann macht man sich zeitlich auch noch abhängig von Mitspielern, welche diese Überforderung gemeinsam eben nicht erlebten, damit man das Spiel auch nachhaltig zelebrieren kann. Tatsächlich viele Faktoren, welche ein gutes Rollenspiel eben ausmachen und dann auch noch oft zunichte machen. Schade. Das sehe ich bei diesem Rollenspiel in einer Brettspielvariante absolut nicht gegeben. Nicht nur, dass die Autoren des Spiels eine Symbiose aus verschiedene Rollenspiel-Systemen erschaffen konnten, sondern gleichermaßen einen sanften, wie auch selbsterklärenden Spielfluß generierten und trotzdem die anspruchsvolle Rollenspiel-Charakter-Fahne oben halten. Ich selbst habe als Kind vielleicht 3-4 Rollenspielrunden gespielt. Das ist nun knapp 20 Jahre her. Bin dem Genre also nie abgeneigt gewesen, aber würde mich nie als Nerd oder ähnliches bezeichnen. Meine Freundin hatte dahingehend noch gar keine Erfahrungen. Eher Vorurteile und war durch die Sitcom "Big Bang Theory" (auch wenn dort das klassische D&D 4 Edt. gespielt wird - im Übrigen die Vorlage zu diesem Brettspiel) eher amüsiert über solche Spielgruppen und -abläufe. Wir zwei sind inzwischen im absoluten Fieber was "The Wrath of Ashardalon" angeht. Haben wir erst einmal ein Abenteuer gespielt folgt für gewöhnlich stets noch ein Zweites oder gar Drittes. Somit investieren wir tatsächlich manchmal 3 Stündchen vor dem immer wieder wechselnden Spielbrett und wandern durch die schattigen Gewölbe des Verlieses. Das Spielprinzip ist wirklich faszinierend, anspruchsvoll und sehr intelligent. Da das Spiel nur in englischer Sprache erhältlich ist habe ich mich persönlich um eine Übersetzung des Regelwerks bemüht. Das hat den Spielverlauf der ersten beiden Abenteuer dann doch deutlich vereinfacht. DIe Sprachbarriere ist allerdings nur bedingt negativ auszulegen. Das Englisch ist schätzungsweise auf Realschulabschluß-Niveau und benötigt keine akademischen Grade ;) Ein gutes Wörterbuch oder Smartphone mit Internetzugang vereinfachen das Ganze dann noch zusätzlich. Hat man das Spiel 1-2x durchlaufen, sind die zunächst komplex und langatmig wirkenden Regeln verinnerlicht und mehr als logisch. Wie gesagt: Das Regelwerk ist durchaus umfangreich und ggf. auch für den ein oder anderen erdrückend - doch ist Papier ja bekanntlich geduldig. Es WIRKT nur so! Versprochen! Meine Freundin liebt das Spiel, obwohl sie noch nicht einmal ein großer Fantasy-Freund oder gar Rollenspiel-Liebhaber ist. Das sollte Bewertung genug sein :) Ein wirklich tolles und mehr als hochwertiges Spiel, welches wir nicht mehr missen möchten! Das Geld ist für den Umfang und die Qualität des Boxinhaltes gut angelegt. KAUFEMPFEHLUNG!!!

En un juego de mazmorreo, muy divertido y de reglas sencillas, las minis son buenas y la del dragón es genial. Es un poco dependiente del idioma aunq es un inglés muy sencillo y fácil de dominar. La caja tiene mucho contenido entre losetas de buena calidad, muchos tokens, muchísimas cartas y una buena cantidad de minis. Tiene unas picas variaciones respecto de los demás juegos de la serie. Muy disfrutable.

Çok kaliteli bir ürün

Pour ceux qui ont envie de faire une aventure de Donjons et Dragons en 1h - 1h 30. Les règles et les cartes traduitent en français sont facile à trouver. Le jeu est simple et permet de jouer rapidement sans passer des heures à mettre le jeu en place. La rejouabilité est importante, chaque donjon est aléatoire. Il y a même dans les scénarios plusieurs possibilités de campagne pour ceux qui veulent faire de longue session. Un très bon jeu d'exploration.

5 Heroes contra muchos monstruos, con un sistema en el cual al poner losetas aleatorias y robar carta de encuentro no paras de luchar y de llevarte sorpresas de todo tipo. Es cooperativo total y se puede jugar perfectamente con 2 personas. Las clases son las básicas, aunque las razas no y el dragon es una delicia. Yo lo estoy jugando con mi hijo de 6 años, con algo de ayuda con las cartas, pero nos divertimos bastante. Tiene más táctica de lo que parece y es compatible con los otros 2 juegos que recomiendo pillar ya que se pueden juntar y asi tienes variedad de monstruos y encuentros.