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.

Legend of Drizzt - After a few playthroughs (Pictoral)

Legend of Drizzt Board Game -

a pictoral summary after a few playthroughs

Finally got my copy of Dungeon and Dragons - The Legend of Drizzt board game. After playing it with a friend, I could not wait to get my hands on my copy. Unfortunately, my circumstances meant that for the next 3 months, I will be away with my wife to a foreign land. Which meant no board game nights for 3 months! 

For the last 3 weeks, I have been playing this game solo until yesterday night when Wifey agreed to join me on a dungeon crawling session. Wifey is more into casual games like Dixit, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. So dungeon crawling would be a significant step up for her. We did not do so well together in our first game though with more plays, we might improve our strategies. 

Here, I will post some photos and summarize on a few sessions. Unfortunately, I cannot remember all the details to every session. But all the pics I took would go to waste if not posted. So just for my entertainment and yours, I will do a quick summary of some of the games that I managed to get some pictures from.

What a finished board looks like. After winning this game, I decided to lay out all the monsters I encountered during this session on the board and take a pic. Looks like Catti-brie is in trouble. Let's hope Wulfgar gets there in time...

Catti-brie stumped to find a Feral troll after failing to defeat the monsters she had stumbled upon. IMO, kiting is child's play to Catti-brie. With her ability to move an extra 2 spaces after exploring, the whole board can be filled with monsters and she will still survive after exploring again.

The Feral Troll, the most formidable monster in the whole game, not counting villains. Look at it towering over our hero. If its swipe hits, your hero goes flying out the window (if there were windows in caverns)

A close up shot of the Feral Troll's nasty grin. Looks like our hero is getting an arrow to launch at it.

In this session, Wulfgar and Athrogate team up to find and defeat Shimmergloom, the dark dragon. Our first explore brought the drow wizard who teleports to a tile with the most heroes and attacks all the heroes. Then a Feral Troll pops up to join the fight. "Tempus!", shouts Wulfgar to the God of Battle.

Athrogate quickly summons Snort, his pet boar, after being surrounded by spider swarms.

Snort goes down after an encounter with a water elemental. Snort goes in for the attack, deals one damage and dies beside the water elemental. His sacrifice will not be in vain!

The battle with Shimmergloom. A close call. Athrogate is knocked out while Wulfgar uses the last healing surge to get up and deal the killing blow to the fiery dragon! That was a lucky session, yes it was...

Bruenor goes after Yvonnel Baenre with Dinin, the drow-spider mutation of Drizzt's brother, by her side. A secret tunnel lies nearby for Bruenor to escape. "Juz 'n case me shield is not enough for protectin".

Wulfgar toweing ove a Goblin Champion. Goes who wins, Thor's hammer or big axe...

This was a memorable one yet. The dice were killing us with lousy rolls. And how lucky for us to land on two Feral Trolls at opposite ends of the hallway. Run, heroes, run!

Wulfgar standing up against another Feral Troll after defeating his first Feral Troll.

And that's all folks...

Tune in for more session reports from time-to-time.

Legend of Drizzt - Search for Mithral Hall - Session 1

Joined a new gaming group today. I've been a dnd adventure system fan for a while but have not actually owned nor played one. So when one of my work colleagues told me that he was arranging a gaming session to play LoD, it would only make sense if I jumped head first in. And I did. So that night, we gathered at funbox (our fav boardgame cafe), pulled out the box and started choosing our heroes.

The rest played through the same adventure last week. They lost badly when a Feral troll pushed them into a dead end. But mostly it was because they forgot to draw treasure cards after killing monsters (what a selfish dungeon that was). When Artemis Entreri entered the dungeon, the heroes did not go far enough into the dungeon to delay his attacks and they fell flat without healing surges.


LoD Boardgame Session 1

Search for Mithral Hall
"Seek the door that leads into Mithral Hall"

Villain - Artemis Entreri

Heroes Chosen:
Turn sequence follow
Bruenor the Dwarven Fighter
Drizzt the Drow Ranger
Regis the Human Rogue
Wulfgar the Elk Barbarian (Me)

Objectives:
Our goal was pretty clear. Explore the caverns till we reach the 9-12th tile and reveal the broken door. Once the broken door is revealed, the ancient throne tile is placed along with 4 random monsters. Then Artemis Entreri villain is placed at the start tile (he just came in to hunt us down - pretty sneaky assassin we have here). Defeat Artemis and grab the crown on the Ancient throne to win the game.

This session report will be mostly based on my point of view of things so forgive me if I concentrate too much on my character

Setup:
Easy setup - choose hero, choose abilities, draw a treasure card. Our GM took some time to arrange the cavern tiles to setup our adventure (which I think could be done in a minute).

