The latest Dungeons & Dragons board game, Tyrants of the Underdark, should arrive at retail within a few weeks and if I didn’t already have a copy it would be for me a must-buy. The game is substantive but not difficult and has a nice balance of interesting mechanics and thematic conflict. I played it with a friend the first time and we immediately wanted to play it again and again.

Despite its D&D heritage, Tyrants of the Underdark isn’t an adventure game. It makes use of the Forgotten Realms setting but instead of following the RPG style draws on deck-building, area control, and war game inspirations to represent the political maneuverings and intrigue of dark-elf drow society. Players work to place spies, control underground cities, recruit minions, and assassinate opponents. They do this in game terms with two resources: influence for deck-building and power for maneuvering on the board.

The deck-building portion works pretty much like you’d expect. There’s a six card market from which players purchase minion cards representing drow, dragon, elemental, and demon factions. Each turn a player draws five cards from their assembled deck, using the actions and resources on those cards to purchase additional cards, place pieces on the board, capture opponents’ pieces, etc.

On the board are a number of Underdark cities and the pathways connecting them. Control of a city goes to the player with the most troops inside. Getting there, though, normally requires deliberate expansion along the pathways. That is, until one manages to place a spy, which doesn’t exert any control itself but does allow a player to leapfrog intervening enemies and open spaces.

The winner is determined by victory points awarded from a variety of sources. Every city awards victory points to the player controlling it. So do most of the minion cards. One thing I found particularly interesting about the game is how cards a player has managed to remove from their deck (an important strategy in many deck-building games) go up in victory point value. Rather than being considered trashed, the game treats them as if they’ve been promoted to the drow house’s inner circle.

In terms of complexity, Tyrants occupies a middle ground. My friend and I figured out how to play pretty easily from a quick read through the rule book. Only after that first play-through, however, did we start to recognize some of the important strategies. For me at least, though, that’s exactly how the best games work.

Tyrants of the Underdark is a Wizards of the Coast design but is being published by Gale Force Nine. As I said, it should be available at retail within the next few weeks. MSRP is $75 and the game handles 2-4 players in around an hour.

A complimentary copy of Tyrants of the Underdark was provided by Gale Force Nine for review.

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Meltdown Comics in LA will be hosting Critical Role’s Matt Mercer,  Battlebost host Alison Halsip, and more (to be named soon) for a live D&D event from 1pm-5pm, June 1st.

I actually have the full list of everyone who’s playing, but the information is currently under embargo.

It’s an event I’d love to be at, but I won’t be in LA any time soon!

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It’s been over a decade since we seen anything new on the Betrayal at the House on the Hill front. Now Widow’s Walk, the first expansion for the game, is coming out in the Fall thanks to Avalon Hill and Wizards of the Coast. The expansion adds 20 new rooms, 50 new haunts, and the roof, a previously unexplored floor.

Keep in mind that this is an expansion, and you’ll need to base game to play.

Widow’s Walk will make its debut at PAX East, and I’ve set aside some time to sit down and play. Keep an eye here for my impressions from the show.

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Greg Leeds has resigned as President of Wizards of the Coast. Effective June 6th, he will be replaced by Chris Cocks, who until recently was Vice President of OEM Technical Sales at Microsoft. Before that, Chris was Vice President of Educational Games at LeapFrog.

Experience with digital game products was clearly important in Hasbro’s choice of Chris to lead WOTC. In an announcement of the leadership change, John Frascotti, President of Hasbro Brands, was quoted as saying:

We’re very excited to welcome Chris to the Wizards of the Coast family. As an avid fan and player with extensive digital experience, I’m confident Chris is the right person to help us build on the tremendous momentum around our brands and take the franchise to the next level by delivering exciting new experiences to our growing and passionate fan base around the world.

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The newest Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Curse of Strahd, debuted at #6 on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover Fiction list, selling over 6000 copies in the first week of general release. The list is generated from book sales through book stores only and does not include sales from game stores. The book, written by the Wizards of the Coast development team in collaboration with the Ravenloft adventure’s authors Tracy and Laura Hickman, was released in hobby stores that are part of the Wizards Play Network on March 4th, and in mass market retail on March 15th.

