Scoundrels of Skullport: Lords of Waterdeep Exp
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Awards
Rating
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Artwork
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Complexity
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Replayability
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Player Interaction
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Component Quality
You Might Like
- It if you're looking to extend the life of Waterdeep.
- Corruption is a cool mechanic that makes you think.
- Extra everything.
Might Not Like
- Good but not essential expansion
- Probably not best to add in for newcomers straight away
- Components are still just about okay.
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Description
Scoundrels of Skullport is an excellent expansion for base game, Lords of Waterdeep. You’ll need the base game to play this. It includes modules that create superb extra levels of strategy into the mix! Waterdeep is a fictional city in Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons universe. Lords of Waterdeep – nor Scoundrels of Skullport – is a role-playing game (RPG), though. It’s a full-on worker placement board game, with resources and a victory points track. You won’t be rolling any D20s for initiative, here… Scoundrels of Skullport provides two new modules to add to the base game. A sixth player can join in with a sixth faction – The Gray Hands. The core mechanisms remain: players aim to complete quests by gathering adventurers. You have eight rounds to score as many points as possible. Scoundrels of Skullport also comes with appropriate new Quest and Intrigue cards. There’s new buildings too, which dovetail with their corresponding modules. You get a lot of new material here! This provides a lot of potential for replay-ability. Hats off to designers Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson and Chris Dupuis! The Undermountain Module is a dungeon mat beneath Waterdeep itself. The worker placement spots here provide stronger rewards than the base-game locations. The Skullport Module is also based in the seedy criminal underbelly of the city and it too is a separate mat. The Skullport expansion provides worker placement spots with tempting, powerful rewards. Gaining such goods comes at a price. You’re liaising with dodgy and dangerous folk. Visiting these spots gains you corruption (skulls)! You remove these from the Corruption Track. Corruption is worth minus points at the end of the game! In a neat twist, this forces players to adapt their strategy, particularly in the second half of the game. You’ll need to find ways to get rid of that Corruption! It’s achievable by completing certain quests, or by playing certain Intrigue cards. Players do not need to have any prior knowledge of D&D to enjoy the depth of strategy in Scoundrels of Skullport. It goes without saying that if you’re a D&D fan, you’ll love the references and feel right at home, theme-wise. Player count: 2-6 players Game length: 60-90 minutes Age rating: 12+
Lords of Waterdeep is considered a modern classic. A gateway worker placement game set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. During the course of the game you will collect different classes of hero, represented by cubes, to fulfil missions and score points.
You do this by placing your workers on the board and taking the actions associated with the spot you have placed them on. Read the Zatu review today. Scoundrels of Skullport adds a sixth player and two more areas to place your workers in. Does it muddy the waters, or add more goodness to the pot?
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
As well as the ability to play with six, Scoundrels of Skullport adds more Buildings, Lords, Intrigue and Quest cards. Buildings add extra spots to the board, Lords act as end game scoring cards, Intrigue cards are one use powers that can be used during the game and Quests are, well, quests. So far, so familiar.
Where Scoundrels changes things up is with its two new boards – The Undermountain and Skullport. The Undermountain provides three more spaces to place on, but also adds a mechanic with it’s cards and quests. With these as well as gaining cubes for yourself you must also place one or two on other spots on the board. This means you can attempt to lure your opponents in with clever placement or try to boost your own income. It adds another welcome layer of depth to the experience and it works especially well with corruption.
Skullport is the home of corruption, tracked by a new skull token. Skullport offers some very attractive spots, but you must also take corruption which is worth negative points at the end of the game. What makes it worse is the more corruption that is taken the worse the punishment is.
Waterdeep, Mountain High
These mechanics are all supplemented by the new quests, lords and intrigue cards. This adds to the base game but not so much that it makes it too much deeper. Indeed most groups could handle being introduced to both at the same time. While there are more options, they are not overwhelming and don’t effect the balance of the game.
What they do add to is the variety. Although there is luck of the draw in terms of the buildings and various cards, because the main worker spots remain the same there is always something to do to press your plan forward, of course unless you prioritise correctly you may find yourself blocked from the spaces you want.
Components wise, Scoundrels of Skullport is consistent with the base game, so the card stock for the tokens is not the best, I’ve also ditched the insert from the base game and popped it all in the box as there is ample room.
Lordy Lords
So if you like the base game then this is an easy recommendation to extend the life of the game. If you haven’t played the base game then there is no need to jump straight in, but if you do you probably won’t regret it.
Zatu Score
Rating
- Artwork
- Complexity
- Replayability
- Player Interaction
- Component Quality
You might like
- It if you're looking to extend the life of Waterdeep.
- Corruption is a cool mechanic that makes you think.
- Extra everything.
Might not like
- Good but not essential expansion
- Probably not best to add in for newcomers straight away
- Components are still just about okay.