As a kid, my siblings and I played the hell out of this until 3.5E came out. We were too young to play AD&D, but our dad had Dragon Strike which he referred to as D&D light. This was our first RPG-ish experience. I tried to get other kids to play it. "You can even break down the wall" or "You can lock the creatures behind the door".
The first time I realized I was getting older was when I had to make a new profile for some account. Then at the section where I had to choose year of birth I suddently had to scroll to get it.... lol
Good review. The whole part of this game was the new video. They had put a lot of money (1M according to the one of the actors) into it even to the point of them doing a weekly television show. The people that own the rights to the new technology FX and the television studio couldn’t figure it out who was going to get the more money that’s why it failed to air. If it went as planned all those art cards and characters would’ve been things that reflected the video and people would’ve recognize that - that’s the big catch. All the cards represent scenes from the video that’s why they didn’t use the art.
I had no idea they'd produced an entire series. I do remember that another game/video was made that was Spelljammer themed but it was never released. Fascinating debacle, one of many plaguing TSR at the time.
So odd, I literally just pulled out my copy of this game with thoughts of doing some video coverage on it. I did a written review for it years ago and said back then that, while I love Heroquest, I think Dragon Strike is a much deeper experience and actually the better game. Good stuff.
What a beautiful game! I lost some of the chracters (purple figures) BUT I found the character figures of the game "first Strike" which are the same minis but in blue PLUS the cleric! There were meta minis depicting the mnis of the video but very expensive, so, the game minis are fine by me! (they meatl minis are REALLY expensive). One useful tip is that this game can be used very well with Heroquest and other non-painted plastic miniatures form other games.
Played this once with my D&D group when I was 11 I think. We were already playing AD&D 2E so this wasn't an introduction for us more like a fun distraction.
Sorry I know this was realised a year ago. But, this has been on my wish list for ages but it has shot up in price over the last few years, but so nostalgic 💚 I know in the 90s a good vhs game was atmosfear but you would not play it too often though😁💚🇮🇪
Another great video D. j. You asked if gamers would play this...I'll say this... You supply the Coca-Cola, I'll supply the Extra large pizza with double Italian sausage, pepperoni, onions, and mushrooms and we'll pull an all-nighter on Friday or Saturday night! Totally down for this!! Have a good evening. :)
(..............Systems Processing Reply.............please wait for a few moments...............Reply Calculated) Mushrooms on half of the pizza and you have a deal. ;) LOL!
This was my first time playing anything like a RPG or D&D. I think I was about 14 or 15 when I got it? RPGs just seemed to be way over my head and the few books that I had at the time that were RPGs, I just couldn't grasp how they were played or what the rules really were talking about. So as far as a gateway/rosseta stone for understanding what an RPG is, this game was pretty successful for me. I know a lot of people nag on the game because of the VHS and art, but a supplemental video product for a game shouldn't be the bases for how a game (and how it is played) should be judged. So I agree with you, the game should be remembered more for how it actually played and how it could be used to either teach young adults to the genre or how it could be used as an RPG-lite game night, and not for something that had nothing to do with the gameplay itself. One of my favorite parts of the game were the game-boards as well. What was really neat was that it was easy to imagine that all 4 boards connected and created a game world: The castle could be connected to the Town board, the grassland could be connected to the Town, and the Dungeon board could be connected to the grassland board (esp if you had multiple copies of the game). Thus it was easy to imagine your adventures existing within a little fantasy world. Another plus was that after playing a few games, it was easy to start customizing it and adding my own ideas and add-ons to the game or even my own adventures. My only minor complaint would have been to include a level up system and that adventures within the book were more connected together to form a story-line or campaign. Were you still going to do a play-through on the channel? Also have you heard of the First Quest box that TSR put out at the same time? If one had played First Strike and liked it, it seems like First Quest might have been intended to be your next purchase to help segway young adults into AD&D. It has similar mini's and map art (four maps as well) and the adventures in that game box also do a good job of introducing the concept of what is a roleplaying game-- this is one that came with a CD that was supposed to be used as a stand-in for the dungeon masters voice.
Thanks for making this video. I've been doing some research into the background setting that was created for Dragonstrike (and it's sequel Wildspace). The videos really do overshadow the world-building, game design, novels, Endless Quest "choose your own adventure" books and the comic. So it's really great to see a video that gives a lot of details on how the board game actually works.
