The Legend of Drizzt
The Legend of Drizzt is the latest addition to the Dungeons & Dragons line of board games from Wizards of the Coast.
By Aaron T. Huss
The Legend of Drizzt is the third Dungeons & Dragons board game utilizing mechanics primarily from Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. As is obvious, it centers around the adventures of the longtime novel-famous drow ranger Drizzt. The characters involved in the board, the heroes from which the players get to choose, are also from various Drizzt novels.
The game features a modular board consisting of many interlocking cavern tiles used to represent one of the thirteen adventures listed within the adventure book. These tiles, along with all other components, are compatible with the other two (and probably future) Dungeons & Dragons modular board games.
The game is designed for 1 – 5 players, although we have a group of 6 and decided to proceed with allowing all 6 players. It should be noted that the chosen adventure kicked our ass! The Legend of Drizzt is not a simple game where you can easily skate through and defeat the big bad. It is a definite cooperative game where tactics and quick thinking are required. If you make the wrong decision, even just once, your team could be doomed!
Before anyone begins playing this game, it is extremely critical that you read the rulebook. When you have finished read it again. When you have finished reading it the second time, hand it to one of your friends and have them read it too. Hopefully after this you will grasp all the rules and be aware of the little bits and pieces that can change the game from victory to defeat. We overlooked a couple rules and it possibly spelled our disaster. Of course, it could be that we had 1 familiar player and 5 unfamiliar players.
I grabbed my regular 4th Edition gaming group Chris, David, Ryan, Adam, and Dave to sit down and go through a game session and gather their opinions. I read the rulebook out-loud but at the end it appeared I overlooked a couple rules, but oh well. We’re not sure if the game properly scales to 6 players either, but again, oh well. Due to our familiarity with 4th Edition rules, the game’s rulebook was easy to understand. For all those unfamiliar with 4th Edition, only the basic rules and mechanics are being used with a host of new rules and mechanics pertaining to the board game. Overall, they were easy to understand, although we had several questions arise during gameplay (a couple which were actually in the rulebook and would have seen them if we would have read it three times).
Once you read the rulebook, you grab the adventure book and choose your adventure. This grouping includes solo, team cooperative, and team competitive. We chose a team cooperative adventure consisting of a pre-generated cavern and a mission to close some fissures where the monsters appear. It should also be noted that there was a major rule missing from this mission: the fissures close after depleting the Hit Points but the rulebook never defines that number of Hit Points. We went with 5, and that may have been another mistake.
The game was going fairly well until the monsters began overwhelming us. This game definitely does not favor the casual gamer and tactics are definitely required. We thought we had a vision of victory, but we obviously were neglecting to protect ourselves. Needless to say, most of us were down to less than half of our hit points before truly fighting back against the monsters; the Encounter cards were really taking their toll. We continued to push forward, barely staying alive, fighting the monsters and closing the fissures. We were not doing too well.
Upon getting halfway through our objectives, the villain came out and things went from bad to worse. It wasn’t so much that the villain was causing problems as it was the monsters were coming out and they seemed to be getting nastier and nastier. Most of our heroes were on the verge of death as the monsters were breathing down our necks, not a good sign. At this point, there were a couple overlooked rules that could have possibly saved us, but overall the biggest problem was our guessing of the 5 Hit Points for the fissures. The errata has yet to be posted…
By the time we thought we were making a comeback, we pulled a pair of Feral Trolls and that spelled our doom. We had already used both of our Healing Surges and three heroes had fallen. After an exciting game lasting around 90 minutes, the adventure defeated us. However, we all had a great time and loved the game.
FOR ROLEPLAYERS
The connection for fans of tabletop role-playing becomes obvious once you read through the rulebook and look at the hero cards. The board game’s mechanics either borrow from or are based on 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons and lend themselves to a certain familiarity. In addition, you can play a cooperative game just like your favorite role-playing games.
The comment I received from all of my friends is that 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons translates extremely well into a board game. The dungeon delving, hack-and-slash design is perfect for this style of modular, cooperative board game. This is a cinematic, high action that I picture during a role-playing game combat encounter.
OVERALL
The Legend of Drizzt is not only a fun and fast-moving board game, it’s a great way for fans of tabletop role-playing to expand their horizons. It’s also a great outlet for those who are pressed for time or looking for an escape from their regular game for at least one day. Using 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons helps create familiarity and reduces the learning curve enough so that many players can jump right in and enjoy the game. Fans of dungeon delving should get lots of enjoyment.
In addition to its included adventure book, adventurous players could learn to design their own adventures outside of those included. Replayability in this series of games is extremely high.
RATINGS
Visual Appeal: 10 out of 10
If I could rate this 12 out of 10 I would. The components are beautiful. The miniatures are exquisitely sculpted, the cardboard is rigid and designed for years of replay, the tiles fit together perfectly, the textures are fantastic, the art is wonderful, and the plastic tray inside the box is the best thing for storing every single piece. For $65 (USD), you are getting a TON of high quality, visually appealing components.
Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons mechanics translate perfectly to a board game (those used that is). The remaining mechanics designed for the board game make game-play fast and fun without having to get bogged down. The only problem I had with the mechanics is how their formatted and laid out. The rulebook was a little less than desirable and the order in which the mechanics were presented was not ideal. This is in total opposition to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing books, which really surprised me. This is part of the reason why I missed a few important rules here and there. However, by rereading the rulebook, much of this becomes a non-issue.
Desire to Play: 10 out of 10
All of my friends and I had a great time playing The Legend of Drizzt and how familiar it felt. The different adventures allowing for solo, cooperative, or competitive play mean that the board game is desirable to a number of players. It is truly an epic fantasy, hack-and-slash, dungeon delve, there is no arguing against that. If these aspects do not interest you, than you probably won’t want to try it. However, if you appreciate any of these aspects or they sound intriguing, then you will probably get hooked into the game and want to play again. With so many replayability possibilities, you will definitely get your moneys worth in game-play.
Overall: 9 out of 10
I loved The Legend of Drizzt. The theme is wonderful, especially the heroes and their fiction-associated backgrounds, the production quality is the absolute best, and I can’t believe the price. I’ve seen a lower quantity of miniatures that cost more than this. Everything about this game screams “play me, you won’t be sorry”.
