Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game

Okay, this probably should have been reviewed first before the Player's Handbook, but it didn't arrive in the mail until after I'd already started the PH review, so here we are. This is the 3rd edition equivalent (or closest possible approximation) of the old Mentzer Red Box for BECMI D&D that came out in 1983. It's a stripped-down version of the rules that focuses on simplifying the rules for beginning players. There's no character creation; you have eight pre-rolled characters to choose from, and that's it. Four of them are iconics: Tordek, Mialee, Jozan, and Lidda. The other four are new, being Redgar the human fighter, Naull, the human wizard, Eberk, the dwarf cleric, and Kerwyn, the human rogue.

The box I bought didn't come with dice, but everything else was included, as well as some extras: I mentioned receiving a partial set of character sheets as well as a complete DM's screen. I also got some extra stuff from the 2004 version of this box, such as a few character sheets, the 'Advanced Rulebook', and a miniature 'First Adventure' book for the DM to read. But I'll be ignoring those since they aren't part of this set.

So, the bulk of the set is contained in two books: The Rule Book and the Adventure Book. The Adventure Book contains six adventures, and uses the fold-out map that comes with the box. Note that this is the same map that is included in the Player's Handbook in the 2000 Survival Kit. Except it's much bigger. It also includes two sheets of cardboard tokens. Mine aren't punched out, which is nice. The tokens include PCs, monsters, and even doors and the like, because the map doesn't show any doors. It's quite customizable that way. And there are a few sheets that are a 'rules summary' to give the absolute basics to get players started with the first adventure.

So, the Adventure Book starts out with a simple (and I mean really simple adventure. This walks the DM through everything necessary to get the players moving, and tells what to do when they try to do...well, anything. And this first adventure takes up...two rooms. That's it. It's practically the 'orc and pie' adventure with a unicorn, extra opponents, and a treasure chest in an empty room.

The rest of the adventures become progressively more challenging, with the goal being to get the characters to levels 2 and even 3. And there's a decent variety of monsters included, although their stats are simplified just like the characters. There are no 'challenge ratings', for example; each monster instead is given an XP total for overcoming them. This makes sense, since the PCs won't get to a high enough level to affect the XP award. The first five adventures take place on different parts of the included map; the last one is much bigger, using the entire map.

The Rule Book is a very simplified combination of the three core books, including a small sample of monsters in a slightly abbreviated format, several magic items to choose from, and descriptions of the four 'core' classes (fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue), along with, of course, the combat rules. As mentioned earlier, there's no character creation here. The skills and spells are basically a sampling of what you will find in the Player's Handbook; the book itself tells you to look to the PH for more stuff once the characters hit third level.

So, what do I like about this set? Well, it's an excellent introduction to the game that gives players a taste of what is to come. Everything is made as clear and easy to understand as possible. Initiative is preset, so there's no worrying about who goes first; it's always going to be Lidda (16), if she's present. Equipment choices are limited; the only feats are what the characters initially have, except 2nd-level fighters get to add Power Attack as their bonus feat. There are more monsters and magic items than in the PH Survival Kit, but again, their entries are slightly adjusted to fit the compressed rule set.

What do I not like about it? First, the six adventures are all dungeon crawls. There's absolutely no wilderness adventuring or even rules for going outside of the dungeon except 'after the adventure the characters can heal up, get their spells ready, and spend treasure on upgrading their stuff before going on to the next one'. So it's quite a repetitive set of adventures, and it's possible and even likely that the players will get bored by the time they get to the final adventure.

Second, the lack of an option to create characters. Even a simplified system would have helped give the players a few options, but instead they are stuck with the same eight characters. I don't mind that there are only four classes (fighter, cleric, rogue, wizard) and four races to choose from (elf, dwarf, halfling, human), but there should be some way to show players how character creation works just to give them a chance to use their imaginations to make their own characters.

Overall, I think it's a good introduction to 3rd edition, and it has some replayability value thanks to the random stocking tables for monsters and treasure. I'm glad I picked it up, and I hope to get a chance to play it some day.

Alright, next up is the first Dragon Magazine of the new era, Dragon #274. This is going to be busy.