D&D Adventure Squares Card Game

By:

Sir Gerard Luft, KDM

 

A Little Classic Gaming History

 

            In 1983 TSR tried to make miniatures for their Dungeons and Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons line.  It wasn’t much more than a year later that they returned to using an outside company to furnish their miniatures.  But regardless of what opinions collectors and gamers might have towards their miniatures, they had one outstanding and redeeming feature: Adventure Squares. 

 

            Most second generation D&D players recall those simple little 4” by 3” dungeon rooms printed on the backs of the AD&D three pack blister cards.  The neatest thing about these humble little terrain cards is that, after you appropriately cut them from the card board back, the name of the beasties that came in that blister lined up to be in the dead middle of the card’s flip side. 

 

            I know for a fact that I was not the only player in those days that used the adventure squares for solo adventuring.  It was simple to do because many of the rooms were repeats or looked very similar.  I would take my favorite miniature (the male Paladin with sword from that series) and start with the card that he and his two other Paladin friends came in.  Then I shuffled the cards, and placed the stack before me (with the adventure squares facing up).  Take the first card, flip her over to find which monster is in that room, and have at it! 

 

Adventure Cards for the D20 Era Gamer

 

            These classic moments of high fantasy gaming might not appeal to greatly to the present generation of D&D players.  But clean up the rules a bit, pay lip service to the mighty D20 “super system” and add pretty MTG-like cards.  Then you have a very nice adaptation of an old classic.

 

  1. Brush off your favorite D&D character’s sheet.
  2. Make up a series of about eight monster cards with as simplified stats on them as possible (I cheat and simply use those fantastic D20 Chainmail stats and rules; best thing to happen to the archetype Fantasy Game since the red box Basic Set).  Make sure they’re at an appropriate level for you character.
  3. Shuffle and draw the beasties.  The first card is the first dungeon room with the first monster.  Hack and Slash!  If you loose, you loose.  If you win you get treasure and experience and get to proceed to the next dungeon room (i.e., draw the next card).
  4. If you make it through the whole deck you can add your experience and treasure (once again I personally take the easy way out by using D20 Chainmail Leveling and Magic Item award rules; but if I fail to get through the dungeon, I level up a monster chosen at random).

 

My Adventure Squares Card Game Thoth files:

http://www.angelifire.com/games4/doctorwhoeyespy/dndas.zip

(If the link doesn’t work, copy and paste it directly to your browser)