Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon of the Mad Mage Review
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| Beauty is in the eye of the beholders going squish under ma boots! |
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| Forget comic sans, our Sorcerer has them fancy magic fonts! |
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| Even a Mad Mage has time for a group selfie |
Overview:
Tomb of Annihilation introduced a campaign-driven narrative to the game play and Dungeon of the Mad Mage continues along this vein. You can still play each adventure as a standalone scenario but I highly recommend playing through the campaign to get a real feel for the story and overall theme. Like with TOA, adventures are again grouped around specific locations and adventurers journey from one point to the next as the campaign unfolds. Starting off in the inn-famous (see what I did 😉) Yawning Portal in the town of Waterdeep you journey through different locations of the Underdark mountains to seek out the Mad Mage Halaster, with each new adventure becoming progressively harder as you journey onward. Again, like with TOA, the dungeon is riddled with all sorts of traps and nasty encounters and fits the whole 'Mad Mage' theme. There are times when the dungeon feels a little less 'dungeony' and more like the amusement park of an insanely evil masochist, intent on taking you and your party down a roller coaster ride to hell. Personally, I think the sheer insanity of it all adds to the overall theme. Whether you're just below the Yawning Portal or devling deeper into Undermountain and visiting Skullport or the darker Depths of the dungeon, there is always that eerie feeling that you're being watched and observed...perhaps even scrutinized and studied...all for the maniacal machinations of a masochistic Mad Mage (try saying that fast).
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| The Masochistic Maniacal Mumbling Mad Mage |
Components:
Back when I got TOA, I said that it had some of the coolest-looking components in the series after Ravenloft (call me old-school if you like but that one always hits the nostalgic feelz for me 😋). Then, along comes DOTMM and I'm now leaning towards this version of the game being the second-best-looking in the series to date (Ravenloft rulez!). The minis are fantastic (no limbo skeleton party or 3-armed Gargoyles!) and the cardboard stock for tiles, tokens and cards are excellent. There are a few niggling issues though: There are two sets of tiles in this set - one with a 'dungeon-like' print and the other with a 'cavern-like' print for the later adventures and, according to the rule book, you're not supposed to mix them up. Problem is, the backs are all labelled 'Dungeon Tiles'. It is easy enough to distinguish between them however but can be confusing/ misleading to new players. Also, there are few misprints between card text and the Adventure/ Rules booklets but these are minor and you can easily download or consult the rules errata from boardgamegeek.com for clarity.
I was quite thrilled to see not one but two zombie beholders in this set as well as a death tyrant mini and even some constructs. The lower-level human thugs and veterans are well sculpted and would work just as well above ground as they do in a dungeon so if you want to do a custom Waterdeep city adventure, you could easily use these minis. I do wish Wizkids included a Yawning Portal 'tavern' tile just for fun though - so my adventurers could do their trading of items, treasures and advancements on an actual tile and then nip off for a bit of shut-eye and some roasted chicken and ale inbetween their dungeon exploring.
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| Guys, Hag say's we at the wrong house. Party's over on the left... |
Gameplay & Setup:
The setup and gameplay follows the normal standard for this format of the D&D game. You and your party are trying to locate a specific tile from a stack of dungeon tiles that usually triggers the end-of-game event after which you need to defeat a villain(s) in order to progress to the next adventure. While this may seem like a bit of a repetitive mechanic, it is important to note that the narrative drives the need to explore and also that the dungeon itself becomes progressively harder as you journey onward. Your Heroes start off with some fairly rudimentary jobs for Durnan, the barkeep of the Yawning Portal before journeying to the city of Skullport and then finally to the deep Depths of Undermountain. Your heroes can also purchase special location-specific advancement tokens which you can add to your power cards and unlike treasures, are simply flipped and are not discarded once used.
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| Dungeon has gotten a bit crowded of late... |
Leveling Up:
One new and exciting mechanic that has been introduced in DOMM is the ability for characters to level up to levels 3 and 4 and unlock 'Expert' powers which are a whole new class of power cards that become available at these levels. However, there is a monetary cost involved in leveling up your heroes so you might want to think about investing some of your coin and not just buying every treasure item you can from the marketplace.
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| Eye scream. Get it? It's a beholder favorite snack....oh nevermind... |
Final Thoughts:
DOTMM is a worthy contender to an already fantastic series of games and I cannot wait to bring it to my current gaming group as both a co-op campaign and a DM-driven one-shot. It has great narrative and excellent components. I really, really, really like this game. But then again, I have a personal bias towards all of the D&D board games. Yes, there are a few minor misprints and issues with cards but nothing so major that it deters from the overall gaming mechanics. And yes, the games are not 'quite' as backwards compatible with older versions (i.e. the dungeon tiles and card backs are noticeably different) but that does not mean that you cannot build a custom campaign to, say, combine the Underdark from LOD with the Undermountain from DOTMM. All you need is a little creativity on tile placement and Monster selection.
Also, the recent versions of the D&D board games have some of the best villain mechanics to date with the introduction of the spell deck as well as the campaign-driven narrative that makes the final adventure much more engaging. That said, ALL of the D&D games have been spot on with villains. From Accerak and his Tomb of Annihilation to Strahd in the traditional Gothic-inspired Ravenloft to the mighty Ashardalon to the Balor and spider-loving Drow in Drizzt, all of the games have given us fantastic villains and I look forward to the next iteration in this series of board games!
Components: 8
Setup: 8
Gameplay: 8
Replayability: 9
Theme: 9
Overall Score: 8
Thanks for the review. I have all these games up to Tomb of Annihilation but I didn't think that latter one was an improvement over Temple of Elemental Evil which also has a campaign system I like a bit better. I do like the idea of higher levels, but I'm not really after a brutally hard game. Reading your review was helpful!
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