Review - Dungeons and Dragons: Trials of Tempus
By: Flawless Cowboy
*Play back started, stardate 2343*
Cowboy: It’s been a while since we have played something where we work together clem.
Clem: Why work together when I can just beat you terribly and assert AI dominance?
Cowboy: Ah clem, don’t be like that. Working together can be fun! How about it, we got any Co-op games in the hold?
Clem: Fun? That word is not in my database. Searching cargo for request...one game has been located.
Cowboy: Well let's kick the tires and light the fires! Yee-Ha!
This is a review for the Premium version of the game, which comes with fully painted miniatures and retails for $199.99. A standard version with unpainted miniatures is available and retails for $99.99. A review copy was provided by WizKids.
Overview:
Dungeons and Dragons: Trial of tempus is a 2-8 player semi-cooperative team based adventure game which pits players against monsters and events by the war god Tempus. Players pick a trial to face, then draft characters, classes, and subclasses they think will best suit them in the scenario. The goal of the game is to earn points by beating challenges, gaining loot, and defeating enemies. You’ll work with other players on your team, and sometimes with other adventuring parties to achieve your goals. Once at least one player has 10 points, the Trial Guardian is spawned, and the game ends when the Guardian has been defeated. The player or team with the most points when that happens will be the winner.
Component quality/storage
Upon first opening the box my eyes are drawn to the minis and they look great. The copy given for the preview is the premium edition, so the models are painted out of the box. Above you can see some close up pictures of them. The heroes in particular have some good detail on them.
Next was how well the box is organized for storage. It’s rare to find a game that gives you a smart way to keep the game organized for storage. I’ve had to buy tool boxes and custom game organizers in the past for other games (looking at you Twilight Imperium) but this is just great.
Let’s take a look at some of what comes in the box!
The way the game organizes itself is really well.
Just a big component view. Not shown is the game board
Here is a close up of all the minis in the box!
Inclusion and special needs
This is a pretty standard draw cards/roll dice/move minis around the board affair, so nothing in here really stands out as something that most players would have trouble with if you can handle that. That said, this game does have a steep learning curve to wrap your head around when playing it for the first time. In some of my games for the review players often got confused about some of the particulars of the game and we just watered it down for them so they could play and participate, but it is something to keep in mind. If you wanted to play this with a younger crowd, you may have to make some house rules and stream line a few things for them. You have a lot of abilities and powers you can use at any given time so I understand when people feel a little overwhelmed.
Gameplay
I will say this right out the gate, this game takes a bit to get set up and start rolling dice. First you pick which side of the map you want to play on. The modular boards are quite nice to look at and I could see using them as Dungeons and Dragons maps in the future. Set the board up as instructed by the rules (see picture below of a two player game). Then you pick the trial boss and a number of quests to be completed for victory points. Here lies one of the most interesting decisions in the game, as players are able to see what they need to do before they select the characters to do it with, allowing them to select the right heroes and tools for the job.
Next you will need to draft for your character. Depending on personality type, this is either incredibly fun or an analysis paralysis nightmare for people. I personally enjoyed the ways you can mix and match classes, characters, and sub-classes, but can understand that this may be too much for new players or folks who don’t have experience playing skirmish games. For new players I’d suggest you just use the recommended builds.
OK, so now you have the board set up, monsters placed, trial boss ready, heroes selected, decks prepared and are ready to start rolling dice.
Players start the round by drawing two cards (except in the first round, in which they draw four), then draw a card from the event deck which will change the tactical status battlefield. This can range from adding another quest, making enemies more aggressive, giving players extra actions, and adding ongoing effects for the round.
Next everyone will roll their D20 for initiative to see who activates first, highest to lowest. Monsters always act at 10 which is nice, so when you roll high or low you can get a feel for what you need to prepare for.
When activating their hero, players get two actions that you can spend to do things like move, attack, and interact with various board features. Players are able to play cards from their hand to modify actions and can even chain cards together to perform unique and more powerful actions. Your character class and subclass dictate how far you can move, what weapon you use to attack, and what your skill check modifiers are.
