Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures
Verdict: how is this a game?
In a Nutshell: This application is a very slimmed down version of Dungeons & Dragons that is reminiscent of a choose-your-own-adventure story but without so many choices.
“Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures! Choose a hero to send on epic adventures. Be your hero’s guide through encounters with menacing monsters and dangerous traps. Equip your hero with magical weapons and armor. Get an RPG experience on Facebook without having to play for hours at a time!”
- Fun Rating: Not Much Fun
- ESRB: n/a
- Players/Mode: single player/single adventures
- Game Duration: 5 – 30 minutes
- System: web
- Developer: Wizards of the Coast
- Website: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=23415053320
- Cost: free
| Would I play this again? | probably not |
| Would I recommend this game? | not likely |
| Was the story good? | at times |
| Was the audio good? | n/a |
| Were the graphics good? | the art was nice |
| Was this game difficult? | not remotely |
| Was this game frustrating? | no |
| Was this game offensive? | no |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | n/a |
Playing the game
Once you’ve added this application to your Facebook profile, you’ll need to make a character. First, choose from one of the race/class combinations and then give that character a name. That’s all there is. All of the character stats are generated for you so if you don’t like what the numbers are, just delete the character and repeat until you get some numbers you like.
The next step in this application is to pick an adventure to send your character on. Adventures don’t require you to be present to click on any button to advance the story. The only ways to influence the chance of success are managing your inventory, the potions you have chosen for this adventure, or having friends give you a “buff”.
Once you pick an adventure you’ll be able to pick two of the potions in your inventory to take with you. The potions can be used at any time manually. If you won’t be sitting through the adventure as it unfolds, you can select to have them applied automatically a certain number of turns before the adventure concludes.
During the adventure your character will come into possession of various items and gold. You can choose to equip your character with the available items to gain the bonuses from using them or sell them at the shop to increase your gold and buy other items or potions.
When checking in on an adventure in progress, or just waiting for time to be up before the next event is revealed, you can help your friends that are in the middle of their own adventures. On the “Friends” tab you can choose to give your friends a bonus that lasts three events, or help heal them when they are between adventures.
What the game gets right
The main thing that this application gets right is that it makes me want to go play a full game of Dungeons and Dragons. It’s very easy to get into and, if you’ve never played before, gives some sense of what a full game would be like.
Since D&D is a social event, being able to in some way participate in your friends’ adventures was a welcome aspect. Unless you’re trying to race your friends in leveling up, it feels good to give them a boost during their adventures and help them heal up so that they can get back in there quickly.
What the game gets wrong
I’m at a loss as to how this application is a game. It all happens without really any involvement of the player other than to pick an adventure. You can’t choose which path in the woods to take. You can’t try to get ye flask, ye rock, or ye enemy skull. You can’t choose to attack everything in your path instead of attempting a diplomatic route. You can’t even relegate the current random-number generator back to the dice bag if it’s been giving me horrible numbers. All you can do is sit, hopelessly, and hope that you are given something cool and that your character doesn’t die.
There are a few events during the adventure that have something to do with the plot. The rest of the events are randomly selected. These are so random, in fact, that the story doesn’t really make sense at times which quickly throws you mentally out of the “game”.
Sum it up
I did have a good time at first with the thrill of a new character, leveling up (and racing my friends at leveling up their characters). The fun came to a halt once I realized how little there is to do and that the adventure will play all the way through without any interaction from me. Helping your friends and creating the character are probably the best parts of this application but, then, I expect a lot when it comes to D&D. Anybody else tried this out?
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