As I became a creature of the empty tunnels, survival became easier and more difficult all at once. I gained in the physical skills and experience necessary to live on. I could defeat almost anything that wandered into my chosen domain. - – Drizzt Do’Urden from the R.A. Salvatore novel Exile.

The recent release of The Legend of Drizzt board game brings the current total of D&D Adventure game system products to three. At this point in time you’re either a fan of these games or you’re not. Legend of Drizzt is going to do very little to change your mind in either direction. The core system of the games stays the same but this third offering does bring some slight changes to the system both in terms of scenarios and rules. What Legend of Drizzt brings to the table is the ability to play with the famous characters from the R.A. Salvatore books about Drizzt Do’Urden that take place in what some consider the best D&D campaign setting the Forgotten Realms.  These characters are also very powerful and that is represented in the game not by higher levels but more deadly powers. Of course these new powers come with new challenges and the creatures you will face in LOD are some of the meanest yet.

Bits and Plastic

If you own the previous two games in this series you know the boxes are large. The reason for this is they must transport a lot of cardboard and plastic figures. Drizzt is no exception to this rule as the game comes with 13 sheets worth of components from tiles, to condition markers.  Now because Drizzt is a stand alone game and not an expansion you’re going to get more healing surges, hit markers and other bits you probably have coming out of your ears by now if you own both of the other games. However all is not lost as the game offers plenty of new items. You have stance tokens, charge, duel, power and double strike tokens. Treasure chests, collapsed tunnel and various scenario specific bits are also included.

The game comes with the 32 standard cavern tile markers. The other games use dungeon tile markers so in order to mix and match tiles if you plan to combine the games you’re going to need to get creative. There are also 23 cavern specific tiles like the narrow passage and underground river. You also have 4 large double sided tiles which are used by the scenarios. The game comes with 42 figures to represent the heroes, villians and monsters you’re going to face. Unlike the other games in the series you have eight playable characters, some of which are villains in some scenarios. The heroes consist of:

• Athrogate – A dwarven Battlerager who can use his forceful strike to move monster back a tile after he hits them.
• Regis – A halfling Rogue who can choose 2 monster cards and determine which one comes in play.
• Wulfgar – The human Barbarian who deals extra damage when he is wounded.
• Bruenor Battlehammer – A dwarf Fighter he can headbutt opponents to deal them damage.
• Jarlaxle Baenre – A drow Mercenary who starts the game with an additional treasure.
• Artemis Entreri – A human Assassin who when placing a monster can put it on any tile with an unexplored edge.
• Catti-Brie – A human Archer who can get extra movement when exploring and shoot at target not on her tile.
• Drizzt Do’Urden – A drow Ranger who gets 2 attacks per turn.

You also get to face 8 very nasty villains, two of which are Artemis and Jarlaxle. Other highlights include Shimmergloom a shadow dragon, Yvonnel Banere a drow matron mother and one bad ass demon called Errtu. The villains can be as deadly as the new heroes, Artemis and his dagger are a real treat trying to take down.

The game also comes with 42 unpainted miniatures for use in play.  Besides the Heroes and villains you have your everyday monster.  There is a Drider, a couple of Ferral Trolls, a bunch of Goblins of various tpyes, water elementals, Hypnotic Spirits and a few other goodies. All things considered you’re not going to feel cheated with the components. They are excellent quality and the box and inset do the job nicely.

Scenarios

The scenarios in the Drizzt game are what make it a nice addition to the system in my opinion.  The game comes with 13 scenarios and the first few are very basic.  This is a design decision in fact the 200 cards that come with the game are split into a standard and advanced deck. The first 4 scenarios only require the standard deck. This allows new players to get up to speed. Veteran players need not worry I opened both decks and immediately threw them all into the first scenario.

The scenarios run the gambit and many of them cover stories the players might recognize, like Drizzt exit from the underdark. Bruneor and Drizzt searching for Mithrall Hall and fighting the Shadow Dragon Shimmergloom.  Once you’ve gotten your feet wet the adventures start to take on some unique twists.

