WizKidsDungeons & Dragons: Temple of Elemental Evil Adventure System Board Game - Standard Edition

Bowen's finally getting around to doing addition in school. Geek that I am, I decided that the best way of reinforcing that is to get him into D&D. I thought about ordering the Basic Set, but decided that that was way too abstract (despite the fun dice). The Temple of Elemental Evil board game, however, looked like it would be fun (and had lots of fiddly bits), and was a cooperative game, so we didn't have to worry about being competitive. And yes, I'm the kind of parent who looks at the suggested age (14+) and think that it's ridiculously silly, but it's probably set for an age where a kid can open the box with his brothers and read the rules and understand everything. I wasn't expecting Bowen to read the rules, just understand them.The game does come with a ton of fiddly bits. There's a load of miniatures, multiple dungeon tiles that fit together like a puzzle piece, and a couple of rulebooks. There are also character cards, condition markers, hit point markers, and a set of character cards for each character. And of course, the trade-mark d20. We spent a happy hour punching out all the counters, sorting the cards, putting the minis into various zip-loc bags, and then proceeded to play the game wrong once before finally figuring it out.The sequence of play is straight forward: you can move and then attack (or attack and then move), then draw a dungeon tile (if you've stepped onto a square to extend the dungeon) and/or an encounter card, activate monsters, and then pass it on to the next player. What's tricky about the game is that it makes a distinction between tiles and squares (the grid marked onto the dungeon tiles) and I failed to understand the difference at first because real D&D only counted squares and didn't have the concept of tiles.That aside, Bowen found the game surprisingly fun. He immediately decided to play the Cleric, and I picked up the Rogue. The game has a lot of traps, but that was part of the fun. He loved rolling the d20, and then I'd help him add the modifier. (There's only one, and it's usually +5 or +6, but there are +4s, +2s, and various other combinations here and there) I had to frame his decisions for him, or he'd get lost, but he loved killing monsters and picking up a treasure card.The game itself is actually quite hard. Encounter cards are very dangerous, so you have an incentive to keep exploring as much as possible so as to not necessarily have to draw encounter cards. (You have to draw an encounter card anyway if the tile you drew had a black arrow, and yes, Bowen had no problem understanding that rule) You can prevent encounter cards by spending experience (which you accumulate by killing monsters). You can spend treasure to level up (each character only has 2 levels)The game thus scales itself with more players: each additional player means more encounter cards. In addition, if you play the game with its 13 scenarios as a campaign, the game self-adjusts in difficulty: the more successful you are, the more dangerous encounters and monsters get added to future scenarios. If you barely succeed, then less dangerous encounters get added, and you also get more treasure to spend to upgrade your characters and buy items. If you fail completely, you get to keep the treasure, but you also have to replay the scenario. I can see scenarios under which this gets you into a death spiral and then you'd have to replay the campaign and start over.All in all, the game does a good job of simulating D&D, and teaching someone how to add. It does have a ton of fiddly bits, which meant that until Bowen was 4, there was no way playing this game wouldn't get all the minis destroyed in short order. I'd also worry about small children swallowing the d20, so I'm keeping the game strictly away from his younger brother for now. But it definitely seems like a great game for the rainy season. And hey, maybe one day that D&D Starter Set wouldn't seem like it would be too abstract for him.Recommended.

To begin with, this is an homage to the classic AD&D module, but it's not the same story. If you're expecting to try to defeat the Demon Queen Zuggtmoy and her army of fungi, storry to disappoint you.While this is not really classic roleplaying, neither is it a classic board game. It takes elements of both and combines them with randomized elements to make a fantastic and fun hybrid which I think is a unique experience. And one major advantage it has over other games is that it can be played by a single player! After all, it can be hard to find a group of players where everyone can agree on a DM. In this game, the monsters and villains have pre-programmed instructions of how they behave under certain conditions. Just follow the instructions which fit the current state of the game.Possibly the most unique aspect of these games (there are six in the D&D Adventure System series) is the fact that the board is made up of tiles which are randomly drawn from a common stack. This means that even if the same scenario is replayed, there almost no chance that it will turn out the same way twice. Combined with randomly drawn monsters, encounters and treasures and you have a game which can easily go one way or another depending on pure chance. This is fairly similar to D&D as I played it since random encounters and bad luck of the dice can bring even the most powerful party down as fast as lucky rolls can keep a weak party alive against huge odds.This game is a bit complicated but not to the point where it is difficult to play or learn. In fact, compared to similar games based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, these games are much easier to play and more fun since the game is not balanced such that the players lose almost every time. And the rules of the D&D Adventure System carry over to the other games in the series, for the most part. And if you like, you can even beef up one game by adding monsters from another one. Maybe one day Wizards of the Coast will publish a book of new scenarios, some of which might combine elements from two or more games into a whole new adventure!All in all, this game specifically is a great value for the money. The pieces are nice and the tokens and boards are made of good material which should hold up over many hours of play. If you shell out the extra money for the Deluxe version, the painted miniatures alone are probably worth the price of the entire game!

This item is a COMPLETE game. I would only wish for additional dice, rather than just one. All the basic concepts of D&D are covered, classes, armor class, hit points, magic spells, character management... While not as open-ended as the tabletop experience, the general flavor of that type of gaming is captured well.The game pieces are very durable punch outs, but the highly detailed plastic figures, both player figures and monsters, are incredible, and worth the price of the game just by themselves. The gameplay is fairly straight forward if you actually read all the rules. This might confuse veteran tabletop players more than newcomers, just be patient and reread if you get confused. The rules do a good job of covering the bases.All that said, this game is NOT a cake walk, even for experienced players. If it is not your day to roll good attack numbers, things may not end well! So, a challenging game, excellent game aids, great value.