If you’ve ever played in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons, you may have come across the Yawning Portal in the city of Waterdeep, the famous tavern with a pit leading down to the Undermountain. Several D&D adventure books, including Descent into Avernus, have some aspect of the story involving the legendary tavern. And now, you can add to the lore in the new Avalon Hill/Hasbro board game, Dungeons & Dragons The Yawning Portal.
It was unveiled at GenCon this year, and is described as a euro-style strategy game where players will take on the roles of staff members in the tavern. You will be providing food to the eclectic patrons, telling their stories, and attempt to match the food tokens with the orders to score points. In a twist to an order fulfilment game, the coloured gems which are provided for completing the orders can fluctuate in their point values, with the most abundant on the board scoring the most. I like the sound of this twist, which is sure to give a great level of strategy into the game. Look forward to the tavern coming into your home sometime in 2023.