Reddit reviews Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game

Hey, so I don't know what your budget is, but I'm going to make a few recommendations.

Those are: Any of the D&D Board games from this list:

The Legend of Drizzt $50

Castle Ravenloft $50

Temple of Elemental Evil $45

Wrath of Ashardalon $50

Tomb of Annihilation

May seem pricey, but lemme tell you why I recommend these: they come with a shitton of minis, the minis are high quality, they come with DUNGEON TILES, they come with loot cards, they come with tokens for HP and stuff, and they can be used to play a game that has different scenarios if you're into that, though the game isn't D&D proper (though it is D&D flavored).

So here's a picture of all the minis that Wrath of Ashardalon comes with

ALL of that. That's 42 minis right there. If the box only came with minis, that would be about $1.20 a mini. You're not going to find minis of that quality that cheap pretty much anywhere else. It is an insanely good deal.

So then we have the tiles. They interlock with each other, and are compatible with tiles from all the other games I listed. [Here's a pile] (https://spalanz.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/imag3329.jpg) , here's some assembled, and that's 12 tiles. The box comes with 40.

Lemme give you a breakdown of what WoA comes with in terms of minis:

Ashardalon, Red Dragon

Bellax, Gauth

Cave Bear x3

Duergar Guard x3

Gibbering Mouther x3

Grell x3

Heskan, Dragonborn Wizard

Human Cultist x3

Keyleth, Elf Paladin

Kobold Dragonshield x3

Kraash, Orc Storm Shaman

Legion Devil x3

Margraath, Duergar Captain

Meerak, Kobold Dragonlord

Orc Archer x3

Orc Smasher x3

Otyugh

Quinn, Human Cleric

Rage Drake

Snake x3

Tarak, Half-Orc Rogue

Vistra, Dwarf Fighter

The D&D Castle Ravenloft (original inspiration for CoS as noted in the Introduction) Board Game is my answer as well. Almost all ~40 miniatures can be used at one point in the CoS campaign, which works out to a fantastic price per mini ratio (a little over a dollar per).

The only downside is that the Strahd mini isn't EPIC enough, so I purchased a separate mini just for him.

Amazon Link

Painted Castle Ravenloft Minis

Look up board games like Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786955570/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZnL1DbHF1BRN7 which comes with
3 Zombies
3 Wolves
3 Skeletons
3 Flaming Skeletons
3 Ghouls
3 Rat swarms
3 Spiders
3 Kobolds
3 Wraiths
3 Gargoyles
1 Flesh Golem (2x2)
1 Zombie Dragon (2x2)
1 Dracolich (3x3)
1 Kobold Sorcerer
1 Vampire
1 Werewolf
1 Hag
and 5 hero characters
1 Dragonborn fighter (male)
1 Human Ranger (female)
1 Human Rogue (female)
1 High Elf Wizard (male)
1 Dwarf Cleric (male)
There are other similar games thar have different minis. You can usually find them for $35-50 and with three number of minis you get it works out to like $1 or less per mini.

There's been five released so far (ordered below oldest to newest):

• Wrath of Ashardalon
  
• Castle Ravenloft
  
• Legend of Drizzt
  
• Temple of Elemental Evil
  
• Tomb of Annihilation
  
  They are each designed to be cooperative adventures where there is no DM but instead all of the monsters are designed to run themselves according to a set of rules outlined on monster cards corresponding to each creature (Note if you buy one, keep the two decks of cards separate until told to combine them in the adventure book -- this is not clear in the rules). The players face off against different scenarios in an adventure book which prescribes what monsters and tiles to use or set-aside and then they generate a random dungeon through drawing dungeon tiles from the stack as they explore.
  
  They can of course be played on their own and are a moderately enjoyable (some even have one of their adventures that is suitable as single-player). Though I own all of them I've only played Elemental Evil, but I hear that they experience improves with each one released.
  
  They can also be lots of use for a budding DM; there lots of useful stuff in them that can be borrowed or raided.
  
