So I just finished a Quest in the new Dungeons & Dragons board game, Castle Ravenloft. My buddy Adam and I had to find this holy item in a secret chapel or something. We did, of course. We are badasses.

The game is loosely based on the 4th addition D&D rules. Very loosely actually. Like its streamlined so hard it can barely be recognized. Critical hits, stances, damage rolls, battle rules, and even experience points and leveling have all either been removed from the game or changed completely.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward, and is easy to get the hang of after a few rounds. I discovered that mages, while able to kill bad guys from far away, have like 4 HP. So yes, they are the archetypal mage. Also, that I don’t think things through fully oftentimes. Adam discovered that when you roll awesomely for monsters they can still kill your Dragonborn really quick, no matter how buff he looks.

The game board is created by the players whim, opening more and more dungeon passageways as you reach the end of the current tile you occupy. Eventually the ‘final room’ is discovered, and then special events that are tailored to that particular Quest occur. In this case, a chalice or something showed up in the chapel, and two monsters spawned. To win the game we had to kill these final two monsters, and pick up the chalice. Which we almost didn’t do because a treasure chest killed me.

A fucking treasure chest.

The monsters and players characters are represented by little plastic peoples. Familiar to anyone who has ever seen the D&D miniatures you can purchase, except not painted. I think I prefer them unpainted, since the paint jobs are normally just awful. Everything else is that plasticy-coated cardboard you see in these nerdy boardgames (The WoW game, the Cthulhu game have them).

One thing that concerns me is my kitchen table. Its way too small for the sprawling dungeon we created in just the very first co-op Quest. I can only imagine, the latter ones would need to be played on my floor. And since I am lazy and don’t vacuum there’s a good chance the adventurers might get attacked by a roaming band of carpet lint. Or perhaps a rabid dorritoes shard.

In conclusion I only played this game once so far, for about an hour and a half, but am pleased with what I have seen. It seems much easier on the brain than actual D&D, the Quests all are supposed to take around an hour to complete, and you don’t need a full party to successfully beat them (there are even some single player missions, 2 or 3 I think). These are all good things for people in the post-college world, like me. The gameplay is exciting, fun, and addictive. And also, it still feels very much like D&D, although much easier to navigate than the real deal.

Its rating: Fart/Tickles

ttfn
-kidc

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