Treasure for each:
Bruenor - Cure potion (Heal one hero 1 hp and cure any conditions at the start of hero phase)
Drizzt - (goodness, I can't, for the likes of me, remember what he got for a treasure item)
Regis - Cloak (some cloak, I forgot the exact name, able to increase AC by 2)
Wulfgar - Wand of Magic Missile (do 1 damage to a monster within 3 tiles - ooohh far range attack)

Let's Go!
Pumped up with abilities, our heroes were confident they could find the famed Dwarven Hall this time and finally get that freaking crown on Bruenor's head. That would stop his boasts of "used to be the Dwarven King".

Turn 1
So our Dwarf leader was so excited to get his crown that he decided to run head on into danger first. Exploring to the east revealed a black arrow dead end with Goblin Cutter and a Goblin Champion due to the encounter drawn who both lunged their first attacks dealing 1 damage to Bruenor and 1 damage to everyone.

Instead of helping his dwarf friend, Drizzt decided instead to explore westward and found another goblin cutter who heard its friends' call. Seriously, how do goblin backups arrive so fast! We must have intruded into their BBQ party or something. Regis tumbled away using his Daily Power "Tumble Away". Now both goblin cutters activate together (gosh). Drizzt and Bruenor took damage.

The heroes called for Regis to atack the goblin cutter beside Bruenor, and at the same time explore to avoid an encounter and end the goblin cutter combo strikes. But Regis decided that the goblin champion was more dangeorous and went for the strike. He managed to kill the goblin with a 20! but unfortunately no leveling up, 2XP total. Treasure card "Cat-something" passed to Wulfgar to increase his ranged attack by +2 bonus. Exploring northward revealed a Water Elemental who came into our tile with a wave hitting Wulfgar and Regis. Bruenor jumped behind a rock to avoid the water, "blurgh, my dwarven feet ain't good for nothing".

Wulfgar threw Aegis Fang (the returning Barbarian hammer) to the goblin cutter beside Regis because Regis was crying that he did not have enough HP. Aegis Fang missed though and Wulfgar decided to go north-westward to explore. A tile with a black arrow, oh no. A stalactite for a monster, how lucky. And an encounter that puts one tile from the bottom of the stack on top of the stack (more exploring to do). No monster activates this turn.

Turn 2
Bruenor summoned his strength and the killed the goblin cutter, 3XP total (yea, no more combo cutter strikes), treasure card to increase AC. Exploring southward, a hypnotic spirit appeared, raged into Bruenor's tile and hit him.

Drizzt decided to help his friends out, slashing at the hypnotic spirit with twinkle and icingdeath but both missed (seriously, even overpowered Drizzt is so inaccurate). Encounter card - spellweb, Bruenor and Drizzt are immobilized till end of next turn. We can hear all the heroes sighing. Goblin cutter beside Wulfgar activates and hits for 1 damage.

Regis, not wanting anymore damage on him, ran ahead to meet up with Wulfgar and finished off the goblin cutter. 4XP total. Treasure card - Brief rest, gain 1HP and flip up one card - tumble. Encounter card - curse Mark of Lolth, take 1 damage. Water Elemental activates and waves at Bruenor and Drizzt, like a tidal wave (wonder why the hypnotic spirit isn't affected by water).

Wulfgar explores north west side a volcanic vent and a goblin archer seems to be warming his butt there. Black arrow on the tile so an encounter - volcanic spray (how ironic). Damage to Wulfgar, Bruenor and Drizzt (their tile was another volcanic vent too). Goblin archer shoots an arrow and misses Wulfgar.

Turn 3
Bruenor, immobilized, decides to use cure potion. He is no longer immobilized and goes for the nearest kill. Water Elemental is down with 20! and a headbutt. 6XP total. Use 5XP to level up! Funny thing is, there is no extra Daily Power for Bruenor, so we houseruled that he may have his Power Strike token back. Treasure card - (forgot what it is). He then moves forward closing the gap between him and the other heroes. Encounter card - volcanic explosion, Drizzt gets hit in the face with magma (Ouch).

Screaming with pain, Drizzt, immobilized, launches twinkle against the hypnotic spirit, miss. Icingdeath fortunately hits and kills the spirit. 3XP total (this is probably the last time I kept track of the XP), treasure card - does nothing. Encounter - volcanic vent (the caverns are unusually unstable tonight, so much lava everywhere) causing damage to Wulgar and Drizzt. Drizzt freed of immobility condition.

Regis moves forward and the goblin archer cowers in fear. After attacking and missing the goblin archer, he decides not to explore and leave the exploring that to the tankers. Encounter - something that poisons within two tiles, misses Regis but Wulfgar is now poisoned and takes one damage.