  

  Useful D&D Elements
  

  
  

• Dungeon Tiles that interlock allowing for quick and easy custom dungeons. Ashardalon, Ravenloft, and Elemental Evil have pretty standard stonework dungeons, but Drizzt has nice cavern tiles, and Annihilation has jungle and vine choked corridors. EE also has 6 or so tiles with a micro-scale town on one side of each, making a quick and dirty town map super easy.
  
• Lots of figures, about 40-45 in each set, ranging from 'Small' to (in some sets) 'Huge.' All of them are sized correctly to match other official D&D figures, the plastic is pretty durable. They are highly detailed and quite suitable for painting. They're also rather useful if you are running the official 5e campaign that corresponds to the setting/theme for each game (e.g. Tyranny of Dragons = Ashardalon, etc. [SKT has no Adventure System game]).
  
• A ton of cardboard tokens, varying by set, for doors, treasure, chests, traps, additional NPCs or creatures
  
  But there's also downsides:
  
  
• Many tiles have an assortment of icons or the occasional words on them, Elemental Evil is the worst offender here with lots of random icons that might make your players scratch their heads at the normal D&D table.
  
• Many more tokens than you will have use for. I have started to use the hard cardboard tokens as bases for off-brand figures that need things to stand on, just glue it on, paint black over the cardboard printing -- voila!
  
• Several of the figures may be bent from being packaged and packed in there -- curved spears, flaccid swords, leaning creatures. I have not found a good way to rectify this.
  
• The scenario book and monster cards are mostly useless if you are getting one only for parts and pieces useful in your normal D&D game.
  
• The tiles do not promote the building of many really large rooms or corridors, there is no "inside corner" to make L-shaped rooms or wide hallways. Furthermore, the fully open 4x4 tiles are extremely rare (with tiles from 6 complete games I have less than a half-dozen), making really large rooms difficult -- they usually just become really long rooms.

You can grab one of the D&D boardgames; if you find one for under $50 it comes out to just over $1/mini (including usually 2-3 "big" ones) and includes some easy-to-use dungeon tiles.

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/

Do you mean the board game Castle Ravenloft or the campaign setting? I think people may be suggesting campaign setting ideas while I feel you mean this.

You can not like it, but to say it isn't a roleplaying game is disingenuous. It's fine if your opinion is that it should have been a board game. it isn't fine if you're stating for a fact that it was not a roleplaying game and is really a board game.

Saying D&D 4e is not a roleplaying game is not acting in good faith. Lots of people act in bad faith. That doesn't make it right.

Have you played the D&D board games from the 4e era? Castle Ravenloft, for example. That is what a 4e board game looks like. It's almost nothing like the 4e D&D rolepaying game. By calling D&D 4e a board game you're saying it's basically Castle Ravenloft.

Come on. Nobody can believe that.

The board games, while based on 4th edition, are super basic and very easy. I sometimes use them to introduce people to the game since it feels less nerdy, as little set up time, looks great and is easy to learn.

Here they are:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786955570/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AAE5SU76RYVA

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786955708/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1JIUYKA8QS5H6

There is also a Drizzt one of the same type, and a slightly newer but less cool looking imo temple of elemental evil one.

I buy video games and board games mostly. Since I have started I have bought

Guild Wars 2


Fall of Cybertron


Borderlands 2


Ravenloft Board Game


Lord of the Rings: the living card game


Wife is pregnant so I am using only beer money to buy the fun stuff right now. Putting my normal "fun shit" monthly portion of my pay check towards baby stuff now.

If you think you might be willing to play something D&D-like that involves significantly less commitment, you could buy him one of the D&D board game products, such as the Legend of Drizzt or Castle Ravenloft. They're pretty easy to learn to play as you go, and a game can be completed in about an hour and a half.

An advantage to those products is that they come with a bunch of nice miniatures which are suitable for use in regular D&D. The interlocking tiles could also be used to build dungeon complexes which could be used in a real D&D game as well.