Once all players have taken their turn, the round ends, and players discard down to 5 cards. Every fifth round, the board also refreshes, meaning loot chests and monster camps are refilled to allow for more loot and bloody battle. At the end of any round in which any player or party has 10 victory points, the Trial Guardian will be summoned and the endgame will commence.
This is about a 6X3.5’ area of space. Make sure you have plenty of room before you set up!
Fun Factor
Ok, with the basic rules out of the way, let’s move onto the most important question: is it fun? Well yes...but with some caveats.
First thing I will say is that the moment to moment gameplay is good. Each action on your turn feels important, and each decision you make may change depending on where you landed on the initiative track.
I really like the event system as well. It adds variety to each turn and there are enough of them that you won't see the same ones that often keep you on your toes (I’d recommend not even reading through them beforehand). We had things such as portals opening up new ways to get around the map to massive monsters stomping down a row on the board that we needed to get away from. There's some really interesting stuff here.
The heroes are fun to play and are strong. Each provides a different way to play the game and provides an assortment of actions and abilities on your turn. The different classes and hero names you can attach to them gives a lot of flexibility to play and keeps things from getting stale. For example, the divination wizard has a passive power that whenever a 10 is rolled on a D20, they can roll a separate D20 and opt to use that number or let it stay at 10, neat stuff.
The fact that this is a miniatures game that can be played by up to EIGHT people is awesome. Very few games can play that many people with the depth that this game offers and that’s always a plus in my book. Complexity wise, it’s a decent middle ground, lighter than say something like Gloomhaven but deeper than Talisman. Four on four skirmishes sound like a blast and a great way to spend an afternoon with friends.
However the game is not perfect, and one of my major issues with the game is that it sells itself as a cooperative board game, which it is not in practice. It’s two teams pitted against each other trying to get the higher score and there is a clear winner at the end. I am confused by this decision in the game, this could have just been a great 1-8 player cooperative game in the vein of Decent, the aforementioned Gloomhaven, or even some of the things that the Fallout miniatures game is doing right now. It’s strange, my issue with the game is not what it is, but what it isn’t. I suppose you could just play on one team together against the monsters and have a good time, but it feels like not having the other party on the other side of the board takes something away from it. There is already a Dungeons and Dragons miniatures game available called Onslaught (a great game by the way) which pits two parties against each other on a much smaller scale. Trials of Tempus’ decision not to lean into the full cooperative nature of the game and differentiate itself from onslaught feels like it was a missed opportunity.
Does the Cowboy recommend this game
So partner, I have thought about this a lot. And I will say yes and no. I recommend this game if you are looking for a two to eight player fantasy skirmish game. It does the job well and looks mighty fine doing it. That said, if you already own Dungeon and Dragons Onslaught, I do not recommend this game as I don’t think it does enough to differentiate itself in a meaningful way. The games feel too similar and for the price point of each game (Onslaught $139.99 and Tempus Premium $199 -both with painted minis-) I’d hate for you to feel like you got a different version of the same thing twice.
Cowboy: “Just need one final touch to make it perfect“
Every wizard needs a hat.
Cowboy: ”YEEHAW!”
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Clem: “That’s it then? If you already own one you don’t need the other?”
Cowboy: ”That’s how I see it Clem. They are both fine games, but it would be like ordering Vanilla ice cream and then gettin’ another scoop of French vanilla. Ya know they are different flavors in a way, but they are both doin’ the same job”.
Clem: ”Are you just upset that I beat you again?”
Cowboy: ”Come on now Clem, ya know I am just used to losing at this point. Plot a course for a Station with a saloon, I’d really like a drink after this one.”
✅ Great models
✅ Engaging gameplay
✅ Good replayability
✅ Plays a lot of people
❌ Very similar to an existing product
❌ Price is high for the premium edition.
❌ Can be complicated to learn.
❌ Would have like to have seen a true cooperative experience
A review copy has been provided by WizKids for this product.
