Let us know how it turns out -- Dungeon is a great choice. Heck, my wife prefers it to D&D!
OK, so we had our first game of Dungeon on Christmas day and the girls
loved it. Maybe part of it was that I was playing with the, but my nine-year old in particular just had a blast. Actually, she tends to be quite competitive and even though she had acquired enough treasure to win the game, she wanted to keep playing - "I want to fight more monsters!"
I was happy because I can see transitioning them gradually to more complex games. I do have a copy of Wrath of Ashardalon that I've been holding onto but never played. I'm thinking that we can give that a go in a year or so - as well as, perhaps, Talisman, Descent, etc, and then try out full-blown D&D in a year or two. But it was nice to see that sparkle and glint in their eyes, especially the nine-year old.
As for me, I enjoyed the game but couldn't help but think about how it was kind of like D&D without all of the really interesting bits. Still fun to play. I did find the basic set-up with the four types of heroes to be a bit odd...the rogue and cleric being very weak, the fighter stronger, and the wizard the strongest. I would have liked to see them make them more equal even if it required a bit more complexity.
How complex is Ashardalon compared to Dungeon? Let's posit this scale of 1-10:
9-10 Complex RPGs
7-8 Moderate RPGs
5-6 Complex board games/Simple RPGs
3-4 Moderate board games
1-2 Simple board games (e.g. checkers)
If 3E and 4E are a 9, and 5E is a 7 or 8 (depending upon optional rules), and Dungeon is maybe a 3, where would Wrath, Talisman and Descent be? I'm guessing in the 5-6 range?