The D&D board games are actually really good for 1-5 players, it's short campaigns no DM needed.

So ... there are a lot of different Dungeons and Dragons. There's the tabletop game which started it all (pen and paper and dice - you can read about its long and storied history here).

There's a ton of video games from various eras ranging from I think the late 80s, early 90s to present day, including Dungeons and Dragons Online (don't know if that's still up or not).

You can go to GOG.com and find a lot of D&D computer games (and there have been console releases of some of them); Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate are a couple of the D&D computer games.

There also have been several D&D board games to choose from.

So ... as to what you need to start playing, it depends which one!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786955570/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ALGFOCA5V1VAN&psc=1
this is correct seller . Seller has good reviews

We played a couple of one-shot scenarios at PAX Prime. To be honest, I felt like it was a dumbed-down version of Descent or Super Dungeon Explore. If you're looking for a DnD style game, I really don't think this is it. You would be better served by any of the Dungeons and Dragons boardgames. Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt or Wrath of Ashardalon

Since your deck is also your hitpoints, the better player you are, the less variety you will see. For example, we had one payer who was doing amazingly well, rolling high and never taking damage. For the entire game she only drew two cards, so her playable hand NEVER changed (or least not in any real significant manner).

The roleplaying opportunities are almost non-existent, and it really isn't breaking any new ground for mechanics-based combat. I honestly think the only reason a lot of people are enjoying it is because of the name tie-in with "Pathfinder". Without that logo on the box, it's really not that compelling of a game.

It does have an ongoing campaign, and that is pretty compelling. Character development and seeing your characters grow in skill and gain new abilities is always fun. (That's the "gateway drug" for MMOs, after all!) But there really isn't enough game here to make it worthwhile.

You can buy this:

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504115168&sr=8-2&keywords=ravenloft

It comes with 40-50 unpainted miniatures straight from the CoS campaign (and a whole separate board game) and will save you $$$. And I personally enjoy painting the miniatures!

Stand alone D&D board games like: https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504049722&sr=8-2&keywords=ravenloft
are really solid and even if he hates it, he get some good minis out of it.
Or, Lords of Waterdeep is really good, but to deep for a 4 year old.

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=strahd&qid=1570476970&sr=8-7

this one has 60.

I think you should get this game to play with yourself, or others, and let me know how you like it. :)

Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786955570/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6uUKBbPWXXRDN

Grim Forest is a good, entry level, vaguely worker placement game with fantastic whimsical fairy-tale type miniatures.

The dungeons and dragons dungeoncrawler board game system is decent. The first three sets using the "first edition rules" (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and Legend of Drizt) can sometimes be found and really good prices on Amazon. The only real difference between the old and new versions of the rules that I've seen (based on skimming the components) is that the newer games use advantage/disadvantage rather than specific status conditions. The different boxes are also cross-compatible so you can build custom campaigns using multiple sets if you want to.

Turnkey miniatures has sets of townsfolk, animals, royals, etc. Pretty reasonable too. http://www.turnkeyminiatures.com/Sets_c_14.html

Ceasar Miniatures has packs of 30ish minis in 12 or so poses. They are a bit under sized (22mm v 28mm). But I think it looks good for smaller beings. Their website is awefull, and Amazon is pretty expensive for them but check eBay. They have ratmen, goblins, skeletons, orcs.

Always look at Reaper bones. Here is a six pack of goblins. https://www.miniaturemarket.com/rpr77024.html

Another thing to do is get the d&d board games. They come themed to the game and have around 40 minis each. The games are okay, but the minis are great. I would wait for sales too. A few times a year they drop below $40. Here is the ravenloft game. https://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Coast-Dungeons-Dragons-Ravenloft/dp/0786955570

Edit:added ravenloft

>co-operation between players

I want to piggy back this with the Castle Ravenloft board game.

It's a focused board game experience with D&D elements, mostly focused on skills and combat, less on RP and story. I feel like it's a good alternative in the current wave of YouTube D&D popularity focused on ridiculous stories, silly voices, and character stereotypes.