Basically, it's a sequel to both Dragonstrike...and Spelljammer. It was in the catalogues, and they made all the stuff for it, but then never put it into production. I'm currently trying to figure out exactly what existed in the product line. Like this game, there was going to be a VHS tape. They did the filming, but only the trailer got made. th-cam.com/video/UHGz5r-b1do/w-d-xo.html From what I can tell the board had four elemental planets in the corners and maybe some sort of rotating maze in the middle. I've never seen the board, but have seen the prototype box, some of the figures that went into the prototype, some of the spelljamming ships that went into the prototype and the blurbs for the four young adult novels that were going to be published. The Endless Quest book for Wildspace, actually got published. I've got that and the four Dragonstrike novels and it's the same characters. They don't even have names in the VHS (or on the cards you showed) but the books give every one of the four main characters a name. The male thief and the dwarf are not main characters in the video, so I'm wondering if they tie into characters in any of the Dragonstrike books. From what I recall, there might be a male thief in the Dragonstrike book called The Thief's Tale (which is about Arakeela, the female thief). I've got some topics about this in the D&D forum called The Piazza, and also collect Wildspace information in a Wildspace group on Facebook. If the TV show had actually happened, they might have done full-blown Dragonstrike and Wildspace roleplaying products. And that might have included full-blown D&D adventures based on the ones in the book in the Dragonstrike boxed set.
very good video. i use this game as well as the 2003 Parker bros. game, herro quest and the 3 edd. starter box to run the scenarios with Whitebox..(Mentzer) rules for inprov games.on the fly.
So the video has an owlbear (which is completely sentient and speaks common...) and a minotaur...but they are not actually in the game itself? I think the boards look great!
Cool game! I loved Hero Quest and Space Crusade growing up, but I never even heard of Dragon Strike. Then again, it was probably never translated into Danish as with Hero Quest and Space Crusade, which might have been why. The maps are pretty damn awesom! Wizards should reprint those, as well as those from the New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons series (Black Box).
@@TheDungeonDive Last year I bought all six D&D Board Games, so I'm pretty set. :-) They are also not translated into English, but that is not a problem for me anymore.
I'd love to see that too. If there are 16 adventures, you could actually do a live-streamed "Let's Play Dragonstrike" campaign and build up a playlist.
Im a big hero quest fan, loved it since I was introduced to it back in 1990, space crusade as well. What I like about the old games is the simplicity that makes it great for playing with people who never plays board games like this. However Ive never heard of this game untill today and tbh the only thing that looks good about this (in my opinion) is the different boards. Anyway thx for the upload, subscribed.
So yeah. I'm 45. I played >some< DnD growing up. I just "ran" Dragon Strike for the first time. Definitely, TSR messed up by featuring the VHS so prominently. It makes it seem as though it's intended to be a VCR game, and it's not. Perhaps TSR intended to use the tape as Nintendo used Robby the ROBOT-- as a sort of Trojan horse to get people to buy something that was actually good, but not currently popular by disguising it as something else. Idk, maybe it got them more sales, but mostly it just makes things confusing. Although one thing: The awful acting in the video will hopefully have the effect of allowing the players to relax and go ahead and role play a bit--like you can't possibly act worse than the folks in the video.
The dragon inside the copy I purchased also came with a broken wing, this is a common flaw I found in almost all copies I browsed on Ebay when I was looking for this game. I adventure to say even factory sealed copies probably will come with the dragon's wing broken, it seems it is the most fragile of the minis included.
The Players Dungeons And Dragons And Dream Warriors Heroes James LeRoy Anderson The Warrior Kirsty Cotton The Thief Tiffany The Elf Andy Barclay The Wizard Mike Norris The Dwarf
I paused during your video because I have to ask do you have to roll dice for EVERY action that you want to perform in this game? It was sounding like you have to roll dice to perform any action in this game.
Wow, those pics they chose for both the HERO and CARDS looks awful. Its like the person whoever picked those pictures said, " Here ya go, put these pictures on....I just wanna get home"
A better rpg..yes.. but Heroquest is the better dungeon crawl board game. Also I always hated when games show the entire map that you play on. I want every cornor and door to be a surprise.
I just don't get the massive modern appeal of Heroquest. It is 100% fueled by nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that (I love nostalgia), I just wish more people would admit it. :) I can go either way with how boards are laid out, but there are still a lot of surprises to be found int he quests in Dragon Strike, and it's very easy for the DM to create more.
