Today, tabletop game publisher Ravensburger announced a Dungeons & Dragons-based expansion to its acclaimed Horrified tabletop game series at the London Toy Fair. Slated for release this summer, the game will set players against four iconic enemies from the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game — with some additional mechanics inspired by D&D.
The fifth game in the franchise, Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons is a cooperative board game for one to five players, ages 10 and up. The new RPG-inspired game will share the original line’s base mechanics — having players work together to overcome puzzles and fight monsters to gather tokens and protect citizens. Each of the four iconic monsters will have unique thematic challenges to bring the TTRPG’s 51 years of history into the design and story of this new game. The monster challenges in Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons were designed by Peter Lee, the mind behind 10 Dungeons & Dragons board games and the Horrified: Universal Monsters game system.
Among the familiar creatures fans of the RPG might recognize is the Beholder, one of D&D monsters that has been present in the game since its launch in 1974. Unlike many other creatures featured in the RPG, which are based on creatures taken from mythology or folklore, the Beholder — a floating orb of flesh with one large eye, a mouth, and many protruding eyestalks — is an entirely original creation of D&D. It came to prominence as one of D&D’s most iconic monsters through it’s featured image on the cover of the first D&D supplement, Grayhawk.
In addition to familiar monsters, Horrified: Dungeons and Dragons adds a tabletop gameplay flair into the mix. The board game will incorporate the iconic d20, or 20-sided die, that has become synonymous with the game in popular culture.
“Anyone who knows anything about Dungeons & Dragons knows how essential a d20 is to gameplay, so when the opportunity for us to create a Horrified game with D&D monsters came to us, we knew what we had to do,” said Mike Mulvihill, game development manager at Ravensburger in a statement to Polygon. “It is an honor to merge the historical and awesome worlds and themes of Dungeons & Dragons with the immersive cooperative play that we crafted with Horrified. We believe we have created a board game that will please both dedicated fan bases.”
The game is slated for release this summer, and will be available for $29.99.
