Reposted from Pen and Paper Portal, be sure to check it out for all of your nerdy needs. 

I was more than a little confused when Wizards of the Coast sent me a link to a page on Facebook, and even more confused when I saw the starting page to Dungeons & Dragons Tiny Adventures. The concept is simple: create a D&D character and send them off to adventure, while collecting items and leveling up, with each adventure broken up into different parts that update every twelve minutes. This allows you to track your character’s progress and feed them potions along the way as they defeat enemies and receive items, gold, and experience.

Sadly, none of this is tradable or even gift-able, and you’re not able to do anything with the amazing loot you find if you can’t use it other than selling it. It brings a tear to my eye each time I scrap a powerful wand for pocket change instead of being able to send it to Wolfbane, Sean’s Wizard.

With brings up another issue with the game – the lack of grouping.  While you have the option to invite people to the game, as you can do with any other Facebook App, you can only click on their name during a quest to give them a minor buff. Sadly, while the game gives detailed accounts of each section of an adventure, the intervening friend only shows up as a buff, and their actions aren’t worked into the “story” at all. There’s no grouping together, no completing high level quests with friends, none of that. It misses the point of D&D, and while the game’s little content is fun (and surprisingly addicting), the actual mechanics suffer greatly because of a lack of connectivity with friends playing the game.

The level cap is 11 and there is a severe lack of character customization (being able to choose from a few different feats every few levels would do wonders), and I really hope that the core game is expanded on.  With a little more work this game can be something that holds me over between D&D sessions, but as it stands these “Tiny Adventures” really live up to their name, and offer bite-sized fun at a perfect cost: nothing.

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