A Review of Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons
By Howard Shirley
This is Horrified, in which the players take on the roles of heroes and work together to defeat a host of terrifying monsters, and save the world!
And this is Dungeons & Dragons, in which the players take on the roles of heroes and work together to defeat a host of terrifying monsters, and save the world!
Hang on… (Hums “Two great tastes that go great together…”)
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| 1 + 1 = ??? |
And from this union came: Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons.
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Tada! Daddy’s little horror! |
So is this truly a perfect match, or an abomination from the pits of… well, you know…? Read on, and find out!
So, let’s get some things straight:
The original Horrified is a boardgame, and this is a typical table set up:
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| The original, in all its gorgeous glory! |
The original D&D is a role-playing game, and this is a typical table set up for it.
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| D&D in all its, uh… never mind. |
One is slightly more visually attractive than the other.
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| Ah, that’s much better. (Li’l ‘Zilla not included.) |
How It Works
The object of Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons is to defeat anywhere from 2 to 4 monsters (but usually 2 or 3) within a loose “time limit” (actually determined by card draws). Players range from 1 to 5– other versions of Horrified can go up to 7 players, though 6 or less are recommended.
The board represents the city of Waterdeep— located in the fantasy world called the “Forgotten Realms.” (Or you can think of it as any generic fantasy town). Below the human city is the dangerous underground region of the Underdark, a “second” city of monsters and other strange beings.
To defeat the monsters, our heroes will have to travel around these two realms, collect various items, aid citizens (or whatevers) traveling to safety, and use the items to foil the monster’s actions and eventually defeat them, one by one. Each monster has a Monster Mat which presents a puzzle of sorts that must be completed to allow the creature to be attacked and defeated. One special difference of Horrified: D&D is the introduction of random hero abilities. In previous games, Horrified heroes have possessed only one specific special action, unique to that hero, which always functions unless circumstances obviously prevent it (for example the Archeologist can’t collect items from adjacent spaces— his unique ability— if those spaces contain no items). In H: D&D the characters instead have a list of different abilities, which one triggers by rolling a d20. Some results are better than others, and some results simply waste the action completely. Thematically, it fits D&D, but it can make the game much harder if you don’t get the beneficial roll result you need.
The game is cooperative—there is no “Dungeon Master.”
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| Totally not needed. Hey, stop that cheering! |
The players are all allies, and may suggest courses of action, tactics, strategies, and so forth without restriction. Each hero, however, only takes action on their turn, and after each hero’s turn is completed, a Monster card is drawn which reveals which (if any) of the monsters will move and attack our stalwart fellows, or random citizens (or whatevers). Monster cards also cause special events, including placing citizens (or whatevers) on the board.
Each attack is perilous, as if heroes or civilians are defeated, the Terror track increases. The hero isn’t killed, but simply starts over— in the tavern, of course! Citizens (or whatever) are killed and removed from the game. When the skull reaches the seventh spot, everyone is Horrified and you lose! (Why have the citizens? If you get a citizen to its safe location, you gain a Perk card, which offers special actions usable during any player’s turn—typically a big boost, such as additional actions, increased movement, teleportation of a hero a monster or a citizen or a whatever— all generally quite helpful.)
You also lose if at the end of a player’s turn, the monsters have not been defeated and there is no monster card left in the deck to flip. According to the rules, you have “run out of time.” This encourages players to act quickly to complete each Monster’s puzzle.
How It Plays
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| Rollin’ for the Special Stuff |
As highly experienced Horrified players, L’il ‘Zilla and I first followed the suggested two-monster challenge of the Beholder (this ugly killer beach ball with magic killer eyestalks and lame jokes), and a “Displacer Beast” which is a killer kitty-kat that appears to be in two places at once… and has tentacles??? Like teeth and claws aren’t enough?
(Of course, if you’re an old hand at D&D, as our beloved wizard, you recognize these beasties as among the oldest foes in the game. Otherwise, wait till you have to wrap your mind around the Mimic.)
