Scott’s Toy Box: Get Lost in a World of Fantasy
In March 2015, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends. For three years we met almost every week to play, and now we’re about to end the game that we’ve been playing this whole time. It’s been a real treat for me to play with these people, often a highlight of my week. I’m not sure if we’ll start a new game after taking a break or if this is truly the end but I’m going to treasure the time I spent with them these past years. In honor of this good time, I found some great fantasy games (and interactive books) that your family can play together.
Lords of Waterdeep
Based on a city in the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, Lords of Waterdeep is a board game. Players become the mysterious Lords who secretly run the city, each of them seeking to become the most powerful Lord of Waterdeep. Players have a number of agents that they send out into the city to complete various tasks, like building a new spot on the board or taking a new quest from the inn. The main way to get points is to complete quests: this is done by having the right number of gold or tokens that the quest requires. After eight rounds, the points are tallied and the winner is revealed. Lords of Waterdeep is $34 on Amazon.
Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quests
If you can’t get enough of Waterdeep, take some time to put yourself in the shoes of a halfling rogue. There are four of The Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quests books – choose your own adventure! The books are written in 2nd person, putting you in the main character’s place where you make decisions on the direction the story goes. But will you get a good ending or a bad one? If a halfling rogue isn’t your style, there are three other books where you could be a human fighter, a dwarven cleric, or an elven wizard that take place all over the world made for Dungeons and Dragons. These books cost about $12 on Amazon.
5-Minute Dungeon
If you want a quick game, 5-Minute Dungeon is great. In this chaotic, cooperative, real-time card game, players work together to take down all the monsters in the dungeon before time runs out. Each monster card has several icons on it to show what’s needed to destroy the monster. Players use cards in their hand to match the icons on the monster cards. To win, the players have to destroy all the monsters in the dungeon. But there are three ways to lose: either when time runs out, if all the players run out of cards, or if the players don’t have the cards to destroy the monster and have no way to get new cards in their hand. 5-Minute Dungeon costs $16 on Amazon.
