Michael Lee's Train of Thought

Tomorrow, Lords of Waterdeep, the Dungeons and Dragons-based boardgame that my brother co-developed with Rodney Thompson comes out from Wizards of the Coast.

I had a chance to play this once when my brother was in town for my wedding last year -- so in a very real sense, we played this game as my Bachelor party.  Nerdy, yes.  Relatively low-key: yes, but that's how I wanted it.  But it was also awesome, and I've been waiting almost a year for the game to come out, and I pre-ordered it (because I'm not getting a free copy!) the day it became available.

While I was my brother's first Dungeon Master for D&D, I stopped playing the game in my teenage years.  I didn't have the time or energy to be a lifestyle gamer.  It's a lot of work.

But I have huge affection for the D&D mythos.  Even before my brother started working on the product, I've always believed it's one of the great geek franchises -- like Star Wars, Star Trek, the superhero universes of DC Comics or Marvel, Doctor Who,  The Lord of the Rings, and so on.  Community doesn't do a Pathfinder episode -- they do an episode about Dungeons and Dragons.

I am a fairly regular board gamer -- and some of my favorite games are games like Ticket to Ride, which I'm a hardcore player of on the iPad especially.  And I like some of the games like Dominion, and other games with that sort of flavor as well.  I've enjoyed the other D&D Board Games my brother has worked on like Legend of Drizzt -- especially as they give a bit of that D&D flavor, but in a limited time scope, but Lords of Waterdeep is the best of the games yet, and something that deserves to be played very widely.

Here's a video about how to play the game, with Rodney Thompson.



I think this is a very good fan review of it as well, and gives a good indepth look at the artistic design of the game.


You will be able to get the game at Amazon.com, of course, as well as your local gaming shop like The Source Comics & Games here in Minneapolis, as well as other places.



It's a moment of sibling geek pride for me, obviously -- but more than that, it's a game I can't wait to play again myself, on a final board with graphics and artistic design.

Labels: DnD, Waterdeep