After completing an adventure the group then moves on to the next space on their current board. At some points along the path, players are given the option to take part in a side quest. Interestingly you can split the party for these, with only some of the characters taking part. All side quest encounters are combat encounters. If a player chooses not to take part in a side quest they default as the DM for that encounter so as to keep them inovoled. Every map board has four core encounter spots and two potential side quests. Unfortunately the game does suffer potential feelings of repetition in its mechanics but that can be minimised by enthusiastic DMs and imaginative play. If you are looking for a way to dip your toe into the turbulent waters of Neverwinter, this game is for you. I’ve actually had a fantastic time playing this game with my two kids. We’ve told some fantastic stories, like the time we returned home to our village and found that our friends and relatives had all been turned into zombies and we struggled to find non-violent ways to contain them instead of killing our loved ones. All of that was based on one Undead Townspeople card that had this for flavour texts, “Aunt Gertrude? Is that you?”

Creation is simplified in this game. Choices are limited to the pre-created cards included in box. Each member of your party plays as a different hero. There are four classes to choose from: fighter, sorcerer, bard or rouge. In this version of the game, each class is a different race. The fighter is a dwarf by the name of Tak or Ris Strongheart. The bard is an elf and the rogue a red dragonborn. The sorcerer is a human. Each character can be played as either a male or female. The hero tile can be changed depending on your preference, although the personality and combat tiles are not affected by that choice. One of the things I did really like about Adventure Begins is the humour included in the game. Many of the cards take a very tongue-in-cheek look at D&D with encounters like the reverse centaur and the lyre liar pants on fire which is a musical instrument that can light your foes on fire. The game includes a huge number of such puns. The game centres around the path through the middle of the game board. As the players move down the path, the DM for that turn will draw a card, read the scenario or monster and then follow the instructions. Think choose-your-own-adventure books, but on a board game with actions decided by 20-sided dice and you wouldn’t be far off.Now what’s most interesting about this to me is that in this way Adventure Begins is very much like the game it’s based on, the full role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Your experience playing D&D is also going to be very much based upon the group you are playing with and how they choose to engage with the mechanics. D&D the RPG can also be played fully mechanically, though again I think you are missing out on the point and the fun if you do this. COOPERATIVE FANTASY GAME: This fantasy board game is a portal to the monsters, magic, and heroes of Dungeons & Dragons. Players work together as they journey through the lands of Neverwinter When we bought a copy of Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Begins for our daughter for Christmas I really didn’t know what to expect. In general, I know to expect good things from the Dungeons & Dragons brand and at the time I actually thought this was published by Wizards of the Coast and not Hasbro Gaming. Having now played the game a number of times I’m still not exactly sure what to think of this game, for a number of reasons. CHOOSE A JOURNEY FOR YOUR PARTY: Choose a journey and which Boss your party of heroes will fight in the end. Choose from Felbris (Beholder), Orn (Fire Giant), Deathsleep (Green Dragon), and the Kraken. However, Port Royal has endured. It’s a 2-5 player game and has had a number of expansions/re-releases (Port Royal is a re-implementation of Händler der Karbik, trader of the Caribbean). With a plethora of legacy and campaign games reaching the awareness of the masses, Port Royal has followed suit with a campaign game, Port Royal: An Adventure Begins. Port Royal – The Game

While resurrection only requires one gold coin, you have to have that one gold at the time or you are eliminated. The game suggests having the DM roll swap to being only the eliminated players if this happens. That said, we’ve never actually had a character die in any of our games thus far, and I think a TPK (Total Party Kill, a term used by D&D players for when the entire group dies during an adventure) would be very rare in this game. However, Port Royal has endured. It’s a 2-5 player game and has had a number of expansions/re-releases (Port Royal is a re-implementation of Händler der Karbik, trader of the Caribbean). With a plethora of legacy and campaign games reaching the awareness of the masses, Port Royal has followed suit with a campaign game, Port Royal: An Adventure Begins. Port Royal - The Game The role of the DM passes from player to player as the game progresses, meaning that everyone gets to have a go at telling the story. But perhaps more importantly, it also means that everyone gets involved in the action and no one is left on the side-lines. Your four boss monsters are Felbris (Beholder), Orn (Fire Giant), the aptly-named Deathsleep (Green Dragon) and finally The Kraken. The game continues until you reach and defeat the final boss monster or all of the characters die along the way.

