Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System Board Games Ranked

Cue music: Holding out for a Hero

It's probably obvious from this blog that I am an avid D&D gamer and rather enthusiastic about the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System board games. From my very first dungeon delve with Castle Ravenloft back in early 2017, I have since played through all of the games (well, except for Temple of Elemental Evil) and I thought it high time that I did a proper ranking of these gaming systems.

So, that said, grab a coffee and sit back as I rank my favorite pastime according to my own scaling and bias:

5. The Tomb of Annihilation (TOA)

TOA has them jungle vibes

I was rather late in getting to an actual play through of the The Tomb of Annihilation. I did my first unboxing in October of 2018 but my actual review came in almost a year later in August of 2019! Well, I had my reasons of course. My then steady gaming group were busy plowing through my Ruin of Nimbar campaign which combined the first 3 games (CR, WOA & LOD) into a giant, epic adventure spanning several months and culminating in an MMORPG tabletop type sprawl. I eventually did get to TOA and well, it is slightly underwhelming.

TOA was the 2nd game in the series after the Temple of Elemental Evil to be released by Wizkids. The previous games were all Wizards of the Coast. Wizkids did a fantastic job with the components though, despite my initial gripes with the minis. The introduction of a jungle setting and jungle-dungeon tiles, traps, spells and jungle monsters were a fresh and welcome change to the normal dungeon fare. The titular archlich Accererak, the main villain of TOA, was amazingly sculpted and a menacing presence - bringing a death curse to the dense jungles of Chult and throwing all sorts of nasties at your Heroes including a giant Gorilla, hordes of tiny pygmies and the ever impressive Stone Juggernaut - a truly imposing and formidable boss level villain.

Back in 'Nam....

That said, there's a few iffies with this game. First off, the backward compatibility with earlier games could be an issue. The dungeon tiles, monster & encounter cards all have a newer D&D logo which means you can't just 'shuffle them in' to older decks. Still, the encounters, monsters, traps and treasures are all very much geared to the theme of the adventure, being the jungle setting of Chult or the eerie Tomb of the Nine Gods.

Arguably my biggest gripe with TOA is that is rather unbalanced in favor of the heroes. By the time you have leveled up to level 2 and with a few treasure items and advancement tokens in your array of weapons, your heroes are pretty much indestructible. I only ever used 1 healing surge throughout the entire campaign and that was just due to a few bad rolls of the D20. The imposing Stone Juggernaut adventure left a lot to be desired for and I was hoping for an actual tense labyrinth-esque dungeon escape but in the end the threat level just wasn't on par to feel real. Accererak, the main villain of the game, hurled several fireballs at my Ranger character but by round 4, he was down to 2 HP and then disintegrated by a scroll from my Aracockra wizard. 

Dinoriders used to be a thing

I eventually house-ruled a bit and did a 2nd playthrough of the Tomb of the 9 Gods, limiting treasures, items and tokens per hero as well as upping the ante in terms of not being able to cancel encounters for the last 3 adventures and increasing the dungeon size by moving the 8th tile to the 10th tile etc.

TOA is still a fun game. I loved the jungle setting and look forward to building a few custom adventures for an upcoming campaign centered around Chult and the menacing archlich Accererak!

4. Wrath of Ashardalon (WOA)

My number 4 is a really, really, really tough call as I loved every adventure and playthrough of Ashardalon. It is also the one game that had had the most customizations and homebrewed adventures of all of our group gaming sessions. This version of the game had us venturing into the depths of Firestorm Peak to brave all sorts of perils and eventually coming face to face with the dreadful and magnificent Red Dragon Ashardalon.

All hail Ashardalon, the true King under the Mountain!

The majestic Ashardalon

WOA gave us some really neat features including a campaign-style narrative in the form of chamber cards as well as boon cards, some really tough villains and monsters including abberants, orcs and new 'chamber' dungeon tiles which introduced an 'end game' epic battle. The Heroes, treasures and powers all had an excellent synergy and made for some of the most memorable group gaming moments ever.

Clearly we needed a bigger table

The only fault I have with Ashardalon is the slight lack of variety of the actual campaign adventures. They all tend to have the same-ish type of approach: Get to the chamber (either horrid or dire) start tile, spawn monsters + a boss villain, defeat monsters + boss villain, rinse, repeat. It does tend to grind ever so slightly in gameplay but it is still a helluva fun game. And besides, it has a giant freaking red dragon! Surely that defines 50% of the Dungeons & Dragons don't it?

3. Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (DOTMM)

Maniacal machinations of a mumbling masochist

Man this is getting tough now. DOTTM is the latest iteration in the series and certainly the best looking game of the lot. Despite a few misprints with the card pool, DOTTM is my recommendation for any new players looking to jump into the D&D universe as the components, card stock and dungeon tiles are excellent and perfect for expanding your norm Saturday afternoon gaming session into the realm of an RPG. While still tied to the same mechanics of the first game, the campaign and narrative are what drives DOTTM so well. With a myriad of Monsters ranging from Thugs, Grungs and Hags to Beholders, Death Tyrants, Scaladars and Constructs, the many paths of Undermountain will have you questioning your sanity as your delve deeper and deeper below.

Squaring off against Halaster Blackcloack

The Adventures also play out really well. Continuing in the same vein as TOA, you swap out and add in cards to decks as you advance through the game with the dungeon becoming progressively harder at the lower levels. It's still the same mechanic as per all the prior games with a 'get to the named dungeon tile and defeat the boss' playthrough but DOTTM seems to add in a level of crazy claustrophobia that adds layers of terrifying creepiness to the game. Some of my more memorable adventures includes the Trobriand and his Scaladar minion as well as the Great Grey Ooze which were just wickedly fun to play. Then there is the ever imposing Halastar Blackloack, the infamous Mad Mage himself, who is an ever menacing presence throughout the campaign. 

