Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod by Susan J. Morris and Lukas Ritter is a role playing game supplement published by Wizards of the Coast. This is an adventure aimed at children based on Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.
The supplement is available as a 14-page PDF for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover.
The Introduction explains that the game captures the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons in a fast game. It lists what’s needed, which is the supplement, 5-6 players including DM, pencils, one d20 and one d6 or 3d6 and scissors. It also explains what’s needed to get started.
How to Play explains the rules. Heroes and monsters of in turns, with monsters going first, followed by heroes, with the lowest hero number going first. Monsters also go in order of their monster number. On each turn, both can move, attack, if eligible, and special power, if it can be used. The heroes win once all the monsters are defeated.
Definitions explains what all the various terms mean.
The next two pages have five hero cards.
The two pages after that have four monster cards.
Adventure Start has the characters, who are children of the village of Hesiod, taken to a clearing where there are four monster cages, which they fight, potentially more than one at once.
Adventure Notes has some tips on running the monsters, who are basically nerfed as they won’t attack the same character twice in a row, when the next monster is released and healing potions.
Adventure End is what happens when the characters defeat all the monsters.
The next page has five Hero of Hesiod badges.
After this is a map of the combat area.
Character and Monster Tokens are to be used with this.
Continue the Adventure! suggests reading the book Monster Slayers on which the game is based.
Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough sections that they would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. The illustrations are for monsters and heroes. Presentation is okay.
This isn’t really a D&D game; rather, it’s a board game that’s derived from D&D. It’s also quite a simple board game, perhaps because it’s aimed at children, and the odds are definitely in the characters’ favour. Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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