Have you checked out the Castle Ravenloft board game from WotC? I guess they have a new one out now: Wrath of Ashardalon

The gameplay is sort of like a simplified version of 4th edition D&D. The monsters move and attack based on procedural rules, so there's no need for a separate player to be the GM.

Try the D&D board games (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt). Mechanically, they aren't D&D, but they do mirror several aspects of it in abstract tones.

Arguably closer to D&D in terms of playstyle, though not there by any means, is Fantasy Flight's 2nd Edition Descent: Journeys in the Dark. It's exciting, offers campaign play, involves dungeon crawling of a sort, and offers a chance for one player to "Overlord" against "hero" players, the latter of which controls one or more characters who gain equipment, abilities and so forth as the campaign progresses. Great fun and probably your closest shot at getting her into a D&D boardgame without making the jump to D&D itself.

It was a joking description. I was talking about the D&D board games (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and two others I can’t remember the names of, but have to do with frost giants and the underdark, respectively). The official D&D board games include full sets of miniatures for whatever campaign they’re based off of, but otherwise are regarded as sub-part board games. As a result, the majority of the sales of the game are from people buying the games for the purpose of cannibalizing the minis and using them for mini painting and actual D&D games.

If you read the amazon reviews you see that nearly everybody talks specifically about the minis.

Hm... I'm not sure what to do about transitioning into a Fallout RPG system. I'll share with you what's worked for me to acquaint new-comers to tabletop games:

• Buy one of these: One, Two, Three, maybe Four
  
  
• Schedule a "game night" where your group just picks up and plays one of those games. Work together to understand the rules and the process and gauge the how much fun everyone has doing these sort of games.
  
  
• After a few games nights, ask your friends if they're interested in trying something a little less pre-made. Buy this and upgrade your game night.
  
  
• After a few sessions of that, if all goes well and the general consensus is positive, expand your game night to your desired game system.

I think you need this shirt!

EDIT: MORE STUFF These dice are pretty rad

Do you DM?

Mind Flayers?

Everyone needs a pound of Dice

Drizzit

Ravenloft



Edit: I was so excited to show you the shirt I forgot to link this super cute bento box on my default list!

Both Castle Ravenloft and The Legend of Drizzt include miniatures and have been well-received.

The best way to get into any table top game is to join an existing group, if that group you saw playing looked fun you could always ask to join them. You can also look up groups that might be looking for members via a local gaming store or on a website like meetup.com.

If you really want to start your own game then Pathfinder or D&D 4e have the best options for beginner boxes. You should pick one based on what sounds better. It seems to me what you describe might be 4e, but it might not be so you should make sure you know what they were playing before you buy something that is not what you want to play.

EDIT: your description reminds me of the D&D board game like: http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570

While it bears the D&D logo it is not a traditional table top RPG like Pathfinder but actually a (very fun) board game.

I buy painted so I just get singles from ebay. The Dungeon Command boxes from amazon are also pretty good value too.

If you want unpainted then Otherworld Miniatures look good to me. You can also get the big boxed D&D board games like the base one, Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt...etc which are relatively cheap for how many minis you get.

I've heard good things about Castle Ravenloft, although I've not played it.

I believe it uses the 4th Edition rules (maybe a subset), and contains everything you need in the box, ready to go.

Amazon uk seems to have good prices on the D&D board games. Here's castle ravenloft: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1481603994&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Castle+racenloft

You are aiming for a little over 40 pounds with those, which seems to be the current prices. Ravenloft is where I would start, after that, temple of elemental evil, then wrath of ashlardon and legend of drizzt. There are 4 such board games in total.

Eh, kind of surprising board games are the most cost effective way to get miniatures, but that seems to be the case. You will get something like 42 minis per game, a mix of heroes, monsters, and a couple large guys.

Checking on amazon uk, Descent seems way overpriced compared to in the US. May be a christmas thing, but I would aim to pay about 40 pounds for the base game, (they currently have it for 60 pounds, far too much), and about 25 pounds for hero and monster packs, to count as a good deal. Maybe watch amazon uk and see if they get some reasonable prices after christmas.

