GreenBrier Gamesof Dreams & Shadow Monster Within

I'm going to have to narrow down why I like this expansion so much to just 3 reasons. There are more than 3, of course, but I would be typing for two hours straight if I gave you all of them. First reason: the writing. If The Monster Within simply had some standard hack 'n slash creature of the week type villain then yeah, I would have been disappointed. But this is something totally unexpected. Wendigo has followers that focus on making your characters feel cold, hopeless, and not quite themselves. You don't know who is going to become possessed, which decisions will make you lose willpower, or what turn of events will add to or subtract soul tokens from Wendigo in Act 3 before you face him in Act 4. It's a good idea to re-read the selected scenarios and Dragon villain quests from the core game that this expansion bases its story off of. Did you kill the Skinwalker when you first met her or did you fail? Did you strike a deal with the golden werebear Sonja, or did you fight her? Did you escort the refugees or leave them behind? The decisions you made in the core game really do make a huge difference here, and now after all this time I finally understand what the creators of this game are trying to achieve here. This really is without question the best GM-less roleplaying experience on the market, and worth every penny. And let's not forget how awesome it is story-wise to team up with a former epic foe from the core game (just when you thought they didn't like you). Second reason: famine. What? Yup, you heard me right the first time: famine. You think I'm joking, don't you? Now why would I devote an entire section of my review to the 2nd weakest foe in the expansion? Why indeed. Famine is a game changer and its ability is a subtle but effective slow build into Act 4. You see, in the core game, the affliction card called Addiction barely registered with us gamers. I mean, c'mon, a reduction to your resolve? What's the big deal, right? Wrong! For most characters in Of Dreams and Shadows, the resolve level isn't very high to begin with, and resisting Wendigo and his foes takes resolve. This forces Tamlin to use his boon token gift action like it's going out of style, and Hadrian's willpower restore every turn, and Brom to cast the new Cloud Mind spell on the famine foe itself. The artwork for famine is my favorite in the expansion set as well: a stag with its lower jaw removed with ghostly light streaming out- and the look in that eye (shiver) just gives me chills thinking about it. Possession also happens often in this set, and I have to admit I kept using the original version of that affliction card when I played this because I genuinely feel that when your character is possessed, it SHOULD be difficult to shake off. And with the new Dispel spell card and that Owl companion to help you find that spell faster, possession is manageable enough that I decided to keep the text as it was. Third reason: Wendigo himself. This whole "...and all will be one" concept reminds me of movies like Jeepers Creepers, The Thing, and Leviathan. If you don't take out all of the foes in Act 3, the remaining ones get added onto his space when Act 4 begins. And because I kept the possession affliction card as it was originally written, it made fighting him MUCH more exciting. I really do recommend trying it at least once. This is because Wendigo will make your character possessed after you damage him unless you spend a quest token to negate that ability. In the end, after we defeated him, the last one of us to take away his final remaining soul token had already spent his quest token during the combat round before. So there we all were- rolling to get out of possession with two Howls left on the board and a dead Wendigo carcass still getting soul tokens added to him even after we defeated him. But we couldn't read the ending victory card until at least one of us got un-possessed. Finally it happened, but man was it a close call. To sum up, we had more fun and more reason to help each other out than going it alone like we were doing in the core game. You really should team up in groups of two for these quests in this expansion. I know there wasn't much occasion for that in the core game, but The Monster Within takes place on half as many spaces (no hollows or capitals, only realms and wilds here), so there is twice as much chance of meeting up with a fellow champion. I enjoyed every minute of this and I know you will too if you've played through all of the Dragon quests in the core game. I can't wait for the expansions to Morrigan's story and Arawn's story! I wonder which epic foes they will base those Act 3 stories off of? I wonder which decisions I made in their Act 1 plotlines will make a difference in their Act 3? This is such a good concept and execution and I wish I had thought of it myself. Oh well, keep 'em coming Greenbrier! I've got my candles and RPG background music playlist all queued up and ready to go!

The Monster Within continues the story of the base game in a very clever and dramatic way! You even get "experienced" (I,e, more powerful) versions of the characters from the base game! Brilliant idea!. And you'll need those more powerful characters because the story in the expansion is HARD! If you have the base game, get this as soon as you finish the story from the base game. You won't regret it!!

Not much of an expansion. Big box with a lot of empty space. On the other hand The expansion is not expensive.

A great expansion for a perfect dark fantasy game!