D&D 5E Winter Releases - A New Starter, A Board Game, and Dragonlance Returns- Review

Dungeons & Dragons is on its third 5E starter set...

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"One thing I really like about it is that the cast from the D&D cartoon is in all of the illustrations and artwork. This is a fun touch. But it’s a bit baffling as to why they didn’t just go all in and make them the pregen characters."

That's a shame, I probably would have bought it just to see how those weapons were represented in-game and to finally settle the "Ranger's Laser Bow vs Paladins Shield" debate once and for all.

I wonder if they saved those sheets for the Hasbro toy line. I know they come with dice, not sure what else. Maybe I'll find out under my xmas tree next week?

How does the board game compare to Conquest of Nerath? On the surface it sounds like very similar experiences, or is the Krynn one more tactical at the level of, say, Commands and Colors with a single specific battle going on in each game?

They released character sheets for the six kids and detailed their weapons in a bonus book that came with the initial release of the cartoon on DVD. It was written for 3.5, but I still have my copy of it and could give some details if you want.

I have a DVD set of the show and just checked, no book at all, just dvds. So either I took it out years ago or my set lacked it.

The power of reddit gave me the stats though. WOTC really ought to build a campaign.book around that show though, could be a lot of fun.

It’s a little bit of a downer that, like a lot of D&D board game products, there’s not that much in terms of illustration (monster tokens with just the name of it on them, for example)

This is so baffling, and WOTC just keeps doing it! Going all the way back to their Adventure games, like Wrath of Ashardalon and Castle Ravenloft. Those games were great, but they had almost no visual appeal due to a lack of illustration on the map tiles and cards. I don't get it. WOTC is sitting on decades of amazing fantasy art. They published an art book for fuck's sake! AND released a documentary all about their art!! And yet they can't commission an artist to illustrate their board games. It's like when DC comes out with a new game and rather than pull from their almost 100 years of art assets, they reuse some shitty art from their line of birthday napkins.

Joebot wrote:

It’s a little bit of a downer that, like a lot of D&D board game products, there’s not that much in terms of illustration (monster tokens with just the name of it on them, for example)

This is so baffling, and WOTC just keeps doing it! Going all the way back to their Adventure games, like Wrath of Ashardalon and Castle Ravenloft. Those games were great, but they had almost no visual appeal due to a lack of illustration on the map tiles and cards. I don't get it.

Amen to that!
Maybe we can appeal to Hasbro's sense of mercantile capitalism and encourage them to release a 2nd edition of the D&D Adventure games with some rules tweaks & most importantly some serious graphic upgrades. Because you're totally right: Playing Ravenloft/Ashardalon/Drizzt in 2022 is an almost snooze-inducing experience.

I still remember how one reviewer described the map tiles from Ravenloft as looking like a warehouse for wall sections. I wish that they had actually gone with a fixed map with lavish gothic detail, even though I normally like modular tile maps.