Platform: Board Game
Originally Released: August 30, 2010
A brief history first before we get into the things.
I first saw
Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game (just
Castle Ravenloft from here on out) at PAX 2010 in the board game hall. I had originally signed up to play after my shift ended but ended up not being able to attend the scheduled time; there might have been a
Goldeneye 007 tournament back at Classic Console (where I was working that year) that I participated in (and lost) instead. If you have read anything about me and Dungeons & Dragons over the years, you will know that I fell in love with the Ravenloft campaign setting when I was 13 when I received a copy of
"Van Richten's Guide to the Created," not really knowing anything about the setting or what the book I was being gifted (that I picked out myself at Walden's Books). I had recently finished reading "Frankenstein" and Dellanos had introduced myself and Dr. Potts to AD&D within the last year or so. Over the next six years, I proceeded to buy nearly everything I could find in 2nd Edition AD&D relating to Ravenloft.
So when I first saw this board game back in 2010, I was intrigued because it was a Ravenloft IP, but at the same time I was also turned off because it was a board game and not proper D&D. And despite all of the positive rumblings I had heard at PAX10 about Castle Ravenloft, I decided that Goldeneye 007 was more worthy of my time (it also meant I did not have to play a board game with a bunch of people I didn't know). But as the last decade went by, I had read more about the Dungeons & Dragons line of board games as actually being well-made products for the most part and that each box came with 40+ miniatures that were decently sculpted; also thinking that I might be able to use some of these in a future run of Curse of Strahd. I was also drawn to the fact that the game box (and several of the reviews) touted that the game is for one to five players and that depending on the adventure, games could take as few as 30 minutes. Meaning that I could play the game by myself in under an hour including set up time.
So a few weeks back when Dr. Potts gifted me with the ability to use some funds at an Amazonian store, I decided that this would be a perfect use of the available funds.
Like any board game designed after 1995, there were a fair amount of rules separate from the nearly 30 years of Dungeons & Dragons rules (spread across four editions) that I had tucked away in my long and short-term memory. After playing my first game, I mentioned to Dr. Potts that actually having all of this background in D&D was a bit of a hindrance because while reading the rules, I ended up making things more complicated because I was trying to figure out how existing rules from the PHB and DMG were written between the lines of the rules for Castle Ravenloft. The best example of this was that in Castle Ravenloft, you are able to attack an enemy that is right next to you, then use the rest of your turn to run away from them without incurring an attack of opportunity from the monster. I was so certain that moving while next to an enemy would give them a free attack, even Mansions of Madness has this mechanic so it only made sense to have it here too. I spent too much time scouring through the rule book looking for how to disengage from an enemy that I ended up Googling the answer only to find that there was no engaging/disengaging here. You can just attack, and move. Easy.
In Castle Ravenloft, there are 12 individual adventures that you can play although there are only two that are specifically labeled as single-player adventures, and currently, I have only played the first adventure, "Escape the Tomb" which is a single-player scenario. The story here is pretty simple, you play a character trapped in the tomb of Strahd von Zarovich, the Darklord vampire of Barovia where Castle Ravenloft is located, and you have to find your way out.
The player starts out in a designated starting location and the rest of the board is randomly generated from some combination of the remaining 40 floor tiles with the exit tile already placed within the deck of room tiles. For reasons not entirely clear, I decided to play as Immeril, an Eladrin Wizard. I knew that the wizard would likely have the fewest hit points and lowest armor class, so part of me figured that if I could finish this first scenario with the squishy wizard, that..... I am actually not entirely sure as that was as far as my thought process went. I followed the game guide's suggested starting spells and abilities so I ended up taking Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Shield, Fey Step, and Fireball (I won't get into the difference between Utility Powers, At-Will Powers, and Daily Powers or the other cards I could have chosen for Immeril because this is not a players guide or a rule book). I did not even look at the stat cards or ability cards for any of the other characters, so I know future playthroughs are going to be new and interesting. I was a little disheartened and confused that all of the wizard's spells only did 1 hp of damage, even Magic Missile which, in-game, does 1d4+1 to up to three targets, but when 90% of the enemies I faced all had 1 HP, this made more sense.
I was equally concerned when I realized that each time I placed a new floor tile down, a new enemy would spawn in a specific location. The prospect that my soft 6 HP wizard would make it out of a 10 tile dungeon alive was not looking very good. I did have two healing surges, which bring back a character from 0 HP to a designated amount added some hopefulness, but not much when each healing surge only healed for 3 HP. Thankfully though the rules specifically stated that enemies will not attack a hero if they are at 0 HP, so when Immeril was knocked unconscious while being surrounded by two undead ghouls, a spider, and a kobold skirmisher, I knew that I could still be resurrected. And once I was brought back, I had never been so happy to cast Thunderwave, because this spell, in this version, is able to attack all of the monsters on your tile, dealing 1 HP of damage to all monsters, who all thankfully had only 1 HP. It created a great cinematic moment in my head.
Sadly that was my last healing surge and I still had four more tiles until I discovered the exit, unless I reached the end of the day and Strahd woke up from his tomb to mercilessly begin hunting me through his crypt. Thankfully that did not happen, but Immeril did end up getting devoured by a swarm of rats right before Strahd's turn, and so I died-died.
Having played games like Mansions of Madness and Pandemic, losing was not the soul-crushing experience like it is in Monopoly or Chess, and the fact that, including set up time to when my tasty Elven body provided nourishment to a mischief of rats took just over an hour I took as time well spent. I learned a fair amount of the rules so that future playthroughs would go much quicker and when Conklederp and I play (maybe this weekend?) and later when Dr. Potts and Jane maybe decide to play (maybe the weekend they're up in a few months?) there won't be as much rule book checking that inevitably slows downplay. Because nobody likes playing a game that should be fun if someone is having to look up rules after every other person's turn and when a 45-minute game turns into a two-hour slog.
Lastly, just a few quick points I wanted to mention that I discovered either while playing or after I had finished. The big one is that this is not a legacy game or meant to be played as a campaign. Your characters always start at level 1 and can level up to level 2 during the quest, but that is it. No items or treasures you collect in one adventure carry over to another adventure. Not every adventure is going to use all of the rules, like the skull icon on the room tiles, the Encounter tiles, or thankfully, the Dracolich. I have read various house rules regarding leveling or turning the game into a campaign, or even using this game in "The Curse of Strahd" but I think, at least for the time being, that I am going to enjoy the way the designers intended the game to be played, although I will definitely see how many of the quests I can complete using only one character. Because why not?
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Just Yesterday, A Wind Came Blowin'
No comments:
Post a Comment