As expected, we* defeated these two foes handily.
For a greater challenge we went with the ultimate 3 monster challenge of the Mimic, the Displace Beast and the mighty Red Dragon, who has two Monster Mat puzzles which must be completed. (It turns out the Horrified D&D rules don’t recommend three monsters at all, especially with the Dragon in play— this is unlike other versions of the game). For our heroes we chose three party members— one for each of us and a third we would take turns playing. I went with the holy Cleric, whose special abilities can blunt monster attacks, if you get lucky. Li’l ‘Zilla went with the Fighter, who can ignore monster hits or even prevent a Monster card from being drawn (very helpful). And for our third party member we randomly selected the Wizard (not me), who can (possibly) teleport monsters or heroes around the board.
We puttered around the early game, largely collecting items and shuttling citizens around, but we finally got down to brass tacks and started completing Monster puzzles.
We faced a bit of confusion on the Mimic’s puzzle. The game places this critter on its mat rather than on the board, and the Heroes must collect matching items to pull it to the board for eventual defeat. However, the Wizard’s ability allows him to teleport a monster to any location on the board. Which left us wondering whether that included pulling the Mimic from its mat, or teleporting it to a spot on its mat. If the former, it would make the Mimic very easy to defeat, as once on the board it does not return to its mat. The rules made no mention of this possibility. We ruled that the Wizard could not teleport the Mimic from his mat, but only once it is on the board after solving its puzzle.
We managed to defeat the Mimic, and the Displacer Beast, and had the Dragon set for defeat, but the Monster cards were all spent, allowing us only one stab at the final roll. All we had to do was roll 12 or better on the die and we’d slay the beast… and we got this:
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| Momp-wah. |
And that ended our heroic efforts in ignominious defeat. (Translation: “We lost.”)
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| The agony of defeat. |
Rank’ Em, Dude
Final judgment? This is a good implementation of the Horrified system, with a clever nod to Dungeons & Dragons. If you haven’t got a clue what D&D is, you can still appreciate this as an entertaining and challenging co-opt game— even if you can’t tell a Beholder from a Bugbear. And despite me not personally being a fan of Waterdeep or the Forgotten Realms, I found it all nicely thematic. If you’re an avid D&Der, the Horrified system makes for a fun alternative evening, while giving your DM a break and a chance to join in on the struggling heroes side of things.
Li’l ‘Zilla says 4 out of 5 Atomic Breath Blasts, deduction for the confusion on the Mimic and the limited number and variety of monsters (though the set claims to be compatible with two previous Horrified releases: Greek Monsters and World of Monsters (aka the Cthulhu edition).
As for a ranking of Horrified sets, our preferences are:
Horrified: The Universal Monsters (the original and still the best, based on classic movie monsters) 5 Atomic Breath Blasts
Horrified: American Monsters (Bigfoot & Co. vs. the X-Files in a spot-on treatment) 5 Atomic Breath Blasts
Horrified: Greek Monsters (Medusa, Minotaur, etc.) 4.5 Atomic Breath Blast (some really bad character/citizen art, addition of secret Lairs unnecessarily complicates things)
Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons (This review)
Horrified: World of Monsters 3.5 Atomic Breath Blasts (confusing monster puzzles, limited monster choices, theme is haphazard, characters are inexplicably bizarre)
—Parzival
*Yes, I know, that “we” is suspect. However, I have played many Horrified games of all varieties with multiple other rea…err, human players, and the game in all editions are simple to play solo, even with multiple characters in play. So I do have considerable play with groups to inform my assessment. (The rules do have a Solo option for only one character, but that really restricts the play choice, while jumping the Terror track forward three skulls. But as you can easily play more than one character at a time, I believe that even most solo players will opt for a party of 3 or 4 heroes.) Besides, do YOU want to tell Li’l ‘Zilla that he might not be , err, entirely non-fanciful? To his face?