The original Ravenloft adventure evolved from a Halloween game run by the Hickmans, with elements changing based on an in-game random development. “We played that game every Halloween and Laura and I wanted to keep the players guessing, even when they had played it with us before. So that became part of the design,” Tracy Hickman said. That continues in the new version with a visit to a mysterious fortune-teller whose readings from a tarot-like card deck determines the fate of allies and artifacts that could help the heroes.

The adventure has been well received in game stores, with stores reporting selling out of the basic D&D books in anticipation of the Curse of Strahd‘s release. This is the first D&D fifth edition campaign book that is not tied into other D&D properties, such as the Neverwinter MMO. The initial adventure, The Death House, has been made available for download. Mike Schley’s maps for the campaign can be purchased as a bundle at his website.

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Though deposed this past year as Hasbro’s biggest brand, Magic: The Gathering still had a very strong 2015, according to John Frascotti, President of Hasbro Brands, its “seventh straight year of record-breaking results.” Speaking at the company’s Toy Fair presentation to investors, Frascotti revealed that the number of active Magic players grew 10.5 percent in 2015 and that the average player spent 16.7 percent more money on the game than they did the previous year.

Organized play too recorded significant growth. The number events was up 26.5 percent and the number of stores hosting those events up 8.5 percent.

Hasbro sees Magic: The Gathering as a competitor in the e-sports category, where the company says it ranks in the top-five. Last year saw a total of 850,000 competitive magic events. In the 55 classified as “global premier events”, more than 6,000 “premier” players participated and $4.1 million in prizes were distributed. Online video broadcast of tournaments attracted more than 1 million unique monthly viewers.

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The long-awaited return to Innistrad is right around the corner! On April 8th, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing the set fans have been eagerly awaiting, Shadows over Innistrad. The 297 card set will be released in booster packs, fat packs, and intro decks. Also, in May, we’ll see this year’s gift box with a Shadows of Innistrad theme.

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Fan-favorite Dungeons & Dragons villain Count Strahd von Zarovich returns March 15th in Wizards of the Coast’s next published adventure, Curse of Strahd ($50). For characters levels 1-10, the new adventure is based on the 1983 Ravenloft module but features added content for Castle Ravenloft and the surrounding land of Barovia. Guiding characters in the vampire’s domain is the fortune-teller, Madam Eva. Her tarokka card deck will be available on the same day from Gale Force 9.

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Wizards of the Coast on Tuesday published a system reference document for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition under the open gaming license it originally released for 3rd Edition back in 2000. While some third-parties had already been publishing compatible game material using veiled references to “fifth edition fantasy” and similar language, this means that those interested now have a WOTC-recognized legal avenue for releasing products that openly acknowledge a connection with Dungeons & Dragons.

Drawing on the approach modeled by parent company Hasbro with 3D printing, Wizards of the Coast also on Tuesday launched the Dungeon Masters Guild, an online marketplace for independent D&D material such as adventures, monsters, and character backgrounds. Revenue from sales in the market are split evenly with with participants, who are also able to set their own prices.

Publishing OGL 5th Edition material through the Dungeon Masters Guild is not required but does provide authors the additional benefit of being able to incorporate elements from WOTC’s Forgotten Realms setting in to their creations. This at least is the stated intent. The Community Content Agreement, which is required to add new products, does not actually specify the intellectual property that participants may use, referring only to “portions and elements of Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings.” Additionally, by signing the Agreement, the author grants other participants license to use all elements of their work in subsequent products.

Together the two moves have the potential to significantly expand the landscape of 5th Edition D&D products, however it seems to me that the Dungeon Masters Guild is targeted more toward supporting fan content, while commercial publishers may be better served by sticking to the OGL.

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We all know about Magic Duel Decks by now. Each set contains tw0 60 card decks with a specific theme and are meant to go well against each other. Blessed vs Cursed sees Holy Warriors against the undead…and each deck contains 6 cards from the Shadows over Innistrad set. The set will be $19.99, and should hit shelves on February 26th.

Will you side with the Light, or the Dark?

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