Beauty is in the eyes of the Beholders

My only gripe is that DOTTM, like TOA, is again slightly unbalanced in favor of the Heroes. The Human Sorceror, Marcon, is a must-have in your party as his magic font daily power is essential for taking out large groups of monsters which become a very common occurrence fairly early on in the game. Having your party surrounded by two Zombie Beholders, a Scaladar and Halastar himself is not unusual in the depths of Undermountain and not having the sorcerer around, well, let's just say you're in for a world of hurt, pain and torture. This is probably the only flaw in the game, in that the reliance on Marcon becomes a go-to McGuffin for most of the adventures. But it also, strangely enough, pairs with the narrative as your party now has a secondary purpose which can make for some really fun games: Keep Marcon alive at all costs!

As I enjoy my games on the slightly more challenging side, I did again house rule with regards to the number of items and advancement tokens a Hero could have as well as opting to place the named dungeon tile after the 10th tile and not the the 8th. Halastar Blackcloak was a formidable villain but I opted to push his HP up even more to make for a more challenging game.

2. The Legend of Drizzt

The legendary Drow pose

The Legend of Drizzt had us playing the roles of the legendary Companions of the Hall as we descended the Underdark, battling all sorts of macabre foes and beasts. LOD was the go-to game for our gaming group and had seen the most group gameplay of all of the D&D games listed here. It had also brought some of the fondest gaming memories for me and for this reason it is at my #2 spot on the ranking.

The Adventures in LOD are brilliant for group gaming. From the standard 'locate a tile' (Mithral Hall) to Heroes playing off against each other (Betrayal in the Tunnels, Race for Gauntlgrym) to escaping the Neverneath as the caverns collapse around you, LOD has some truly jaw-dropping moments of fun, terror and sheer hilarity. 

There's a Balor in my kitchen

The setting of Underdark is also one of the best. The Cavern and cavern edge tiles just feels right and adds the right amount of claustrophobia and anxiety as your party ventures further and further underground. The narrative in each of these standalone adventures is great and has that epic-quest vibe going for it. That, coupled with the fact that you get to play as Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti Brie, Wulfgar, Regis and other legendary R.A. Salvatore characters just adds that extra level of spicy chilli seasoning to the flavor.

All those R.A. Salvatore characters are here...to play!

It's hard to fault this game. If anything, the lack of a big boss villain doesn't really deter from the gameplay as there are enough other villains to contend with from a Mindflayer to Drow mercenaries, a Drider, cave trolls and a giant Balor. The Legend of Drizzt, released 9 years ago, is still a remarkable, simple to play and fun cavern-crawler and a well added addition to my favorite gaming hobby.

1. Castle Ravenloft 

Velkom to Barovia!

And then there's Ravenloft. Ah Ravenloft, you gem of a game. A surprise birthday gift from my wife back in 2016, Ravenloft was my first foray into Dungeons and Dragons after 3rd Edition many, many moons prior. And it brought back ALL of the nostalgic feels. The gothic horror vibe, the dungeon crawl, the imposing castle with hordes of undead, vampires and beastly creatures - this was and still is my go-to game for Dungeons and Dragons.

Little did my wife know back then that this game would be the mistress to our marriage as I spent countless hours playing through and replaying through the Ravenloft adventure book with different permutations of Heroes. I still recall (with butterflies in my stomach, a fluttering in my chest and a lump in my throat) my very first playthrough with the cleric Thorgrim and the rogue Kat. The spookiness of the castle, the threat of Strahd and all of the various monsters and villains made my first run through a truly jawdropping, adrenaline-pumping experience. This was Dungeons & Dragons at it's finest and best. I have since played it a whopping 7 times solo and once with our group.

Look at `em minis!

Around the same time, Netflix had released Stranger Things which piqued everyone's interest in D&D and got me into expanding my solo-gaming routine into a more structured group-based gaming and Ravenloft was our first group gaming attempt and it cemented our monthly dungeoneering party. I also expanded a bit more in my blog, including my very first custom adventure (looking back, that adventure is still brutally hard and fun to play!).

This game has, hands-down, the best minis. DOTTM comes in quite close but CR just has some awesome minis. The Dracolich, the Golem, the Howling Hag, Zombie Dragon, Werewolf and Strahd are all amazingly sculpted along with the Heroes. Ravenloft also has the most named tiles in all of the games which makes for perfect custom adventures.

Ravenloft monsters are so badass

The actual adventures in the adventure book are all simply brilliant and offer a lot more than the standard 'find a tile' mechanic that has become the norm for this system. From the crazy Klak's Infernal Artifact to the time-based Daylight Assault to saving a young villager in The Final Transformation, the solo outing of Adventure Impossible, the unusual tile flipping mechanic of the Horror of the Howling Hag, saving Barovia in the Gauntlet of Terror, trying to pacify a Rampaging Golem and then eventually descending into the crypts to battle Strahd...

Man, this game just rocks. The little tweaks to each adventure makes for memorable and fantastic gaming and a truly unforgettable D&D experience. This is my go-to dungeon crawl. I have tweaked and added in my own adventures and campaigns over time but Ravenloft is still my favorite D&D boardgame of the lot.

And that folks, is a wrap of my ranking for the D&D board games my favorite gaming hobby. I know I'm missing Temple of Elemental Evil (TOE) and maybe (just maybe) I will get to adding it to my collection but for now, keep rolling and stay safe folks!