@@TheDungeonDive I don't aim to discredit Dragon Strike. But I can honestly say that my love of Heroquest is not just nostalgia. It just has an amazing atmosphere. I am almost always the GM but I recently started playing with my fiance as the GM and it is so fun to play.. even for her. She for some reason enjoys being GM even though she usually find these games boring. I think you just need to admit that Heroquest just doesn't do it for you.. 😉
@@TheDungeonDive also..I never played or even knew of Advanced Heroquest or Warhammer Quest as a kid. But having bought and played them as an adult I have to say that I find these 2 games faaaar better than any modern dumgeon crawl game. I just really enjoy these old games. Anf like Heroquest, they also have the sence of exploring the unknown.
HQ is a perfectly fine game. It's just not as good as the modern fandom wants it to be. :) I own it, and play it. But I would rather play almost any other game. If it wasn't such an important part of AHQ, I would have sold it long ago.
I was about thinking in getting a copy, but then I looked at the player count for the adventures, and man, that's horrible, only five maps for 4 heroes? If you have a solid game group (as I do) and we know we are always five (Gm+4 heroes) you really don't have a lot of content here.... Not a great choice to make a game with variable player count maps, you will never use all of them if you have a stable group
As a kid, my siblings and I played the hell out of this until 3.5E came out. We were too young to play AD&D, but our dad had Dragon Strike which he referred to as D&D light. This was our first RPG-ish experience.
I tried to get other kids to play it. "You can even break down the wall" or "You can lock the creatures behind the door".
Keep up the good work.
1993, vintage.....man I'm old!
We're all getting there!
The first time I realized I was getting older was when I had to make a new profile for some account. Then at the section where I had to choose year of birth I suddently had to scroll to get it.... lol
Good review.
The whole part of this game was the new video. They had put a lot of money (1M according to the one of the actors) into it even to the point of them doing a weekly television show. The people that own the rights to the new technology FX and the television studio couldn’t figure it out who was going to get the more money that’s why it failed to air. If it went as planned all those art cards and characters would’ve been things that reflected the video and people would’ve recognize that - that’s the big catch. All the cards represent scenes from the video that’s why they didn’t use the art.
I had no idea they'd produced an entire series. I do remember that another game/video was made that was Spelljammer themed but it was never released. Fascinating debacle, one of many plaguing TSR at the time.
So odd, I literally just pulled out my copy of this game with thoughts of doing some video coverage on it. I did a written review for it years ago and said back then that, while I love Heroquest, I think Dragon Strike is a much deeper experience and actually the better game. Good stuff.
I think I've read your review on BGG? Or did you have a website?
@@TheDungeonDive I do have a blog, but I also upload everything to BGG as well, so you probably saw it there. Keep on dungeon plunging!
What a beautiful game! I lost some of the chracters (purple figures) BUT I found the character figures of the game "first Strike" which are the same minis but in blue PLUS the cleric! There were meta minis depicting the mnis of the video but very expensive, so, the game minis are fine by me! (they meatl minis are REALLY expensive). One useful tip is that this game can be used very well with Heroquest and other non-painted plastic miniatures form other games.
Played this once with my D&D group when I was 11 I think. We were already playing AD&D 2E so this wasn't an introduction for us more like a fun distraction.
That’s great!
Those hero minis are the same as what TSR used for their First Quest AD&D starter box in the mid 90s.
They got some good use from those sculpts!
Sorry I know this was realised a year ago. But, this has been on my wish list for ages but it has shot up in price over the last few years, but so nostalgic 💚 I know in the 90s a good vhs game was atmosfear but you would not play it too often though😁💚🇮🇪
Very cool to see this piece of history. I totally forgot about this game. That troll looks like a bigfoot pose.
Another great video D. j. You asked if gamers would play this...I'll say this...
You supply the Coca-Cola, I'll supply the Extra large pizza with double Italian sausage, pepperoni, onions, and mushrooms and we'll pull an all-nighter on Friday or Saturday night! Totally down for this!! Have a good evening. :)
Hold the mushrooms, and you've gotta deal!
(..............Systems Processing Reply.............please wait for a few moments...............Reply Calculated)
Mushrooms on half of the pizza and you have a deal. ;) LOL!
