Dungeons & Dragons – Bedlam in Neverwinter Escape the Room Adventure Review

Now from the outset, don’t worry, we won’t be showing you too much, just explaining the basics. Bedlam in Neverwinter is a 3 act “escape the room” style mystery game, with D&D trappings and mechanics to enhance your immersion. If you have prior experience with D&D, then a lot of this will seem familiar, and much like a streamlined version.

To start, you build your character by selecting a race, class, and weapon. This determines what skill proficiency you have, as well as your max HP (‘hit points’ or ‘health points’). As you open the box, pay close attention to the order of operations, taking care not to look at elements before you’re meant to! Read the introductory prologue, set up Act 1 Board A, the Act 1 card deck, as well as the loot deck, find your d20 and d6, and you’re ready to begin!

Playing involves moving your character pieces to different numbered areas and drawing the card that corresponds to that number. These cards help drive the story forward. Sometimes cards will give you a scenario and ask for an ability check (either Solo or Group). Group checks allow you to succeed if anyone in your party rolls high enough, and if a party member has a proficiency that matches the challenge, they can add a d6 to their roll! In either a success or a fail, you will get to role play the situation much like a normal session of D&D. For example, “How did you overcome this obstacle”, “describe your drink order”, and so on. Puzzle cards are ultimately what you’re after. These cards contain a mix of visual and written elements, and the solution will always be a number. That number is the next card that you must draw that will progress the story. If you draw a card that says “solution” at the top, great job! You solved the puzzle, and can progress forward in the story.

This game is really fun to play, and may even be a great introduction to a completely green Dungeons and Dragons hopeful. The “choose your own adventure” book style of progression, mixed with the tabletop elements, and good old fashioned D&D roleplaying make this an incredible game that’s more than the sum of its parts. The only shame is that, as you might guess, there isn’t a ton of replay value once you’ve played through it once. Also, the puzzles are on the lighter end of difficulty, so make of that what you will.