BOARD GAMES- Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game Review – Playing With Little Kids.

I managed to play the Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game with my kids.  As of the time of this writing my eldest kid is seven years old.  Today I’m writing a review of the game,and whether it plays well with little kids.

I managed to score a used copy  of this game at half price a while back.  I’ve been wanting to pick up the game and the others like it for a while.

I have to say, ever since that first game,  the game  has been on my mind ever since. I kinda want to get back to playing another session.  At the same time, I kinda want to NOT play the game again and just start a regular tabletop fantasy role playing game instead.

As I said above, I played this game with my kids.  The age range on the box says: AGE 12+.  My kids, whom I played this game with are, from oldest to youngest:  seven, five and three.

So the question is, what are the pros and cons of playing this game with kids that are so under the age range of this game?

That’s what I will write about below. I’ll explain the type of game this is below as well, but if you want a full overview of the game, there will be a video at the end that will explain it all.

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Quick Game Overview

Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game is a cooperative board game where you play as one of five character adventurers who make their way through Castle Ravenloft.

Basically you go through a randomly created castle, fight monsters to get to an objective.  The objective varies depending on the scenario you choose to play from the adventure book.

The characters you play as are typical Dungeons & Dragons characters, and you can even customize them to an extent.

You move your character and fight, explore the castle, when  a new part of the castle is revealed monsters appear, they fight you, rinse and repeat until you reach your objective.  That’s the game in a nutshell.

My kids and I had a lot of fun playing the game.  Here’s the Pros and Cons when playing this game with little kids.

Pros

Cooperative

The game is a cooperative game which is the biggest benefit the game has when playing with little kids. It means you’re not in competition with them and you are suppose to help out.

The game box says the game can be played by ONE to five players.  The fact that it allows you to play solo, should give you a clue about the kind of help you can give your kids.

Especially if they’re really little like maybe three.  You simply tell the little one what his best move is and then you can simply help him do it.

“Move to this spot. Do this thing. Roll this die.  You did it! Good job,” the little kids feels like he did something great and you can move the game forward. It’s great.

Great Miniatures

The toy factor is great.  The game comes with some really fantatic Miniatures.  The kids LOVE moving the monsters and heroes around the board.  It’s eye candy.

It really gets their imagination going.

Easy to Explain

It’s really very simple to explain to them.  You just tell them what it is they need to do each turn and they just do it.  The game isn’t complicated.

It’s involved.  There’s things to keep track of, but I found, my kids could keep up with what was going on.

They new what they needed to roll, and if they didn’t, you just tell them and move on.

Cons

Requires Reading and Reading Comprehension

Ideally you want to play this game with kids that can read.  It will save you a lot of time if the kids can read their cards themselves. Otherwise you’re going to be doing all the reading.

On other hand, this con can be a plus if your kids are decent enough at reading that they can use the cards as practice.

Requires Math

Similar to the reading, this game is better if you’re kids are good at adding their own die rolls.

It’s no big deal if you have to do it for them.  They have just as much fun.

Just like the reading above, this con can be a pro if your kids are at an age where they can practice their addition skills as they play the game.

A Bit Burdensome

The reading, the math, keeping track of what’s going on where. Who has what monsters, who has what powers or items…it can become a bit much.

Keep in mind, this game can be played solo, that said, it really helps if don’t HAVE to keep track of everything and your kids can help out.

It helps if you set up the table so that you can give maximum help to the youngest kid.

Is it Worth Getting

My kids and I had a ton of fun playing this game. Granted, we’ve only played it once and we got some rules wrong, but it was fun none the less.

My five year old was ready to play it again right away and has been bugging me to play it again since.  I must admit, I feel the same.

This game and it’s companion games are VERY expensive but having played this one, I think they’re well worth it.  I’m absolutely going to be picking up the other ones.

And since they’re board games, their “operating system” doesn’t become obsolete. Although, they do run the danger of going out of print.

Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game