'Dungeons & Dragons' Gets a New Board Game in August

WizKids is releasing a mysterious new Dungeons & Dragons board game.

WizKids quietly added solicitations for an untitled Dungeons & Dragons board game, which will be released this August. The new game is the latest in their series of Adventure System Board Games, which can be played on their own or combined with other Adventure System Board Games.

Each Adventure System Board Game is based on a different Dungeons & Dragons storyline, which indicates that this year's storyline will launch sometime in the mid to late summer. Last year's Tomb of Annihilation board game was released in October after the release of the Tomb of Annihilation adventure, so we could see a new adventure as early as July.

Past Adventure System Board Games have typically been dungeoncrawlers, with players adding tiles to a growing board and fighting monsters while trying to complete a specific scenario. Each game has multiple scenarios and quests that combine to form a full D&D-esque campaign. Players can also bring characters and monsters from older Adventure System Board Games for more options and varieties.

The game uses modified mechanics from Dungeons & Dragons, most of which involve a twenty sided dice roll. Players make attacks by rolling a D20 and then do a set amount of damage if their attack succeeds. The advantage and disadvantage rules from D&D's fifth edition rules also factor into the game, as do healing surges from D&D's older fourth edition.

Like a full D&D campaign, players can also level up their character over multiple scenarios, giving their players stronger attacks or better abilities.

Of course, any good D&D adventure involves miniatures and each Adventure System Board Game comes with a number of miniatures in addition to twenty sided dice, dungeon tiles, cards, and everything else you need to play the game. The new Adventure System Board Game will have two versions, a standard edition that features unpainted, single color miniatures and a Premium Edition that uses pre-painted miniatures. While the Tomb of Annihilation game's miniatures aren't as high of quality as some of WizKids' other miniatures, you can still use them in other D&D campaigns and adventures as necessary.

Interestingly, Gale Force Nine is also developing a board game based on the same unnamed adventure module, which will come out in September. Dungeons & Dragons releases a few board games every year, but getting two different board games based on the same storyline could be a tease that something big is on the way.