Bohnanza Card Game Review

Bohnanza

by Uwe Rosenberg

for 2 to 7 players

setup time - 3 mins

play time - 40 mins

teach time - 5 mins

Planting beans have never been so fun. You trade beans, plant beans, harvest beans, and plant some more. Oh the joy. Not convinced? Read on...

Bohnanza is a well designed card game where players are bean farmers trying to collect coins by planting, trading and harvesting beans. This is tricky because you are only given 2 fields to plant your beans at the start of the game. A third bean field can be added by paying up 3 coins. Only beans of the same kind can be planted on one bean field (e.g. stink beans are planted on the empty field or the field with stink beans). Listed on each card are the following:

• Bean name
• Number of the same bean card available in the deck
• How many beans needed to be planted in the same field to get a certain amount of coins (4 coins max)

Players receive 5 cards at the beginning of the game. They are not allowed to rearrange any of the cards in their hand. The first card will be the one that faces the player and the last card will be the one at the back of the hand.

At the start of each turn, a player will follow the following steps:

1. Plant the first bean card (the one fully facing the player in their hand). This is a must and if there are no empty fields or fields with the same bean cards, then a field has to be harvested in order to plant this bean card (even if it means you do not get coins).
2. Draw two cards from the deck and place them face up so that everyone can see. These beans are to be planted in this round and there is no exception. So the current player has to either trade those beans away or plant them on his/her bean field.
3. Draw two/three cards (depending on the number of players) and at them one at a time at the back of your hand.

These simple steps to follow allow anyone from newbie gamers to core gamers to enjoy this game. This game is packed with deep strategy and at the same time not intimidating for players new to board gaming. A certain amount of luck comes from the drawing of cards but the strategies one uses can push them towards winning. In other words, you do have some control over your game. The small luck element ensures that every game is filled with good decisions to make and this is evidence of good board game design.

My take on the game:

This game is becoming a favorite for me and wifey. Since I bought Bohnanza two months ago, we have been seeing consistent plays. Everyone thoroughly enjoys it and wifey would ask to play Bohnanza even if it is only the two of us. Two player games are different than normal games because there is no trading involved, but wifey enjoys it just the same.

I myself enjoy trying to figure out good strategies to gain the most coins. Do I go for beans that give better coin values or do I keep the ones that I know are going to be played next from my hand? Do I get the 3rd bean field but lose 3 coins? Would that cost me the game?

Furthermore, who doesn't like gaining rewards after hard bean planting work? I reckon the designer had plenty of play testing with this game to tweak and tune and design one that I can say is very well balanced. Every bean has its merits and demerits of planting. Every bean is unique. 

So yes, we love this game. It is cheaper than most board games in the genre. I would play this over Settlers of Catan. Bohnanza is faster, trading is better, interaction is more, and it can support up to 7 players. 

Pros:

Cheap

Lovely artwork on the cards

Well-designed = well balanced

Good for the casual and hard-core board gamer alike

Cons:

The box insert is not designed for cards with sleeves.

DnD Adventure System Board Game Variants

I created this tool sheet which should work for the following DnD Board Game Adventure Systems:

• Castle Ravenloft
• Wrath of Ashardalon
• Legend of Drizzt
• Temple of Elemental Evil

I love the board game but my issue with it is that it is predictable and does not give enough the feeling of heroes crawling in a real dungeon. So after a bunch of plays, I've decided to try out a couple of variants to randomize monster appearance, number of monsters that appear, how often encounters happen and whether the heroes are able to surprise monsters.

Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Board Game Variant Play

Random monster generation

Instead of having monsters on every tile that the heroes explore, the random monster generation will keep the monster appearance unpredictable (Yes there can be 0 monsters as well)

·        Instead of an automatic monster card draw after drawing a new dungeon tile, roll the D20 and follow this:

o   easy – Number of monsters = D20 divide by 6 rounded down

o   med – Number of monsters = D20 divide by 5 rounded down

o   hard – Number of monsters = D20 divide by 4 rounded down

·        Or if preferred roll a D6 or D4 instead

o   easy – Number of monsters = D4 divide by 2 rounded down

o   med – Number of monsters = D6 divide by 2 rounded down

o   hard – Number of monsters = D4

Monster Perception & Hero Dexterity

Determines whether hero is able to make a surprise attack on the monsters and for how long before the monsters realize this

·        Instead of monsters activating on the active hero’s turn, roll a D20 to check if the monsters notice you. If it’s a surprise attack, for how long?

o   easy – Surprise value = D20 divide by 6 rounded down

o   med – Surprise value = D20 divide by 8 rounded down

o   hard – Surprise value = D20 divide by 10 rounded down

·        The surprise value shows how many turns the monsters

Encounters

Encounters are a chore to deal with and it’s not fair that you get punished every time you don’t explore. However, they are still required for a good DnD experience. Take out the normal encounters that happen during the Villain phase and do the following instead.

·        Place number of tokens equal to the difficulty level (any tokens e.g. hit point tokens) on top of the encounter deck. Whenever you would draw an encounter card, remove one encounter token instead. When the tokens dwindle to 0, draw an encounter card and resolve.

o   easy – 4 tokens

o   med – 3 tokens

o   hard – 2 tokens

·        Optional for higher difficulty – If you draw a dungeon tile with a black arrow, add one more monster to the number of monsters rolled on that tile.

·        If you draw a special dungeon tile (one with a name on it), then refer to the PocketDM for its specific encounter entry.

The reason I did not include random dice rolling for encounters as well is because too much dice rolling can ruin a DnD experience. The encounters are still unpredictable but you can still plan around this. The PocketDM really helps to build story into your games.

Summary Table of Notations:

	Easy	Medium	Hard
Random monster generation with D20	*D20 / 6	*D20 / 5	*D20 / 4
Random monster generation with D4 or D6	*D4 / 2	*D6 / 2	*D4 / 1
Surprise attack values (number of turns)	*D20 / 6	*D20 / 8	*D20 / 10
Encounter token counter	4	3	2
Black arrows	0	0	1 additional monster

*Notation – [dice] divide #number rounded down

So try it out and let me know how it goes...

Legend of Drizzt Board Game Review

Legend of Drizzt - DND Adventure System
by Wizards of the Coast

For 1 to 5 players

Play time 1.5 hrs

Setup time 15 mins

Teaching time 15 mins

Disclaimer - I have not played any of the other DND Adventure System board games (Castle Ravenloft & Wrath of Ashardalon)

Legend of Drizzt is a board game themed around "The Icewind Dale" Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore which is based around the dungeons and dragons world. The board game is a cooperative game where up to 5 heroes team up together to go dungeon crawling in order to come out victorious in their quest. The game features characters, villains and quests from the R. A. Salvatore's novels. You and your friends may choose to play the legendary king dwarf Bruenor Battlehammer or the quick witted halfling, Regis, or the courageous barbarian, Wulfgar, or the beautiful, Cattie-brie. Of course Drizzt is also a hero you can choose to play who in my opinion is super powered in this game.

Players will delve into the caverns to fulfill their quests. They start on a start tile and reveal additional cavern tiles when exploring. Monsters appear in the caverns and attack the heroes. Traps and encounters happen. Treasures are found. All these happen until either the heroes complete their quest or one hero gets knocked out with no healing surge available at the start of his/her next turn.

Gameplay 7/10

At the start of the game, a quest is chosen and read aloud to set the dungeon crawling mood. Players choose a hero to play, takes their respective hero board and figure, chooses their hero's active and passive skill cards to use during the quest, and takes their hero stance tokens, and hit point (HP) tokens.The hero figurines are placed on the start tile unless specified otherwise in the specific quest.
According to the quest book, instructions are given on which cavern tiles to shuffle together for the particular quests and whatever else that needs to be prepared. Then the game can begin.

Each turn follows a pretty strict flow - hero moves and/or attacks, exploration happens or does not happen, encounters happen, monsters activate and attack. Player cards are provided for each player to remember which actions to perform. After a turn or two, everyone will be familiar with the flow.

