Should D&D be sold as a boardgame?

[diaglo]

Heroquest...

The old Dungeon board game. Heck, I saw that there was a Dungeon boardgame overseas with some fantastic pieces but it's not making it to these shores.

i preferred Talisman to Heroquest. but it had that card game element to it...


yup. Europe got a cool Dungeon rerelease.

basically, as far as i can figure it... Dungeon was released in 1978 with Holmes Basic. 1981 around the time of Moldvay. again in 1986 just after Mentzer...and just prior to 2003 revision in Europe only.

 

[Jupp]

Heroquest...

The old Dungeon board game. Heck, I saw that there was a Dungeon boardgame overseas with some fantastic pieces but it's not making it to these shores.

Yup the Dungeon & Dragons Boardgame in German is quite nice, the minis are well done and you get lots of props to put on the table. There is even an extension out called Ewiger Winter (Eternal Winter).

It's available on Amazon.de so if someone is really trying to get it, thats the place to go

Edit: not sure if its ok to post Amazon links, so I removed it

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Nothing like "I'm the Dungeon Master". I think the GM should be entirely scrapped and replaced with a small booklet of "quests" and a bunch of configurable map tiles, most likely drawn at random.

Or you could do it like Space Hulk with one player or team playing the monsters and the other player or team playing the heroes. Design a dungeon from a quest book or by random selection of tiles, and then determine the quest, usually "get in, get mcguffin(s), get out" with various levels of victory conditions for both sides. The monster player might get to place monsters in rooms each turn, while the heroes start at a start point and have to dodge past the monster player's obstacles on the way in.

 

[WayneLigon]

Descent

A dungeon crawl game using modular boards and scenarios, the game system will be an updated version of Fantasy Flight's Doom boardgame. One player acts as the dungeon master while the others take on the roles of adventurers cooperatively exploring a fantasy dungeon. The game is set in FFG's "Runebound" universe and was designed by Kevin Wilson. 20 plastic miniature heroes.

You also get a ton of cool plastic monsters and characters.

Boardgamegeek is just the best place

I played Betrayal at Hosue on the Hill at Halloween. It was a very cool game, and even lent itself to some roleplaying among the participants (two of which had never done anything like that or seen the game before - one of those people turned out to be the traitor and she did very well). It ended pretty much like any good Call of Cthulhu story or horror film The two little kids get out. My character (the track star) who has just seen his girlfriend's brains get eaten by this giant spider, is just about to get out... the game ended on their turns, with them getting free, so we said at the last second, this ball of webbing hits him in the back and drags him back intot he darkness. The house doors slam.. Roll credits.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Shadows Over Camelot has an interesting twist in that the players are playing cooperatively against the game itself which strives to overthrow Camelot. Nice figures in that case too.

 

[Tonguez]

Dungeons & Dragons Board Game

The land of Rallion is in the grip of the dark forces of the Dungeon Master. Four heroes have banded together to search out this evil and destroy it for ever.

You can choose to be one of the heroes, whose mission is to battle through the dungeon, defeating vicious monsters. Or choose to be the evil Dungeon Master, controlling the dark forces that lurk in the depths, determined to stop the heroes in their quest.

The deeper the heroes venture into the Dungeon, the more difficult their task becomes. They must rely on their abilities as a team to carry them through, and try and thwart the Dungeon Master and his evil plans!

Two expansion sets are now available for this board game.

Age: 10+ For 2 to 5 players

Contents:

5 double sided game boards
4 hero figures
36 monster figures
95 Item cards
39 Monster cards
5 Initiative cards
5 Reminder cards
10 Dice
4 Hero boards
104 counters
2 card sheets of tokens
Players guide
Dungeon Master guide

Also available in this series:

'Eternal Winter' Expansion Set
'Forbidden Forest' Expansion Set

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Hey, presto!

 

[diaglo]

Dungeons & Dragons Board Game

this is the product that is non-US.

 

[Flyspeck23]

May I promote my own product?

Because Dungeon Bash is pretty much what you're asking for: a d20 boardgame!
And you can play it either like a classic RPG boardgame (four player characters, one GM) or as a cooperative boardgame (no GM!).

The place to go if you want to learn more: the official Dungeon Bash site! There you'll find links to all things Dungeon Bash (reviews, product pages), a quick introduction, an art gallery, house rules and whatnot

 

[Lalato]

Descent

A dungeon crawl game using modular boards and scenarios, the game system will be an updated version of Fantasy Flight's Doom boardgame. One player acts as the dungeon master while the others take on the roles of adventurers cooperatively exploring a fantasy dungeon. The game is set in FFG's "Runebound" universe and was designed by Kevin Wilson. 20 plastic miniature heroes.

You also get a ton of cool plastic monsters and characters.

Boardgamegeek is just the best place

Wayne beat me to it. Here's a link to the Descent website...

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/descent_about.html

I don't have this game yet, but it looks like it has a lot of potential.

As for a D&D branded game for family fun... I think the Basic game they put out is just that, but as JoeGKushner noted, it's just not being marketed that way.

--sam