This was my first time playing anything like a RPG or D&D. I think I was about 14 or 15 when I got it? RPGs just seemed to be way over my head and the few books that I had at the time that were RPGs, I just couldn't grasp how they were played or what the rules really were talking about. So as far as a gateway/rosseta stone for understanding what an RPG is, this game was pretty successful for me. I know a lot of people nag on the game because of the VHS and art, but a supplemental video product for a game shouldn't be the bases for how a game (and how it is played) should be judged. So I agree with you, the game should be remembered more for how it actually played and how it could be used to either teach young adults to the genre or how it could be used as an RPG-lite game night, and not for something that had nothing to do with the gameplay itself.
One of my favorite parts of the game were the game-boards as well. What was really neat was that it was easy to imagine that all 4 boards connected and created a game world: The castle could be connected to the Town board, the grassland could be connected to the Town, and the Dungeon board could be connected to the grassland board (esp if you had multiple copies of the game). Thus it was easy to imagine your adventures existing within a little fantasy world. Another plus was that after playing a few games, it was easy to start customizing it and adding my own ideas and add-ons to the game or even my own adventures. My only minor complaint would have been to include a level up system and that adventures within the book were more connected together to form a story-line or campaign.
Were you still going to do a play-through on the channel? Also have you heard of the First Quest box that TSR put out at the same time? If one had played First Strike and liked it, it seems like First Quest might have been intended to be your next purchase to help segway young adults into AD&D. It has similar mini's and map art (four maps as well) and the adventures in that game box also do a good job of introducing the concept of what is a roleplaying game-- this is one that came with a CD that was supposed to be used as a stand-in for the dungeon masters voice.
Jesus Christ write a book or a blog but there's no need to write that much text in a video comment dude.
Thanks for making this video.
I've been doing some research into the background setting that was created for Dragonstrike (and it's sequel Wildspace). The videos really do overshadow the world-building, game design, novels, Endless Quest "choose your own adventure" books and the comic.
So it's really great to see a video that gives a lot of details on how the board game actually works.
Thanks for watching! I have not heard of Wildspace.
"You'd better brace yourself, @@TheDungeonDive. It might be a bumpy ride."
Basically, it's a sequel to both Dragonstrike...and Spelljammer. It was in the catalogues, and they made all the stuff for it, but then never put it into production. I'm currently trying to figure out exactly what existed in the product line.
Like this game, there was going to be a VHS tape. They did the filming, but only the trailer got made.
th-cam.com/video/UHGz5r-b1do/w-d-xo.html
From what I can tell the board had four elemental planets in the corners and maybe some sort of rotating maze in the middle. I've never seen the board, but have seen the prototype box, some of the figures that went into the prototype, some of the spelljamming ships that went into the prototype and the blurbs for the four young adult novels that were going to be published.
The Endless Quest book for Wildspace, actually got published. I've got that and the four Dragonstrike novels and it's the same characters. They don't even have names in the VHS (or on the cards you showed) but the books give every one of the four main characters a name.
The male thief and the dwarf are not main characters in the video, so I'm wondering if they tie into characters in any of the Dragonstrike books.
From what I recall, there might be a male thief in the Dragonstrike book called The Thief's Tale (which is about Arakeela, the female thief).
I've got some topics about this in the D&D forum called The Piazza, and also collect Wildspace information in a Wildspace group on Facebook.
If the TV show had actually happened, they might have done full-blown Dragonstrike and Wildspace roleplaying products. And that might have included full-blown D&D adventures based on the ones in the book in the Dragonstrike boxed set.
very good video. i use this game as well as the 2003 Parker bros. game, herro quest and the 3 edd. starter box to run the scenarios with Whitebox..(Mentzer) rules for inprov games.on the fly.
Yeah! That sounds great.
So the video has an owlbear (which is completely sentient and speaks common...) and a minotaur...but they are not actually in the game itself? I think the boards look great!
Cool game!
I loved Hero Quest and Space Crusade growing up, but I never even heard of Dragon Strike. Then again, it was probably never translated into Danish as with Hero Quest and Space Crusade, which might have been why.
The maps are pretty damn awesom! Wizards should reprint those, as well as those from the New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons series (Black Box).
Yeah, not sure about how extensive the game was released / translated throughout the world. It's a good game, though. Worth tracking down.
@@TheDungeonDive Last year I bought all six D&D Board Games, so I'm pretty set. :-) They are also not translated into English, but that is not a problem for me anymore.
So when is the play through video going up? :D
Agreed!!!
I'd love to see that too.
If there are 16 adventures, you could actually do a live-streamed "Let's Play Dragonstrike" campaign and build up a playlist.
