Board Game Review: Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep
is an amazing game in the Euro Resource Style. My wife has never been a D&D player, but as a huge fan of Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne she loves this game. Although I was never particularly into Forgotten Realms, the game is still amazingly entertaining for my wife, me and my friends. The setting never gets in the way, but often adds interesting flavor. The games play-ability by non D&D fans is a testament to its amazing design.



From a game mechanics standpoint Lords of Waterdeep adds a critical game mechanic to resource style board games. A player can play an agent to go first. This means that the first player can change in each round of play. The ability to gain the first player token is crucial to planning strategy in a resource style board game. It solves a long standing problem which many other games suffer from. This is a brilliant mechanic that needs to be included in future resource style games.

For any D&D RPG player the perspective change from first person to third person is going to be a little mind blowing; mind blowing in a good way. Something like what it was like to play Magic: the Gathering for the first time. The game is a whole new perspective on classic RPG concepts. It's tempting to reverse engineer a new way to play RPG's from this 3rd person perspective.

Some folks feel the theme and mechanics don't work together very well. And I agree, they are not well integrated. But that is not detrimental to a players enjoyment of the game. In fact for non D&D players it might be necessary to get them to play at all. This is not the Impenetrable world of Forgotten Realms. It's a fun game which lasts a set number of rounds (my wife's favorite part, she knows exactly how long it will take).

If I were making a vlog, I would invite indie game developers to play this game, like Table Top, but then interview the guests about what they like and what they don't like about the game. Everyone has a point of view on victory points. But how do developers see them? My own opinions are on the blog. It would be great to hear designers thoughts on what's great, and what sucks about the game.

The expansion, Scoundrels of Skullport
was released and adds tons more to the game. Once you've mastered the base game it is well worth picking up. At around $60 for the main game and $30 for the expansion, it's a bit steep in price if you're not sure about the game. But play a few rounds for free at Temple Con 2014, Pax East or any another demo event for Wizards of the Coast, and you'll be hooked. The game is well worth the price.