Wizard's Quest

Last weekend I was at my parent's home for Thanksgiving and my dad's 90th birthday (he is doing great and looking great!). My brother had a gift for me!

Avalon Hil's Wizard's Quest board game.

The box is a little beat up, but inside everything is pristine and like new.  In fact, it is all unpunched.

I have never played it myself but I am really looking forward to trying it out.

PArt of me though doesn't want to punch it because it is in such wonderful shape.

But games are meant to be played.

I due a admit to a little of what I call "Traveller Envy".  Traveller had such a cool RPG and board games that all belonged to the same universe.  I thought it was such a fun immersive idea.
I always wanted to run a D&D campaign that also featured board games in the mix.  Something other than just Dungeon! for the players to do.  I caught a glimpse of what might work back in the 4e days, but that one didn't manifest in the way I wanted.  Thought I think I could work Zanzer's Dungeon into it somehow.

The 10 Best (and 6 Worst) TSR Games that Weren't D&D

There is an article making the rounds again from Topless Robot.  It was originally posted in September of 2009 but hey, that's how social media works sometimes (and I guess Bob Denver is dead! [yes I knew this already]).

Here are the 10 Best,
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/09/the_10_best_and_6_worst_tsr_games_that_werent_dd.php?page=1
And 6 Worst
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/09/the_10_best_and_6_worst_tsr_games_that_werent_dd.php?page=2

I want to talk about some of these since a few of my favorites are on the list.

Vampyre
Vampyre was a mini-game in a time when many new D&D players (read fans of TSR) had no idea what a mini-game was.  I certainly didn't, not till later anyway when I discovered Steve Jackson.   This was a great little game.  You played hunters looking for Count Dracula.

It had a cool Hex map of Transylvania. A not as cool, but still cool map of Dracula's castle. Counters for the surviving members of the novel vs. Dracula, his brides, gypsies and other monsters (werewolves and wolves I think).   You had till the game ends, either by time or Dracula killing everyone, to find his coffins and destroy them.  It's an idea that has come up again and again in games before and since.

Obviously I loved this little game.  I loved the idea of going up against Dracula.  This was also when I was in my "Marvel" era so I loved the idea of using Dracula, as he appeared in the Marvel comics, as a bad guy.

The game was full of awesome Erol Otus art, Souvenir fonts and maps that looked like they were right out of Basic.   Long before my players ever heard of Count Strahd they clashed wits and swords with Count Dracula!

I remember the game being fast to play and it was surprisingly deadly.  This was also lost in the great game loss of the 90s when so much of my early stuff went missing.

Boot Hill and Gang Busters
Never played these, but I was always curious about them.  I borrowed a friend's copy of Gang Busters and decided it wasn't for me.  I picked up a copy of Boot Hill at a game auction (just the book) and thought it looked fun, but the Old West isn't my thing.

Star Frontiers
I loved this game. We ended up playing a lot of "D&D in Spaaaaace!" with it, but it was still fun.  Love all the support it gets these days.

Gamma World
Again, a game I always wanted to play and never got around to it.  In my mind a game that combined the best bits of Star Frontiers and Gama World would have been perfect.  One of the reasons I REALLY enjoy Mutant Future and Starships & Spacemen. They allow me to combine both as I like with a game system I know better than some games I wrote.  I really need to do more with both of them.

Marvel Super Heroes
Talk about timing.  I was heavy into D&D and I was getting into Marvel comics pretty deep too having just left DC (I came back, maybe you could tell) and there was Marvel Super Heroes.  I really loved this game and I had a blast playing it.

Dungeon!
I have gone on and on about this game ad nauseam.  But I still love it.

I am a Dungeon addict.

Hello. My name is Tim Brannan and I am a Dungeon! addict.

It started out simply enough in 1981.  I got a Dungeon board game for Christmas along with the D&D Basic Set. I played that game for hours and hours.  I even made little version of my own D&D characters on Dungeon cards to run them through.  Yup my first game conversion.

At some point I lost that game along with a lot of my Basic/Expert and Advanced stuff.  But I never forgot it.
I have bought other Dungeons in the past, but none really measured up to that first one with the color in dice and little grave counters.

Well. I fixed that!

Presenting my newest acquisition!

Just like my original.

Here is a close up of the dice and the Erol Otus art.

And more of my expanding collection.

Yeah.

I might need professional help.

But in my defense we do play these games, they are not sitting on  shelf collecting dust.

Back to the Dungeon! Again, again...

Wizards of the Coast is going to re-release their classic board-game, this time with some new cover art.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/28383.html

You can pre-order on Amazon.

I am huge fan of Dungeon and have multiple copies, but I am not sure if I'll pick this one up or not yet.
But I am sure I will check it out.

Mega-Dungeon!

We are big fans of the board game Dungeon around here.

My kids love to play it and have even gotten their non-gaming cousins into it.  I have several copies including two copies of the original 1975 version in slightly different boxes.
So last night we tried something we have been wanting to try for a while: Mega Dungeon.

We decided that there are secret doors between the two dungeons and you can teleport from any chamber to any other chamber.  Wizards get twice the amount of spells and magic swords can "stack" so if you have a +1 and a +2 sword then you have +3.  We also used minis instead of pawns cause that is more fun.
The monster rolls are on a d12 instead of a 2d6.  A roll of "1" means the player gets another attack.  We also require twice the amount of gold to win.

So far it has been a lot of fun.  We are continuing later today.

Return to the Dungeon!

So last month I picked up the newest version of the classic Dungeon! broad game.  Now like many of the gamers my age I also had one of the earlier versions of Dungeon.  The one I had is not depicted below.

How does the new one measure up?

Well quite well to be honest.  The older character "classes" of Elf, Hero, Super Hero and Wizard are now gone.  Replaced with Rogue, Cleric, Fighter and Wizard.

The rules really have not changed.  So any house rules or mods you did back then will still work today.

The board really has changed much.  It is smaller than the "1st Edition" or "3rd Edition" versions depicted above.  This puts it closer to the overall feel of the "2nd Edition" version (that I originally owned, but don't have anymore) with the "RIP" cards.

So in this version you don't lay the cards on the map, you instead keep them in a stack and when a room is empty you put a little RIP marker on it.

In the older versions you could use your D&D minis on them.  The newer board is slightly smaller so it makes using the D&D minis harder.   There are no plastic pawns or small monochrome plastic minis, this version has heavy card stock.

It's not any closer to D&D than it ever was. The board is the same. The rules are the same and we still had a blast.

If you never played Dungeon! then you can still play it now.  If you have a younger child in your family or extended family then this is a great game.  And maybe just maybe it is also a good introduction to D&D.

Back to the Dungeon

Just picked this up today.

I will let you all know how it is.