Im a big hero quest fan, loved it since I was introduced to it back in 1990, space crusade as well. What I like about the old games is the simplicity that makes it great for playing with people who never plays board games like this. However Ive never heard of this game untill today and tbh the only thing that looks good about this (in my opinion) is the different boards. Anyway thx for the upload, subscribed.
So yeah.
I'm 45. I played >some< DnD growing up.
I just "ran" Dragon Strike for the first time.
Definitely, TSR messed up by featuring the VHS so prominently.
It makes it seem as though it's intended to be a VCR game, and it's not.
Perhaps TSR intended to use the tape as Nintendo used Robby the ROBOT-- as a sort of Trojan horse to get people to buy something that was actually good, but not currently popular by disguising it as something else.
Idk, maybe it got them more sales, but mostly it just makes things confusing.
Although one thing:
The awful acting in the video will hopefully have the effect of allowing the players to relax and go ahead and role play a bit--like you can't possibly act worse than the folks in the video.
The dragon inside the copy I purchased also came with a broken wing, this is a common flaw I found in almost all copies I browsed on Ebay when I was looking for this game. I adventure to say even factory sealed copies probably will come with the dragon's wing broken, it seems it is the most fragile of the minis included.
Maybe so. It’s a pretty fragile piece and the plastic is old by now and quite hard.
@@TheDungeonDive Yes. I think being factory sealed does not reduce the aging of a plastic piece. I have seen deterioration of action figures even MOC.
I'm guessing they never included a figure of the evil wizard, I never had and always though maybe I lost it
Star Trek TNG and Nightmare were good VHS games.
The Players Dungeons And Dragons And Dream Warriors Heroes
James LeRoy Anderson The Warrior
Kirsty Cotton The Thief
Tiffany The Elf
Andy Barclay The Wizard
Mike Norris The Dwarf
Have you tried it solo?
No.
I paused during your video because I have to ask do you have to roll dice for EVERY action that you want to perform in this game? It was sounding like you have to roll dice to perform any action in this game.
There are stat checks and dice roll checks for many actions - just like D&D and other RPGs, on which this game is based.
Wow! Those character sheets are soooooo bad. That has to be the smallest axe wielded by a dwarf in fantasy ever.
Wow, those pics they chose for both the HERO and CARDS looks awful. Its like the person whoever picked those pictures said, " Here ya go, put these pictures on....I just wanna get home"
I thought the nightmare vhs games were okay. Cheesey, but pretty fun.
I love the episodes of Beer & Board Games featuring those Nightmare games.
I'll check em out.
A better rpg..yes.. but Heroquest is the better dungeon crawl board game. Also I always hated when games show the entire map that you play on. I want every cornor and door to be a surprise.
And Heroquest managed to use a board but keep it fairly surprising.
I just don't get the massive modern appeal of Heroquest. It is 100% fueled by nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that (I love nostalgia), I just wish more people would admit it. :) I can go either way with how boards are laid out, but there are still a lot of surprises to be found int he quests in Dragon Strike, and it's very easy for the DM to create more.
@@TheDungeonDive I don't aim to discredit Dragon Strike. But I can honestly say that my love of Heroquest is not just nostalgia. It just has an amazing atmosphere. I am almost always the GM but I recently started playing with my fiance as the GM and it is so fun to play.. even for her. She for some reason enjoys being GM even though she usually find these games boring. I think you just need to admit that Heroquest just doesn't do it for you.. 😉
@@TheDungeonDive also..I never played or even knew of Advanced Heroquest or Warhammer Quest as a kid. But having bought and played them as an adult I have to say that I find these 2 games faaaar better than any modern dumgeon crawl game. I just really enjoy these old games. Anf like Heroquest, they also have the sence of exploring the unknown.
HQ is a perfectly fine game. It's just not as good as the modern fandom wants it to be. :) I own it, and play it. But I would rather play almost any other game. If it wasn't such an important part of AHQ, I would have sold it long ago.
I was about thinking in getting a copy, but then I looked at the player count for the adventures, and man, that's horrible, only five maps for 4 heroes? If you have a solid game group (as I do) and we know we are always five (Gm+4 heroes) you really don't have a lot of content here....
Not a great choice to make a game with variable player count maps, you will never use all of them if you have a stable group
There are better games out there. Definitely wouldn’t choose this one over any of the others out there.
Is it fair to call the 90s a Renaissance in board gaming and we are currently living through an Enlightenment?
Huh. Interesting. I think it would take a smarter person than me to put together a sound argument for this, but it is one I would certainly entertain.