Ravensburger has put the minis for the four iconic D&D monsters that will appear in forthcoming Horrified Dungeons & Dragons on display at the UK Games Expo.
Players in the Dungeons & Dragons-themed version of the popular board game will have to face;
- Beholder
- Displacer Beast
- Mimic
- Red Dragon
An easy game typically involves going up against two of these challenges at once, and you can take on all four at once if you are feeling brave. You could even attempt to solo the feat.
I was able to get my hands on each of the minis, and I was impressed by the production quality. The displacer beast and beholder are the recommended ‘first-time challenge’ combo for the game, and there can’t be many D&D tabletop RPG parties who would fancy taking those two on at once. In Horrified Dungeons & Dragons, each monster has a unique way of defeating it. The displacer beast, for example, needed to be tracked down, and then various items were used to help locate it, with the character sheet for the monster used to keep track of these items. Once five items had been used, the characters could take on the melee.
Horrified Dungeons & Dragons also brings in two new features to the Horrified range, and one is classic D&D. The new game will feature a d20.
Characters in Horrified have abilities, and characters in Horrified Dungeons & Dragons have a d20 roll attached to theirs, with a nat 1 being a bad result and a nat 20 being a great one.
Each character, including classes such as the cleric, fighter, bard, and rogue, has skills that suit their theme. Fighters are good in combat, for example, while bards excel at keeping the civilians who might wander dangerously close to a displacer beast prowling the streets safe.
The other change that D&D brings to Horrified is the ability to teleport. Previous board maps for Horrified have had places linked together by paths. There are paths and connections on the D&D map, as well as teleport squares that characters can use to travel across the map quickly. Monsters might do this, too.
As with previous Horrified games, the suggested age range is 10+, but the commentary from players at UK Games Expo is that the D&D version of the game is the hardest yet.
Ravensburger will release Horrified Dungeons & Dragons in July. Retailers like Zatu, who also have a significant presence at the UK Games Expo, are wisely taking pre-orders on their website already.
A special thanks to Vortex Verlag for sponsoring Geek Native’s coverage of UK Games Expo. You can meet them at stand 3A-758 and find out about the exciting new Serenissima Obscura crowdfunding campaign.