Wulfgar swings a recuperative strike at the goblin archer and misses. He explores northward. Cavern tile revealed another goblin archer (what? Gosh, there really is a goblin party going on in the underdark).  The goblin archer fires its arrow but Wulfgar dodges the attack. The other goblin archer cowers in fear.

Turn 4
Bruenor moves forward and attacks the goblin archer. Its skull splits open. Treasure Card - hmmm. Encounter Card - negated with XP, forgot what it did.

Drizzt uses his two moves to maximize his movement speed, overtakes Bruenor, goes north and explores to the west. A Feral Troll!!! Well too bad for the movement speed. The Feral Troll hits Drizzt for 3HP causing him to fly two tiles back to where he came from... where he was that turn I mean.

Regis moves in and hits the troll for 1 damage. Encounter - Curse Mark of Lolth taking 1 damage. Goblin archers cower in fear.

Wulfgar goes adjacent and hits the Troll with Aegis Fang for a good hit (imagine Thor) with a 20! Level up. The troll becomes dazed for a second. Encounter - Curse Mark of Lolth (Lolth is really trying her best here).

Turn 5
Bruenor laughed his mighty laugh as he steps in, and with a power strike deals two damage to the Feral Troll. "That was for throwing my favorite drow ranger so far away!". Explored north where the broken door to the Mithral Hall is and the Ancient Throne tile is placed. "There's my crown!", bellows the dwarf. Artemis Entreri comes into the underdark at the start tile and monsters are drawn by each hero:
Wulfgar draws a stalactite (no monster)
Bruenor draws a goblin archer (placed on the broken door tile but next to Bruenor)
Drizzt draws a Water Elemental (placed on ancient throne tile)
Regis draws Dinin Do'Urden (placed on ancient throne tile)
The goblin archer activates but cowers in fear

Drizzt with 1HP left decides to move close to Regis who has a Potion of Healing so he can be cured. Encounter knocks off Drizzt's remaining HP and Drizzt is down. Artemis moves closer still. Water Elemental activates and moves one tile closer to heroes.

Regis heals himself with Potion of Healing since Drizzt already needs to use a healing surge to get up. He goes over and kills the goblin archer before it can activate. Treasure - Brief rest +1HP. Encounter - negated. Dinin moves two tiles closer to the heroes. Artemis moves another tile closer.

Wulfgar runs over to Dinin and hits with recuperative strike healing 1HP and dealing 1 damage to the spider-drow thingy. Encounter - volcanic vent dealing damage to Bruenor, Regis and Wulfgar. Regis uses his Daily Power and tumbles away from Bruenor. Artemis walks over Drizzt (knocked down), and swings his saber at Bruenor. Bruenor with his 17AC and battle stance +2AC is pretty hard to hit. Artemis' saber is blocked by Bruenor's tough shield.

Turn 6
With the other arm, Bruenor swings his hammer around the shield and hits Artemis for 2 damage with his Power Strike. Bruenor then retreats one tile away. Artemis lunges and slashes at Bruenor but the level 2 dwarf in his battle stance is pretty hard to hit.

The Healing surge surges through Drizzt and he gets up quickly swinging Icingdeath and Twinkle at Artemis for 2 damage. Artemis has a go at Drizzt and deals 1 damage because Twinkle absorbs 1 damage. Water Elemental moves in and its tidal wave hits Wulfgar for 1 damage.

Going around a rock, Regis backstabs Artemis with his Daily Power dealing 3 damage. Artemis staggers back with 1HP left. Artemis then misses the rogue with his attack but deals 1 damage anyway. Dinin activates, swipes and misses Wulfgar.

Wulfgar rushes to the rescue with Aegis Fang's +4AC and hits Artemis square in the face. The sound of a splitting crack and Artemis' nose is broken causing himself to fall off into unconsciousness.

And the rest of the game is history. Bruenor kills Dinin with his last power strike. Drizzt kills the Water Elemental and Regis has enough time to rush over and claim the crown for our dwarven friend. Victory belongs to the heroes tonight with 1 healing surge leftover and about 7HP between us (Wulfgar having the most)

What I thought after tonight's game
It was an epic adventure, a memorable one. One where we will be always talking about how Drizzt did the flying dutchman when he encountered the troll. He was really unlucky in his rolls too. Even having two attacks and a Scrimshaw charm couldn't help him much.

We are already planning our next session to go against Shimmergloom. We had a lot of rule clarifications during this session so it took longer (about 2 hours including setup). The next time, I reckon it will go faster maybe one and a half hours. Can't wait.

Until then, kudos to Drizzt and co.!