Hasbro Gaming Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Begins, Cooperative Fantasy Board Game, Fast Entry to The World of D&D, Family Game for 2-4 Players, 10 and Up

I received my copy of the Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins game yesterday and played it with my two sons (ages 13 and 10) tonight.We were laughing almost the entire time. Rib-hurting, hard-to-breath, better-not-be-drinking laughs. It was the most fun we had with a board game that I can remember off hand. The only thing that has come close recently are video party games like some of the JackBox Party Games.This is the first truly general audience, family game based on D&D that Wizards of the Coast has put out.It is a great game for kid's birthdays and x-mas. The rules are simple, the components are fun, and you don't have to know anything about D&D or even be a fantasy fan to enjoy it. At the same time it manages to capture a lot of the flavor of D&D. More in the beer & pretzels (or soda and chips), railroady-quest style of D&D.The designers did a good job building in "role playing" without having to call it that or even explain what it is. For example, each player selects a backpack card as part of setting up his or her character. The backpack card list the contents of the backpack that are meant as items to use as "props" for using a your characters special ability that depends on improvising a scenario to activate the action. It works very well, my 10 year old used his special action almost every single turn because he loved coming up with crazy actions other than "I hit it with my sword." It may not have always been the most tactical choice, but it was fun.Many of the encounter cards involve having to improvise and act out. E.g., a confused sphinx who remembers the answer but not the riddle and the players must come up with a riddle for the answer, or a dance competition, or the party has to work together to come up with a group solution to an issue. There are also some choose-your-own-adventure type cards where an encounter is explained an you have to choose from several options. The choose from a selection cards are the only part of the game that doesn't have a high level of replayability. I'm guessing from these kinds of cards and the extra card-slot storage in the box that WotC intends to release expansion card packs for the game. Personally, I'm thinking that when we come upon a card like this that we already played, we'll have the DM come up with a new description and choice but with the same mechanical effects.The DM role is changed each time the party enters a different room. In all combats and in many non-combat encounters the DM also plays his or her character. The card description and dice dictate how the monster acts. But there are some cards where the DM only presents to the other players, even some where the DM has to choose which character wins the challenge.The game is cooperative, but there are some competitive opportunities from cards. Like the create a riddle card I wrote about above. The DM selects which player's riddle is best. As it is a cooperative game, I suppose the DM could just give the win to whichever player needs the gold or healing the most to help the group's chances, but my boys and I enjoyed the competition and played competitive encounters competitively.The cards have a lot of game and geek references, many of the them are D&D related, but they also reference a lot of other Hasbro games in a way that doesn't ruin the D&D vibe. Very clever actually and provides a selection of references for all ages and properties. It is almost certain that most people will recognize at least some of the in-jokes and Easter eggs, whether referencing Monty Python (It wouldn't be D&D without Monty Python references), Lord of the Rings, My Little Pony, Monopoly, etc.While not a premium game, for the price I thought that the components were of acceptable quality. The design of the game, cards, parts were all well done. Game mechanics were very well done. I can't think of another game that is quite the same as it. It is the first straight board game that felt like D&D to me in a way that the Adventure System boxed sets never did. My kids played the Princes of the Apocolypse board game for one scenario and never wanted to play it again. We already plan to play Adventure Begins again tomorrow.

I bought this on a whim for 12 bucks and have played through it three times now with my kids.We've all had a blast!If you're looking for deep gameplay, varied combat and compelling storylines... this ain't it. This is more of a party game. The rules are paired way down for this game and what's left is just enough to facilitate silliness, storytelling and fun. It isn't complex, nor is it difficult. Really, in our time playing, the whole game hinges on the creative attacks for each of the characters.All the characters are basically the same in terms of abilities with little variation, but they each have a creative attack. There are backpack cards for instance, but you have to pick a character that has a creative attack that lets you utilize the items in your backpack so you can describe to the group how you're using them to attack. If you see a character that has a cool weapon or want one that let's you cast spells, look at their creative attack to make sure the character uses it's weapon or casts spells. Then you can spin a tale of great heroism and roll to see if it works out. In our play throughs we've only used the basic attacks three or four times. The rest are creative attacks, special attacks, or items... of which there are really only 3 types.It's also fun for everyone to get a chance to DM. You draw either a monster or scenario card and read it to the group. It's always nice to break up to the gameplay and do a little damage to your team.Yes, it could get repetitive. We've only played three times now, but with the creative attacks and lots crazy storytelling, we've managed to have lots of fun so far and already have the board setup to play again.Minus one star because it only came with three health trackers instead of four.

I have not played D&D since I was in grade school. I have two boys, 8 and 5, and thought that this would be a fun game to start them with. I watched plenty of reviews on YouTube and”how tos” before cracking it open to play it. My boys were very excited to play, and although I had watched about an hours worth of “how to” video, I was still intimidated by the game. I think it’s then D&D name that makes it intimidating. We setup the game fairly quickly and started the game. I played the shortened version at first suggested by a YouTuber, so that the game was not repetitive. The boys and I ran through the game fairly quickly and they were very excited to play. I loved how it makes them use their imagination and come up with escape plans on how much o dodge attacks or weather or not to help a monster. I remained the dungeon master through out the game, and didn’t pass it around, just so we could get used to the game play. My 5 YO also loved this game. The best part was watching them pick up the game on a Saturday when they had a friend over and my eldest was excited to be the dungeon master and the three of them played quietly together for about an hour until they slayed the final boss character. This game is very easy to pick up and play.

My 9 year old has been looking at my D&D books since he was a toddler and has read the Dungeon Academy, Young Adventurer, and the Endless Quest books but he hasn't yet rolled a character to try.This game is an excellent introduction to the general ideas of party-based adventuring with excellent replay value. Having all the players take a turn being the DM is a fun feature but I've also just run the game as a DM for him and his friends and that also went well.If you're looking at this, you probably have a good idea what it is - think Hero Quest but a little more accessible. I'd like better quality figures but it isn't a deal breaker. Give it a shot on its own or as a gateway to TTRPGs and you'll probably be happy either way.