'Dungeons & Dragons' Announces New Board Game Based on Upcoming Adventure

The upcoming Dungeon of the Mad Mage adventure will get its very own board game adaptation.

Earlier this week, WizKids announced a new Adventure Board Game based on the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons adventure, which is set in the bowels of the dangerous Undermountain. The new game is a continuation of WizKid's popular series of Adventure System Board Games for Dungeons & Dragons, which allows players to combine games for a larger pool of monsters and tiles with each playthrough of the game.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a cooperative board game for 1-5 players, with each scenario taking about an hour to play through. Each scenario involves searching a different part of the Undermountain for treasure while avoiding traps and battling monsters, leading to a climactic battle against the Mad Mage Halaster Blackcloak. The game will add new Bane/Boon cards and Environment cards, along with the Trap and Spell decks first introduced in last year's Tomb of Annihilation board game. Dungeon of the Mad Mage will also allow players to advance to Level 4, which is a first in the Adventure Board Game series.

The Adventure Board Game system combines aspects of Dungeons & Dragons (the twenty-sided dice, and some parts of the combat system) with more traditional board game mechanics. The board consists of random tiles, and players have to draw encounter cards whenever they're unable to explore tiles...which usually results in a lot of combat.

The new board game will come in two editions - a standard version with single color miniatures, and a deluxe version with fully painted miniatures.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage will be released in March 2019, nearly four months after the book version of the adventure is set to come out. That means that fans of D&D's Adventure Board Games won't have a new edition of the game to play this year.