In Drizzt besides the standard group adventure they have added a competitive adventure in which each player tries to survive a pre-built cavern full of monsters. You get points for each monster defeated and bonus points if you survive the whole adventure.  There are also two team adventures in which groups of heroes are pitted against each other. For example in Race for Gauntlgrym Drizzt and Bruenor are racing Jarlaxle and Athrogate to find the door to Gauntlgrym.

Of course my favorite adventure of the bunch is Betrayal in the Tunnels which is a combination competitive / team adventure. In this unique scenario a random hero is actually the evil assassin Artemis and once it is revealed which player is Artemis that player replaces his character card with the villain card for the assassin. Not only that but the player gets to play Artemis as a villain which is all sorts of fun.

Summary

There is very little in terms of new rules in Drizzt. We have the villainous heroes I just mentioned. The pre-constructed cavern system, some of the tiles have special rules on the card. There are ally cards such as Drizzt pet panther Guenhwyvar and then there are the stance tokens.

Stance tokens are utility powers that allow you to put a stance token on them for various bonuses. Only Drizzt, Bruenor and Catti-Bre have them and each has at least 2 stance powers. They provide various benefits and also have certain restrictions as to when they can be placed and removed.  However once you get by these minor things you’re playing the rule set you used in the first two games, whether this is a good thing or not depends on how you feel about the gaming system.

One thing that I ran into while playing Drizzt that I hadn’t in the other games is a spot where Drizzt faced Shimmergloom alone and because of how Shimmergloom attacked and Drizzt’s special abilities the dragon would never attack with his breath weapon which meant that Drizzt would always only take a single damage, but his stance allowed him to ignore it. It was just a matter of time in defeating the dragon and the only thing that could of effected me as Drizzt was some bad encounter cards.

While I’ll admit this is a rare instance it highlighted what some people feel is a weakness of this series and that is the player ability to place the monster in advantageous spots.  Take the situation above I would think the Dragon who is supposed to be the big evil villain would be smart enough to say “Hey my claw isn’t hurting this pesky elf taste some of this”.

Of course this can be easily house ruled by an experienced group, we tend to place the monster in spots that would work for them and not the party, and most casual players are just going to be happy beating the tar out of the monsters so this is a minor complaint considering this is the 3rd installment and you should know this quirk going in.

I’ve been asked several times if people should add Drizzt to their collection and that answer varies. If you own and enjoy either of the other two adventure system games, then Drizzt is a must purchase in my mind. If you’re a fan of the dark elf and want a really good game that will allow you to have some hours of fun then again Drizzt is a good purchase.

If you own none of the previous games and you were just jumping into the system then I would recommend Wrath of Ashardalon over this game because it present more of a challenge to the players in my opinion. Of course take this with a grain of salt because at this point I am an expert at these games so give me Drizzt and his two attacks and I can kick some serious tail. However I still feel that if you have no ties to the source material then Ashardalon narrowly edges Drizzt as your first purchases.

What’s to Like: Plenty of new heroes, classes and monsters to spice up your sessions. If you’re a Drizzt fan this is a no brainer, the first time you first Catti’s bow around a corner and skewer a goblin will feel like your living one of the books. The rules are staggered to ease you into the game and it has a good FAQ on the back of the manual.

 What’s not to Like: Very few new rules, it would of been nice to have a hard core variant where there were specific rules to make the monster behave a little more intelligently.

Over All: A
Looking at Drizzt as an addition to the series it is arguably the best game depending on how you feel about the source material. Even though I mentioned Asardalon as the one I would start new players with that recommendation quickly changes if they are any kind of Drizzt fans  Rumor has it this is the last in the series for a while and possibly for good, that would be a shame. Hopefully Wizards will introduce expansion packs instead of stand alone games for all the adventure makers out there.