Dungeon in a Box is a monthly subscription service which bills itself as a complete package of materials to run a D&D 5th Edition adventure. The box includes an adventure and a variety of accessories to go with it. The modules are designed to work as standalone games, but if you subscribe monthly, the adventures work together to build an overall, year-long narrative. Downloadable digital content helps provide connective material to create an epic quest.
[h=3]What’s in the Box[/h]When you subscribe, you receive the first adventure box in that year’s cycle. The box I received contained the following:
[h=3]Adventure Booklet
[/h]Secrets of the Greenwold: Caravan of Peril is the first adventure in the cycle. It is designed to take 1st-level characters up to Level 2. The 24-page booklet includes:
[h=3]Encounter Map
[/h]The 18” x 24” map of the Caravan Camp location from the adventure is double-sided. One side shows the caravans, a campfire, and other location features for easy setup. The other side shows only the generic ground without other objects, so you can add your own minis and terrain pieces when running this adventure, or keep it to use in future games.
[h=3]Legacy Stickers and Tracker
[/h]The tracker helps document the party’s progress through the year-long cycle of adventures. The DM can make notes on the tracker, and stickers are provided to indicate the outcome of each adventure’s major encounter, such as whether a mission objective was completed.
[h=3]Terrain Tiles
[/h]An envelope containing several double-sided tiles lets you further customize your encounter map and represent changes in the terrain. For instance, you can add objects such as a horse or spilled treasure, or indicate a damaged caravan.
[h=3]Flat Plastic Minis
[/h]The monsters you need for the main encounter, plus an NPC and a creature for one of the possible random encounters, are represented in two-dimensional form. Punch out these minis from the plastic sheet and insert them into the included bases. They are printed on two sides, showing the character’s front and back, so you easily can show which direction the character is facing.
[h=3]Random Miniatures
[/h]Each box comes with two random premium miniatures. They are not necessarily related to the specific adventure, but are meant to be helpful additions to your mini collection. My box included a human fighter and a bugbear from the Reaper Bones line.
[h=3]Subscription Packages
[/h]A single month’s subscription costs $26, but if you subscribe to one of the multi-month packages, the average price of each box decreases. The contents of each box are the same regardless of the tier, though the 12-month subscription includes an extra adventure. Four tiers are offered:
[h=3]Conclusion[/h]If you’re a veteran DM who’s heavy into homebrew and owns a house full of D&D accessories, Dungeon in a Box may be less useful to you. But if you want to run a monthly game for your group without committing a lot of time to preparation, or are just getting started as a DM, Dungeon in a Box offers a helpful toolkit. I think it would make an especially great gift for a family that wants to learn to play D&D together. There’s no need to track down special items to run a fully realized adventure, and the nicely constructed module provides a good example of what a DM might need to create on their own for a game if they want to try their hand at homebrew later. Conveniently, almost everything in the box could be reused in other games.
For more details and subscription information, visit DungeoninaBox.com.
This article was contributed by Annie Bulloch as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
[h=3]What’s in the Box[/h]When you subscribe, you receive the first adventure box in that year’s cycle. The box I received contained the following:
[h=3]Adventure Booklet
[/h]Secrets of the Greenwold: Caravan of Peril is the first adventure in the cycle. It is designed to take 1st-level characters up to Level 2. The 24-page booklet includes:
- a caravan generator table, which helps you determine the makeup of the caravan
- a stat block and background for an important NPC
- several suggestions for random encounters the caravan may experience, ranked by difficulty
- stats for monsters
- magic items and other treasure
- information about the terrain
- a multi-part encounter
- suggestions for how to scale the adventure for characters up to Level 10
[h=3]Encounter Map
[/h]The 18” x 24” map of the Caravan Camp location from the adventure is double-sided. One side shows the caravans, a campfire, and other location features for easy setup. The other side shows only the generic ground without other objects, so you can add your own minis and terrain pieces when running this adventure, or keep it to use in future games.
[h=3]Legacy Stickers and Tracker
[/h]The tracker helps document the party’s progress through the year-long cycle of adventures. The DM can make notes on the tracker, and stickers are provided to indicate the outcome of each adventure’s major encounter, such as whether a mission objective was completed.
[h=3]Terrain Tiles
[/h]An envelope containing several double-sided tiles lets you further customize your encounter map and represent changes in the terrain. For instance, you can add objects such as a horse or spilled treasure, or indicate a damaged caravan.
[h=3]Flat Plastic Minis
[/h]The monsters you need for the main encounter, plus an NPC and a creature for one of the possible random encounters, are represented in two-dimensional form. Punch out these minis from the plastic sheet and insert them into the included bases. They are printed on two sides, showing the character’s front and back, so you easily can show which direction the character is facing.
[h=3]Random Miniatures
[/h]Each box comes with two random premium miniatures. They are not necessarily related to the specific adventure, but are meant to be helpful additions to your mini collection. My box included a human fighter and a bugbear from the Reaper Bones line.
[h=3]Subscription Packages
[/h]A single month’s subscription costs $26, but if you subscribe to one of the multi-month packages, the average price of each box decreases. The contents of each box are the same regardless of the tier, though the 12-month subscription includes an extra adventure. Four tiers are offered:
- 1 month: $26
- 3 months: $75 ($25 per month)
- 6 months: $144 ($24 per month)
- 12 months: $270 ($22.50 per month; includes a bonus 13th adventure)
[h=3]Conclusion[/h]If you’re a veteran DM who’s heavy into homebrew and owns a house full of D&D accessories, Dungeon in a Box may be less useful to you. But if you want to run a monthly game for your group without committing a lot of time to preparation, or are just getting started as a DM, Dungeon in a Box offers a helpful toolkit. I think it would make an especially great gift for a family that wants to learn to play D&D together. There’s no need to track down special items to run a fully realized adventure, and the nicely constructed module provides a good example of what a DM might need to create on their own for a game if they want to try their hand at homebrew later. Conveniently, almost everything in the box could be reused in other games.
For more details and subscription information, visit DungeoninaBox.com.
This article was contributed by Annie Bulloch as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
