Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus Board Game from WizKids will be incorporating a League of Legends play style for up to 8 players.
Wizards of the Coast (and parent company Hasbro) have worked together with WizKids/NECA for multiple tabletop miniature games over the years. WoTC and its legendary Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering brands is a household name to the fantasy RPG community. Meanwhile, WizKids is well-regarded for producing high-quality pre-painted minis such as Mage Knight and Heroclix. Previous collaborations between the two companies include D&D Icons of the Realms and D&D Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures.
With the worldwide release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the popularity of e-sports, it seems to be the perfect time for a new board game that takes MOBA mechanics to the D&D tabletop.
On April 13, 2023, WizKids announced the pre-order availability on its official social media channels such as Twitter.
"[Trials of Tempus] is incredibly fun and finds the sweet middle ground between a full Dungeons & Dragons campaign and a game of Munchkin."
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Trials of Tempus coming this August! Read all about it on @GameSpot: https://t.co/Uw6Umdp9SF pic.twitter.com/hGizUnYsYK
— WizKids (@wizkidsgames) April 12, 2023
Since then, the description and details of the board game have been updated on the Wizkids online shop. These additional details include the confirmation that there will be two editions for the release: a Standard Edition and a Premium Edition.
Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus was designed by Heavy Dragon studios. There is an emphasis on team battles very similar to multiplayer battle arena games such as DoTA 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and others of this kind. On that note, having the theme of the game built around Tempus (the God of Battle of the Forgotten Realms setting) makes perfect sense.
According to the official description of the board game:
Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus is a cooperative, team-based game for 2-8 players, where rival parties of Heroic adventurers battle to prove their worth and mettle in the ever-changing Battlerealms of Tempus, God of War!
Choose your Hero wisely, for the skills and allies you need to conquer each Trial are never the same, and the Guardian that awaits you all at the end will surely test the limits of your bravery... or is it your cunning? The Trial will tell.
To win, you and your party must work together to earn more Victory Points than your rivals by completing Quests and gathering Loot! Finally, you must defeat the Trial Guardian. Whichever party has the most Victory Points when the Trial Guardian falls wins the Trial!
The Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus Board Game will come with the following contents:
- 9 map tile pieces
- 4 d20 dice
- 344 cards
- 333 tokens
- 25 painted plastic miniatures
- 1 rulebook
While the Standard Edition and Premium Editon of the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired board game will both have the same contents, the miniatures in the Premium Edition will come fully painted. While that is convenient and adds to the aesthetics of the miniatures, an additional $100 might be a little steep (unless there are other features the Premium Edition will have that are not announced yet).
Although Trials of Tempus is not an official crossover with League of Legends from Riot Games, the game mechanics does echo the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). Coincidentally, there was a Dungeons & Dragons 5E setting based on League of Legends lore. Legends of Runeterra: Dark Tides of Bilgewater was previously available on D&D Beyond, but has since been discontinued.
Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus Board Game is available for pre-order for $99.99 for the Standard Edition and $199.99 for the Premium Edition. The game will be released and begin shipping on August 2023.
