Discovered Castle Ravenloft board game

[Rhezuss]

Yo!

I'm more and more into board games and have bought some in the past months. Warhammer Quest in early 2Ks and recently Battlelore, Tannhäuser, Pandemic, Munchkin Cthulhu and couple weeks ago Castle Ravenloft.

It's based on the new D&D 4th ed. rules which were softened a bit to adapt them to this board game and the user-friendly type of gameplay. You have a cast of 5 different characters. The Dragonborn Fighter, Dwarf Cleric, Human Rogue, Human Ranger and Eladrin Wizard each with his/her own set of skills from which you can choose and customize your character with. It's a co-op game where the players are against the dungeon. Each player control his own monsters drawn in a deck of cards. When you kill a monster you pick a treasure which helps you in many ways to survive and conquer the brutal dungeon. Those treasures range from simple magic weapons to Fortunes that allow you to restore a used skill or Blessings for the group. Encounters happen regularly and 98% of the time it's to fvck with you.

Played 4 games since I got it, not much but enough to know that I love this game. Played one solo, 2 with 2 players and the last one with 3 players.

It's simple, fun, brutal, unforgivable and played in less than 2 hours, depending where the final tile is in the stack.

If you're a D&D fan and want to get a glimpse of the new 4th edition, love dungeon crawls and board games, get this one!

10-4 over
Peace

 

[Beev]

I've recently gotten into board games as well. I recommend Kingsburg (2-5 player game but definitely better with more people) as well as Isla Dorada. Dominion is fun too. I'll look into Ravenloft, it sounds fun.

 

[zebano]

Sounds fun, I've been playing Dominion and Killer Bunnies lately.

 

[Rhezuss]

If you guys loved Dominion be sure to try Thunderstone. Same system but with different lore. Awesome game too.

I've been eyeing Kingsburg, looks really interesting, might give it a go soon.

 

[alkemyst]

What's the playing time?

 

[Rhezuss]

What's the playing time?

Range from 1 to 2 hours at max.

But it depends since every adventure ask you to place the "final" tile in a stack of 3 or 4 tiles and place that stack after the 8th tile in the big tile stack.

Every player when exploring add a new tile and monster...so is you play with 3 players and your final tile is between the 9th and 12th tile...it can be quick.

Sometime we place the final tile lower in the stack...like after the 15th or even 20th tile so you can generate a larger dungeon and so play for like 2 hours.

But the game itself state the playtime is 1 to 1.5 hours.

 

[trmiv]

A lot of the reviews on Amazon make it sound like you need some D&D experience for this, or it can be a little difficult. Is there a board game like this I can get for people new to D&D? Or maybe something similar? My wife and I have been looking for something like this to play.

 

[mesthead21]

Thanks ill check it out sounds fun. I started playing Munchkin a couple weeks ago and have been eyeing that D&D 4th edition box. Ill have to check ravenloft out

 

[Beev]

Loooove Munchkin. I couldn't believe I had never even heard of it until about 6 months ago.

 

[Rhezuss]

A lot of the reviews on Amazon make it sound like you need some D&D experience for this, or it can be a little difficult. Is there a board game like this I can get for people new to D&D? Or maybe something similar? My wife and I have been looking for something like this to play.

This is the best game to introduce new players to D&D. It's 4th ed. simplified but true to D&D yet very accessible to newcomers. You have AC, Thaco, attack bonuses, spells, skills and a D20. Everything is explained on the cards, from what your skill do to how to move monsters in the dungeon.

One + about this game is even if you play the same adventure over and over again, let's say the first one where you have to get to the staircase and exit the tomb of Ravenloft, your dungeon will ALWAYS be different and the encounters you make will be too.

Yes it's difficult...it's difficulty to win. It's easy to learn...give you and your wife and friends one turn per player and you'll all be set!

I learned the game in 10 minutes and explained it to 2 other friends in 15 minutes.

IMO, it's a must for D&D fans and people you want to give a shot at it.

 

[trmiv]

Going to drag this back up. Thanks for posting about this game, it got my wife and I back looking at games. We had talked about picking some up for awhile, but never did. I mentioned this one to her and she liked the idea of a dungeon crawling board game, so we decided to get one. We actually didn't end up buying this one though. We ended up getting Claustrophobia instead. We still may pickup Castle Ravenloft or the new one Wrath of Ashardalon provided we like this one.

 

[EvilYoda]

It's actually a pretty fun game! Most of my friends play D&D but I've never joined them in it. That said, this is a nice middle-ground since we play a lot of card/board games.

 

[shortylickens]

As if 4th edition wasnt dumb enough, they had to dumb it down further.
Well, so long as people enjoy it.

 

[sandorski]

Dominion is the only game I've played out of those mentioned. Tons of fun especially with the addons.

 

[Beev]

Been playing a new card game called Elixir, and it's way fun. You collect ingredients to cast spells, and there are spells that cost 1, 2, 3, or 4 ingredients to cast. The single ingredient spells are silly ones that affect players (target player has to scratch his head each time he speaks for the rest of the game) and the higher ones affect the game (spell currently being cast has no effect or has a different target, etc.) It's a really fun game to play while drinking

 

[Glitchny]

Betrayal at the House on the Hill is one of my favorite board games. With 5-6 people it is great and the games are always unique due to how the house is created every game.

 

[sdifox]

A lot of the reviews on Amazon make it sound like you need some D&D experience for this, or it can be a little difficult. Is there a board game like this I can get for people new to D&D? Or maybe something similar? My wife and I have been looking for something like this to play.

Your wife and you? You guys are not playing the right kind of role playing games

 

[Pepsei]

actually, most of my boardgame buddies moved to other states (3), one to germany. only one left here. it's not fun when it's 2.