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Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms, the latest edition announced by Wizard and an alliance that has been awaited for years.
No one should be unfamiliar with the acronym D&D, either as Dungeons and Dragons or Calabozos y Dragones, the most famous role-playing game in the world created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson published by the Gygax company, introducing players to a world of fantasy and adventure, with hundreds of characters that deeply penetrated POP culture, standing out for the use of polyhedral dice, character sheets, a progressive development of the game and a collaborative dynamic that allow variations in the story through the decisions of the players, it is worth highlighting the presence of the dungeon master, who is in charge of narrating the story and proposing various scenarios that enrich the experience of the players. Dungeons & Dragons represented the definitive and unique union of all these elements, creating its own niche and starting the development of a multitude of other role-playing games. Science fiction, horror, superheroes, cartoons, westerns , spies and many other fictional scenarios were developed for these.
Since WOC bought the publishing house TSR in 1997, the history of both has been intertwined, whether because he was in charge of the design and launch of the Fourth Edition of D &D, or let's be honest, we have always dreamed of the moment when an edition based on the extensive world of Dungeons & Dragons would be announced.
Finally, at the beginning of 2021, WOC announced that an edition called Dungeons and Dragons Forgottens Realms would be launched, which its presentation (spoiler) would begin from June 29 to July 10 and would finally reach the tables on the 23rd of this month.
Everything you love about D&D will be in Magic with Forgotten Realms, featuring the game’s most famous characters and iconic monsters. New mechanics include “Dive into the Dungeon” and some that require rolling a 20-sided die to access a bonus.
Regarding “Entering the Dungeon”, Mark Rosewater had already dropped some spoilers quite some time ago, regarding the introduction of new mechanics and table states that we could access, not necessarily through the Main or the Side, so what is it about?
Basically, due to the relevance of Dungeons, they are represented with this new mechanic, being a new type of card. In particular, there are 3, The Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Tomb of Annihilation and The Mad Wizard's Dungeon, which are known by D&D veterans. These cards do not go in the Main, nor do they use a slot on the side. To access them, the cards must have the keyword "Enter the Dungeon", they can be the effect of a spell, an activated or triggered ability, when this happens if you do not have any dungeon on the table, you will have to choose between the 3 that we already mentioned, put the dungeon that is in the command zone with an adventure marker on the first room, the one on top. Your adventure marker is used to know which room you are in, just like a miniature tells you where you are on a D&D map.
Each time you enter a room, including the first one, its room ability triggers. These abilities say “When you enter this room, (the room’s printed effect).” For example, when you enter the Yawning Portal, you gain 1 life. Note that although all rooms have names, these names are for flavor only and do not affect actual gameplay.
When you are in a dungeon, the next time you enter the dungeon you will have to advance to the next room. You cannot change dungeons until you have completed the one you are halfway through. Follow the arrows on the card to go to the next room.
In the purest D&D skill style, we will find flavor words, which are just that, to make the game more epic, which will not directly affect the state of the game and which will be mostly associated with the creature's own skills in question.
Finally, the 20-sided die will become more relevant, some abilities of certain creatures will be decided by rolling a 20-sided die, on them we will find the acronym D20, which means that to resolve their ability we will have to roll a die and, according to the number that comes out, a different ability will be resolved, these will be found in the text box of the card, being the closest thing to a results table, so maybe the effect was not what you needed or expected, clearly the chance factor will influence the games more.
And finally, the art of the cards, as in previous editions, will be different in some cards, we can find some set in the old D&D covers, which will be called " Classic Module" , those focused on the lands, which are a total of 9; " Rule Book" which are inspired by the old monster manuals, are a total of 51 cards that include four legendary creatures and several iconic monsters; " Art Cards" , are a total of 81 cards, with so far an unconfirmed number of creatures which are references for data and statistics that can in turn be used in D&D games and finally the classic " Borderless", among them we can find PW cards, which will be 5, and Dragons, the latter are a total of 6 that correspond to mythical cards.
Without a doubt, this is a somewhat unusual collection, with new mechanics that will limit decisions and the chance factor will become more relevant in the games. Only time will tell whether or not it was a good edition.
Without further ado, I say goodbye and remember if you play D&D bring your 20-sided die.
Pablo Nunez.