I know the UK has some great ebay sellers offering the Caesar's miniatures and the dark alliance sets, so you shouldn't have a problem finding them on ebay by searching for the names. My personal favorites are the Caesar's undead set, the Caesar's adventurers set, and the Dark Alliance orcs set.

Anyway, that's where I would start building the collection in the UK. Let me know if I can help further. :)

Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board game https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786955570/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_spe3DbRS1A8XD

> So me and some friends started playing ravenloft. we like it and the system, but we know it is different from classic dnd. We unjust don't know to what extent.

Ravenloft was actually released for 1e/2e, meaning it's very classic. Things are quite lethal, and upgraded compared to a more conventional D&D campaign - setting a tone that the game is very dark compared to other D&D campaigns. Perhaps making Dark Sun look like a paradise. In a group of friends, I mentioned plans to host a Ravenloft campaign - and one veteran D&D player simply said that any characters going in might as well be considered one-shots.

If you're referring to the board game, that's somewhat different as you aren't going through the full character creation process that you do in any other edition. While it doesn't match either classic D&D or 4.0 (can tell by the rules despite not having played it), it still seems enjoyable enough.

> What are the main differences betweent classic and 4.0 campaigns?

Classic D&D refers to AD&D, although you can include 3e. Prior to 3e, things were much more lethal, and you were expected to engage enemies in larger groups (party sizes of 6-9). 3e/3.5e shifted to slightly smaller groups, made slightly less lethal but still chance of being downed, and make everything as standard as possible.

4.0 shifted focus to having the player characters being heroic when they start, which is a major paradigm shift in D&D - no need for an early campaign.

> I don't think we have so much time as for long battles every battle.

There's a few ways to speed things up, but it best works if there's no table distractions (one of my group has enough non-game talk that it slows down a quickly-resolvable 5v1 battle) and if the group is skilled enough to plan things ahead of time.

If you're worried about combat taking a while, it's best to go for systems that are much lighter on combat math. As you noticed, 5e seems to be the common recommendation.

No. But I've played this game before and it's like D&D Lite. http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570

I was skeptical at first but it ended up being pretty fun.

But $54 seems a bit much.

Hey! Im sorry if im late to the party, but you could totally check into getting the Castle Ravenloft boardgame. Comes with like 40 minis or something like that, including zombies, skeletons, a vampire, a werewolf, a huge flesh golem and even a dracolich (which is not included in the Curse of Strahd storyline but its still a badass mini).


They are not painted, and made out of somewhat cheap plastic tho. But the boardgames are an amazing way to build up a mini army real fast. Look into it!

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570

DnD board game

I started off playing the tabletop Dungeons and Dragons board games like The Legend of Drizzt, Castle Ravenloft, and Wrath of Ashardalon. These games are great because you can play with anywhere between 2-5 people and you don't need a dungeon master. They come with around 40 plastic miniatures, board pieces, premade adventures, and everything else you need to get started, and they're great because you can mix the pieces between the games if you buy more than one.



These games are great because they can get you into D&D without all the set up and keeping track that you have to do with a regular game.

Once you've played one of those a few times you should move on to real D&D. I suggest doing this by trying to finding a starter set for the edition you want to play, or, even better, by finding a friend who plays.

Now this is only really if you want to play D&D and that's just what I'm suggesting because that's what I have experience with and I know it's a lot of fun. If you, or anyone, chooses to start playing D&D or any game I would suggest buying your materials from a local game shop instead of online. If you can afford it (prices will probably be a little higher) and you can find one near you it's a great investment. Not only can you ask the employees for advice, but often there will be a ton of great people willing to play with you, as long as you sort through the neckbeards of course. Also you'll be supporting those local shops, and you'll help keep them in business, which helps paper and pen RPG's survive, and helps everyone have just a little more fun.

Good luck and happy dragon slaying!