Customer Reviews

Wizards of The Coast Legend of Drizzt: A Dungeons and Dragons Board Game

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game is the third installment in the D&D "Adventure System" of board games. If you're in search of more opinions, you should definitely check out the reviews for Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, as the games are all very similar. I also own and enjoy Castle Ravenloft.

They all use very loose adaptations of 4th Edition D&D rules. This particular game is (obviously) based on R.A. Salvatore's books about dark elf orc-stabber extraordinaire, Drizzt Do'Urden. As such, all the adventures are based on Drizzt's literary exploits (all the way up to Gauntlgrim, I was surprised to see), and the choice of heroes includes the Companions of the Hall, and there are rules for playing as (as well as against) the notable trio of ne'er-do-wells Entreri, Jarlaxle, and Athrogate.

Playing the Game

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Each player chooses one of five pre-made heroes, and then chooses which of that hero's powers they'll use for the adventure (you take 4 or 5 out of around 10). Next, you follow the Adventure Book's rules to setting up whatever adventure you're playing (there are about 15 different adventures), and you make your way through the dungeon trying to complete the adventure's objective.

The "board" is made up of jigsaw puzzle-style pieces which you shuffle before the adventure like cards. You start with one tile as the "start tile", and then each player has the chance to draw a tile on his or her turn and add it to the tiles already played, which I'll get into next. This is how the play area expands.

Each player's turn follows the same order - move and/or attack with your hero, add a dungeon tile (unveiling a new monster), then activate the monsters you've unveiled. So, each player controls not only his hero, but the monsters he or she reveals. This is done by following the instructions on the monster's card, which tells you how the monster acts.

When a player dies, he or she uses a Healing Surge, which acts like a "continue". If a player dies and there are no Healing Surges left (you start most adventures with 2), the players lose. So, it's a no-man-left-behind situation.

You win, as I mentioned, by completing whatever objective the adventure sets out. Usually, this involves reaching a specific tile and killing whomever is hanging out there.

Enjoying the Game

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At the end of the day, this is a very streamlined game. The heroes have no stats other than AC, HP, Speed, and Surge Value (the amount you heal when you use a surge). You don't equip your guy, you can't level up past Level 2 (which entails adding 2 HP, 1 AC, and a new daily power), and there is no continuity between missions.

Strategically, the game is pretty simple. You don't have a whole mess of options, and sometimes it can be pretty obvious what the best move is, meaning the game can feel like it's playing itself sometimes. Honestly, when I first started playing these Adventure System games, I was disappointed. Being a "gamer", I'm no stranger to complex rule systems and this was just too simple for me.

But then I added friends. And not just any friends; non-gamer friends. Non-gamer friends, and booze. And jokes. And silly descriptions, and trash-talking (despite the co-operative nature of the game), and bouts of not paying attention. Basically, everything that absolutely ruins a regular D&D session.

The simple nature means there's very little to keep track of (once everyone learns the flow of play), and you don't need to clear your entire calendar to schedule a session. I've had a blast every time since then, and the game has quite a following now among my gamer and non-gamer friends alike.

If you go into it expecting it to be a very rich, very complex board game version of D&D, you're not going to be happy. But if you recognize it as the big box of toys that it is, man can you have some fun.

Pluses: loads of plastic minis, modular and laminated map sections and accessories, and a fun jumping off point for beginning players. Also, for advanced players, the stuff in the box is a great bargain versus buying separate maps and minis.

Minuses: The rules are far too simplified for experienced players, and the packaging really doesn't allow storing all the random bits and markers without getting them mixed up.

I mainly purchased this set as an accessory to my regular gaming kit. The little plastic minis are more fun than cardboard tokens anyday, and the heavy laminated cardboard map sections are wonderful for setting up a map ahead of time, or making one up as you go, depending on your gaming style. There is also a wealth of little condition markers, which while inferior to chits like the ones made by GF9, are nonetheless useful, especially to the GM on a budget.

If you choose to play it as advertised,the rules have been simplified to streamline play and keep up the pace of the game, which is a draw to new players, or those who fancy a quick game of solitaire, as it were. Long time D&D players will probably find those rules unsatisfying though.

All in all, a good product, no matter which way you decide to use it. Pity about the lack of separated storage in the molded inlay though. I hate sorting all the markers every time I open the box...

-RJ

When Heroscape came out from Wizards of the Coast I was livid. It was a board game that had fantasy elements and yet nothing in common with Dungeons & Dragons, and yet the Open Game License had been adopted by publishers everywhere to spread the D&D brand far and wide. It was like Hasbro thought the D&D license was good enough for everybody else but their own games. That all changed with 4th Edition. The Legend of Drizzt is the culmination of a synchronized brand strategy that's been decades in the making.

Long before Drizzt Do'Urden was a duel-wielding archetype envied by every power gamer, I read his originating tale in the Icewind Dale trilogy - along with Bruenor Battlehamer, Catti-brie, and Wulfgar. That was twenty years ago. Now the guy who was originally conceived as a sidekick for Wulfgar has his own board game, The Legend of Drizzt. Drizzt, you've come a long way baby.

The first thing you notice about The Legend of Drizzt is the sheer size of the thing. The box is heavy and for good reason - it includes over 40 plastic figures, 13 heavy cardstock sheets of tiles and a bazillion cardboard accessories, 200 encounter and treasure cards, a rule book, a scenario book, and a 20-sided die.

