And here were are at DragonStrike (1993). This is essentially a board game version of (a greatly simplified) Basic D&D. There are four different boards, character cards, a DM’s screen (that stands for…Dragon Master…sigh), different scenarios and so, so many miniatures.

Look, the miniatures are the best part. They’re so good. I particularly love that the fire elemental is a tiny version of the PVC LJN D&D toy. And that troll! Ugh, so, so good. I bought this for the miniatures. It was worth it.

I have never played DragonStrike. I was only dimly aware of its existence when it came out – I assume since I was already neck deep in D&D, I wasn’t paying attention to the various introductory games TSR was experimenting with. It was also pretty expensive. It reads fine, though. I am sure it plays fine. It feels meatier than HeroQuest, but it retains that adversarial relationship between the players and the DM and tips the balance in favor of the DM (the dragon is super powerful). It seems like a decent enough intro to D&D, but despite the bells and whistles, I am not sure why beginners would play DragonStrike more than a couple times when actual D&D was available. It didn’t exactly set the RPG world on fire upon release.

Which might be because of the VHS tape. Hoo boy. It is a 30-minute introduction to the game, part tutorial, part horrifically low budget D&D live action film (which, all things considered, still manages to be more entertaining than the actual D&D live action films). It’s a painful stew of corny jokes, haughty voice over, bad costumes (the wizard with the wolf hat, my god) and worse effects. But that’s all. DragonStrike isn’t a VHS game like Atmosfear or Nightmare. They just included a VHS tape…because? And the worst part: the game the VHS tape is introducing…seems a whole lot different than the game laid out in the rulebook. And the miniatures in the video aren’t even the same. Its weird. And so bad, my god. You have to watch it so you can share my giddy pain.