By The Horrified series of board games by Ravensburger pits players against iconic monsters with a handful of expansions spanning across pop culture and mythology. Over six years, players have gone up against creatures of the night, such as the Universal monsters, elder evils like Cthulhu, and mythical monsters like the Minotaur and Medusa. Now, the latest edition has players taking on the most fearsome beasts from Dungeons & Dragons lore.
Aptly titled Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons, the game takes place in the Forgotten Realms (the same setting seen in Baldur’s Gate 3) and features heroes and locations inspired by the game’s extensive worldbuilding and lore. While out on August 10, Ravensburger supplied GameSpot with an advance copy of Horrified: D&D, which is more than a repackaged version of other entries in the Horrified series with D&D wrapping paper.
If you’re new to Horrified, the setup is simple and extremely modular: Your team’s goal is to defeat all the monsters in play, each of which has unique challenges and puzzles before you can take them on. Players generally have four actions per turn where they can move around the game board, collect items, solve puzzles, and escort NPCs to safety, all while fending off the monsters at large. After each player’s turn, they then take the monsters’ actions, which are controlled by a monster deck, adding tension and unpredictability.
Strategic use of actions is key, as wasted turns can give monsters the upper hand. This creates a compelling back-and-forth that keeps gameplay tense and energetic, without becoming too grueling for your party.
Gallery
The game’s modularity comes from its monster combinations. The standard setup has players facing up against two monsters, but you can scale the difficulty–play with one for a quicker game or face them all for a completely chaotic challenge. Your Horrified: D&D adventure starts by choosing which monsters you’ll be facing. As in other Horrified games, each monster has a certain difficulty level. According to Ravensburger, taking on the Beholder and the Displacer Beast is recommended for first-time players–the other two monsters are the legendary Red Dragon and a Mimic.
So, where does the Dungeons & Dragons flair come in? New gameplay mechanics feature a D&D-branded d20, which can help or hurt your heroes in their quest to vanquish monsters and save citizens from a gruesome demise. Each player chooses a character with unique abilities that complement team-based strategy, much like a Dungeons & Dragons party. Roles include The Rogue, Wizard, Fighter, Cleric, and Bard. Horrified: D&D supports 1-5 players. So if you’re truly bold, yes, a solo play is possible.
In our game, we played as the Bard and Wizard, whose powers focus on teleportation and moving heroes, monsters, or NPCs across the board. Rolling higher on the d20 boosts these abilities–like the Fighter potentially skipping a monster’s turn entirely with a high roll. The Rogue focuses on items, able to draw extra and share them with teammates, while the Cleric shines during the monster phase, using support abilities to weaken or block enemy attacks.
The design of Horrified: D&D cleverly encourages players to use the d20 almost every turn. Since these abilities are impactful–even if the roll isn’t perfect–it keeps dice-rolling engaging and tightly woven throughout gameplay.
Staying out of harm’s way is especially important in Horrified: D&D. Fortunately, each player starts the game with a Perk card (shown below in the purple chest) that gives players buffs such as extra actions or an automatic nat-20 roll. You can earn more Perk cards by saving villagers and defeating monsters.
As for the items, they add strategic depth and are mainly used to challenge, defend against, or defeat monsters. Each item token has a name, color, strength value, type, and a specific location where it’s placed. During the Monster Phase, new items are drawn from the item bag and placed on the board, with their type indicated by shape: red hexagon (weapon), blue circle (magical), and yellow square (mundane).
For example, after players meet the right requirements when fighting the Beholder, a player needs to have at least six in mundane/yellow item strength in their hand in order to defeat it.
Each monster has its own devastating ability, but also a unique challenge to defeat. The Beholder can shoot 10 different, powerful eye rays; which one you get all depends on your d20 roll. It’s up to you to shut down the eyestalks before you take on its main eye. The Mimic can disguise itself as an inanimate object, hence the name, so you have to find it before you can attack. The Displacer Beast requires several items to even attempt to attack it, because of its illusions. Lastly, the Red Dragon is the biggest challenge of the game–fighting it is a two-part “campaign,” with players required to first discover the Orb of Dragonkind before luring the Red Dragon back to its lair. This sort of two-part mechanic is a first for the Horrified series. Epic monsters require epic challenges, ya know?
One of the things I appreciate about the Horrified series is its art, and the Dungeons and Dragons edition goes all-out in making it feel as much like D&D as possible with its aesthetics. The game manual is reminiscent of a classic Player’s Handbook, with a font and layout that are similar in presentation. The Hero cards all represent a diverse team with different races and appearances for their class. I mean, who doesn’t love the inclusion of the crow-like Kenku for its Bard Hero?
Even the citizen and Perk cards all tell a story of some kind, with legendary characters used for the Perk designs–including D&D legendary Drow ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, whose card gives the player an additional two actions on their turn.
Much like with other Horrified versions (and Dungeons and Dragons), the more players are involved, the easier the game becomes, which encourages a big group to play. Whether you’re a diehard D&D player or looking for a game with tons of replayability, Horrified: Dungeons and Dragons delivers a fun time in a small package. It might not be an epic campaign, but it is certainly a dungeon worth exploring.
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com