FEATURES

There are probably only a handful of people on the planet who have never heard the title Dungeons & Dragons. The words are synonymous with RPG gaming and have recently been brought to the attention of a whole new audience through features in TV and movies. Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Begins provides a simple but charming introduction to the world of fantasy gaming and is the ideal entry point for anyone wanting to start their adventure into D&D. It is possible for a character to die if their HP drops to zero. This doesn’t mean that they are out of the game and they may return to the action by trading in all of their gold to revive themselves. Conclusion Now that sounds like the game could become repetitive and while that’s somewhat true, the randomness of the encounter cards does make sure that each journey is different. Added to that is the variability in characters you can make. Each character gives you two hero options, two personality type options and two weapon options, which gives you a number of different combinations for each individual character. Then there’s the fact that you are playing with one or more players who each make their own character, leading to a high number of possible combinations of adventuring parties. Combat encounters are a bit more complicated. When facing a monster the encounter starts off with the DM reading a short monster description then having everyone roll initiative. This is a simple D20 roll where the player that rolls highest will get to act first. However it does feel slightly artificial. It feels as though there ought to be a difference in strength between, for example, a bard and a fighter. Yet in this game there is not. I can see why this choice may have been made, but the game is supposed to be cooperative. Taking away this difference does not encourage players to make strategic decisions about which actions different characters should perform and, in all likelihood, renders character creation in this game more aesthetic than substantial. Playing The Game

CHOOSE A JOURNEY FOR YOUR PARTY: Choose a journey and which Boss your party of heroes will fight in the end. Choose from Felbris (Beholder), Orn (Fire Giant), Deathsleep (Green Dragon) and The Kraken In all cases, the results are driven by the dice rolls and by what’s on the card. There are no DM rulings here or interpretations. Alexander Pfestier is one of my favourite designers. He’s created, among other things, Great Western Trail, Mombasa, Oh My Goods!, Broom Service, Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King and my favourite, Port Royal. While playing the game there will be multiple instances where the players are prompted to tell a story. This storytelling is a pure improv experience with no hard fast rules or guidelines. Interestingly while this does add a solid role play element to Adventure Begins, none of this improvising has any actual effect on the mechanics.So while D&D Adventure Begins does a great job of encouraging free-form roleplaying and storytelling, there’s no actual mechanical encouragement to do it. This is the biggest flaw with this game. If you remove the improv elements, which you can do without affecting the game at all, you are left with a very dry and boring dice roller. I would go so far as to say, mechanically Adventure Begins is actually a bad game. It does nothing to reward player skill or ingenuity. Almost everything is determined by the roll of the dice. The only things that aren’t are some binary decisions made on some non-combat encounter cards. Even with those, players are limited to two choices which is something you will never find in a full roleplaying game. D&D MINIATURE FIGURES: The game includes 4 plastic mini figures that correspond with the heroes featured in gameplay. For each hero class, there are four personality cards and 2 combat cards to choose from. The personality cards contain a personality type and special ability. The personality types give you a ‘flavour’ to play the game with. Step into the exciting world of D&D with the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Begins board game! Choose your character and work together along the journey through the lands of Neverwinter, facing fantastic obstacles, battling monsters, and defeating the boss monster terrorizing the realm. The role of Dungeon Master passes from player to player with each turn, so everyone gets to be part of the storytelling. FEATURES

In this episode, we each share the top ten items from our 2023 Holiday Wishlists. Some practical and others, not so much. Step into the exciting world of D&D with the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Begins board game! Choose your character and work together along the journey through the lands of Neverwinter, facing fantastic obstacles, battling monsters, and defeating the boss monster terrorizing the realm. The role of Dungeon Master passes from player to player with each turn, so everyone gets to be part of the storytelling. FEATURESSince Dungeons & Dragons Aventure Begins was released I’ve seen a huge variety of opinions on this game, including many people that would go so far as to say they hate the game and think it’s a bad addition to the hobby. I have to assume that these people were playing the game as a board game, a game they were playing to win and not a game that’s actually more about the stories you end up telling than it is about the mechanics of the game.