Just like a DND dungeon crawling game, each hero will have movement points showing how many squares they are allowed to move, what's their armor class for defense and their hit-point value. Each hero in this game also has a special ability, something only that particular hero can do, which may be special attacks, special effects or special actions they can perform during the game.

Players use their hero's movement points to move their hero around in the cavern which grows bigger every time someone decides to explore.

Attacks happen via a D20 (20-sided die) die roll. The player decides which At-Will power or Daily power to use before the die roll. Bonuses and effects if any are added to the die roll based on the cards. Then the armor class of the target is subtracted from this value. If the value is still a positive number (including 0), then the target is damaged. Damage is given based on the attack power card used (usually 1 or 2 damages).



When the monsters activate, they follow the pre-programmed instructions given on their respective monster cards. The monsters move and attack as stated on the cards. Sometimes their attacks may also poison or immobilize the heroes.

Rinse and repeat, the heroes continue exploring, fighting and defeating monsters until they reach the goal tile, which reveals the boss monster or any other objective that the quest book has provided. Once the heroes complete the quest, they win! If either hero gets knocked out and at the start of their turn, has no healing surge to stand up again, then the heroes lose the quest.

Experience 8/10

It is a great idea to have a co-op with monsters acting on their own instead of having a player play the dungeon master and controlling all the monsters. This way, every one gets to play together as a team, all against the game system. I love how the cavern tiles reveal themselves during exploration rather than having the whole map already there at the start. It gives a realistic sense of  actually crawling in the dungeon.



Because they made a game system to go against you, you can actually play solo, which IMO is more fun than a multiplayer game (you get to control everything). It is not so difficult to control 2 or more heroes solo. I can finish a game solo in half the time it takes for any number of players to play.

Playing this with other players, if there is an Alpha gamer (most often the owner of the game), the one who knows all the powers that every hero has, this one person may take control of the whole game and every one else will just be following. Games like this get really boring when really the only decision you can make is, well, none... You get to roll the die and watch the cavern unfold and cool looking monster figurines get placed on the tiles, some towering over your heroes.



Saying all this, we do enjoy this game from time to time. Kids love it because it looks cool. We love it because we get to do some real dungeon crawling, not knowing what will turn up at the next corner. If you're just looking to have a fantasy session, becoming imaginative heroes, looking to have a few laughs over drinks, then get this. If you're looking for medium to heavy strategy, then get the Castle Ravenloft DND Adventure board game. It is the same thing as this but ups the difficulty significantly.

Replayability 7/10

The quest book is filled with 13 quests with different ways of getting to your objective. Some will pit players against each other, some will divide you into teams, and one which will insert a hidden traitor that no one, even the traitor himself, would know until the end of the game.

So far we have not gotten the chance to try out these other quests yet, so I'd say the replayability is still there. However, most of the people in my gaming group would go with Descent if they wish for a dungeon crawling board game experience. Which means that this game stays on my shelf until I manage to find another opportunity to bring it down again.

Components 7/10

The figurines look good, color coded, some bigger than others. The boss figurine is a cool looking demon. Not expensive if you consider how many figures they are giving you for the price you pay.



The rest of the components are sturdy and card stock is thick. However, the art looks a bit dull and bland. There are many tokens and the box has compartments to place them. You will just have to figure out which works best for you.

Overall 7/10

I had the hots for this game for over a year before I got my hands on it. Everything from the mechanics to the tile laying to the dungeon crawling and to the characters, all of it drew me to this game. This would be a good gateway game for those players who are thinking of getting into tabletop RPG but are not sure they would like to spend the time and effort to sustain one.



Good for casual gamers who like dungeon crawling. You can finish a session in an hour and a half.

Pros:
Nice figures
Good mechanics of tile laying and monster activation
Kids can learn how to add and subtract

Cons:
Art bland
Difficulty - easy
Light, new gamers will find it a chore to understand how to use their powers/weapons


Variants
There are many other self-created quests online that you can print out and use. Many ways of using the game system to meet your gaming group needs.

You can actually use the components in this game for a your very own Tabletop RPG dungeon crawling. It is a very good system that is set up.

You can also get the rest of the DND Adventure Systems to combine and create your own dungeon.