Let's start with the plastic figures. They're unpainted but molded in a variety of colors that match their appearance - water elementals and ghosts are in blue transparent plastic, trolls and goblins are in green, heroes are in dark blue, villains in gray, drow elves in purple...you get the idea. Speaking of villains, Drizzt's archenemy Artemis Entreri is here too in case you're interested in playing an antihero. Up to five players select a placard representing their character that includes critical stats (HP, AC, Speed) along with power cards for that character's class. There are at-will powers and encounter powers. Fans of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons will recognize how much the tabletop role-playing game has in common with the board game. Critics of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons will notice how easy it is to turn the tabletop role-playing game into a board game.

This isn't really so much a game about Drizzt as it is a modular system that can accommodate any setting. Change the tiles around, switch out the characters and molded pieces, and the same game could easily take place in Castle Ravenloft or in a dragon's lair, which is why the game is compatible with Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon. You could just as easily use the components to complement your own role-playing game.

And that's the brilliance of The Legend of Drizzt. It takes the elements and branding of the role-playing game and takes it to its logical conclusion as a board game. The Legend of Drizzt is filled with dozens of fiddly bits, from stances to damage counters to healing surges to treasure chests. You can even level up from first- to second-level, which officially makes this the real "Basic Set" for converting gamers to the role-playing hobby.

I will start this review by saying I've never played the Dungeons and Dragons pen-and-paper game. I am, however, very familiar with D&D and Drizzt. I've played most of the D&D video games, my favorites being: The Temple of Elemental Evil, and the Baldur's Gate Series. I've also read most of the Drizzt books.

This game is fantastic in that it perfectly catches Drizzt's adventures from the book and feels very much like a turn based dungeon crawling video game. I'm very familiar with the D&D rules, even without playing true D&D. While this game is watered down to the extreme, there is still enough of the essence of the rules for you to know that it is Dungeons and Dragons.

On to how fun it is, and BOY IS IT FUN! There is one single player adventure, and some of the other adventures are easily adapted into single player use. Single player is not boring, but doesn't give you a grasp of how great this product is. Multiplayer is where it shines. There are 40 or so durable miniatures, including a few really big ones, and durable puzzle pieces that build your dungeon, or cavern in this game. It feels like you are building a puzzle and playing with a big box of toys all at the same time.

Jokes come fast and plenty while playing with friends. This game proves to be just as enjoyable making fun of, as it is playing it. Encourage your friends to get in character too, which makes the whole thing sillier and even more fun.

There are 13 adventures that come with the game. The adventures last from an hour, to an hour and a half. Each dungeon is randomly generated because you shuffle items like the dungeon tiles and monster cards everytime you play. If you go back and use different heroes as well, and there a lot to choose from, this game has considerable replay value.

This game really does feel like playing a CRPG. It proves to be more fun though. With the interaction of friends, choosing random scenarios, and characters to play through this game proves to be simply PHENOMENAL!

I didn't realize that board games could be this fun. I heartily recommend this to fans of RPGs, fantasy, and board games in general. Wizard's of the Coast has put forth an unbelievable product that is well worth the buck.

I own all three of the D&D board games and this one is easily the best yet. The abilities are more fun, the playable heroes finally branch out somewhat from the tired old standard classes, there are eight playable heroes instead of five, and the new team challenge adventures and betrayal adventures are great additions to the rules. I also like that the rock walls look jagged and organic: the straight-line sameness of the dungeons in the previous two games made the environments dreary and boring.

My only complaint is that there are too few challenging monsters: these heroes and items are a lot more powerful - frequently granting the ability to reliably deal 2 damage per turn - and the 1-hp goblin monsters never stay on the board longer than 1 turn. Owners of Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon can remedy this by adding more challenging monster cards and figurines from those games - the Cave Bear and the Gargoyle come to mind.

I do think that "Legend of Drizzt" is an inappropriate name. Having played a half-dozen adventures in this game I can confidently say that Bruenor Battlehammer is the star of this show, and that nothing, nothing at all in any of the D&D Adventure System board games, can compare to the moment when he deals the killing blow to a dragon or a balor with his "headbutt" ability. Especially if he himself is at 1 HP at the time of use.

Because of this, my friends and I have affectionately renamed the King of Mithral Hall "Headbutts McGee," and we have dubbed this game "The Ballad of Headbutts McGee"

Dude will headbutt anything. And then it will die. I'm not even kidding.

I own the previous 2 D&D board games, and this one is by far the best. Especially for beginners, it contains a beginner deck and an advanced deck for when you get the hang of the game.

I really enjoy this game. I've played with large groups and by myself many times and the game runs smoothly in both cases, it is even really easy to teach people. but, keep this in mind when you play, THIS IS NOT DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. If you're expecting essentially D&D in board game format, it is not. My only real gripe with this game is that victory is rather abrupt and never really feels like a win, more like you simply stopped playing. I have found, though, that you can string a few quests together into one game and it becomes more entertaining, especially if you're familiar with the Drizzt story line. Pieces are well constructed, instructions are very intuitive and comprehensive. I suggest this game to anyone that wants an easily playable and wonderfully enjoyable game.

While the Starter Set for D&D 4E did a decent job of simplifying the game to make it more family friendly, it still required planning and prep time to DM that made it difficult to find time to actually play together. This board game variant solves that problem by completely removing the need for a DM with a creative card-based spin on AI and randomized dungeons, and an emphasis on teamwork that keeps it from being a straight-forward hack-and-slash experience. My 11yo and 9yo enjoy it, and it's easy enough to set up and get a game going in ~10 minutes that it doesn't require scheduling playtime in advance.

Great Product, it bring the fun of the novels to play !!!! you feel like you are actually living the story !!!!

D&D is a staple in my household. Video games are great...but this is better. This is our second D&D board game, and it brings the family together. I like that it helps my kid use his imagination instead of just spacing out at a computer monitor. Fun for all!