The Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System Games, which include the just-reviewed Legend of Drizzt along with Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, are weirdly controversial in some circles. Myself and many others love the simple, accessible gameplay with very little overhead yet plenty of authentic D&D flavor. Yet many others put on the grumpy pants and have this weird resentment toward the game for not being a tedious, boring, min-maxing festival of OCDism like Descent. I don’t get it. They’re very different kinds of games, although both are dungeoncrawls.
Drizzt is the best of the series so far, but Wizards needs to ditch the complete game model at this point. We’ve had three of these games in a year, and I’d much rather see a robust expansion than another full game with compatible pieces. The thing about it is too that if you’ve not already been convince by one of the other two, I don’t think Drizzt or any future release will change your mind.
Review is in the pages of Gameshark.com, as you might expect.
my pants remain grumpy. It’s not that I want a slow moving rulesfest like Descent (god no). I just want something more in the middle. Granted I only played Ravenloft but it was just too light for me.
I like the system. I use it to fill the dnd gaps. I don’t have time to DM a game right now so we just bust this out and do our favorite part killing monsters for an hour or two.
I probably won’t pick up Drizzt cause of the price tag. They really should be releasing expansions at this point. Price them between $20-$40 depending on content and I’ll pick them up.
This is exactly why I like these games so much. They look, feel, and act like Dungeons and Dragons, which I do love, but it doesn’t require the commitment. I love that it has classic D&D monsters, classes, and settings rather than the other generic fantasy games.
Rumour has it that smaller expansions are on the way, but I don’t have anything solid on that.
It’s not that there aren’t valid objections to this system…it is _extremely_ light, and that does put off some people. That said, there does need to be more games that are more of a middle ground…that aren’t Warhammer Quest, which is out of print and costs a freaking fortune.
Claustrophobia is a good middle-grounder, but it’s only for two.
because of the way the game is set up to let you game it. I love the system and the monster reactions work very well. However allowing the player to put monsters in the best situation for themselves makes it a bit gamey at times.
In fact while I was playing Drizzt for review I got into a situation in the Dragon scenario where it was impossible for the players to lose.
I think Mike is right there need to be stand alone expansions at this point and also a more advanced rule set. For example when we play we put the monster in intelligence spots for them. If the game says the monster moves 1 tile closer and attacks we don’t move it so he positions himself between 3 players so he gets bashed.
Having said that the lightness of it is a plus because my 8 year old can play it and have fun with her Dad going on an adventure.
When I play I don’t let us use the best scenario for the players. It’s the moderately old school DnD DM that runs in my veins. The monster is there to kill you not be a loot machine, so we help the monster. :shrug: I guess that depends on your group.
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