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!