How to use D&D Adventure Board Games to play solo or cooperative D&D

Using a random dungeon generator to create a dungeon on the fly for solo play has existed as a tradition since the earliest days of the hobby, when E. Gary Gygax introduced it in the first issue of The Strategic Review. This initial random generator was intended for Original D&D with its 6 tiers of dungeon levels, and was later adapted and expanded into AD&D in the Dungeon Masters Guide. The solo recommendation from AD&D takes its cues from the wargaming hobby, since that too has a venerable tradition of solitaire play.

I tried using the AD&D random dungeon generator for solo play, but didn't much like the experience. It felt more like an exercise in accounting than in actually playing a game, in which I would roll some dice, look up a table, mark a room on my graph paper, roll some more dice to stock it, then roll some more dice to see if any of my characters take damage or not. I thought it was a great tool for creating and stocking a dungeon ahead of time for an actual game session, and it would lead to some unique and interesting layouts with some surprisingly devious monster and trap placements, but not one for creating a dungeon on the fly.  I think the real problem is that you have to switch "modes", between creating the dungeon and playing through it, and its much more fun to stick to just one operation.

The D&D Adventure system board games, on the other hand, are much more fun. They generate the dungeon by giving you a series of interlocking tiles, and each tile has icons representing the number of monsters, traps or treasure that appear on them. The tiles are shuffled in random order then placed face down, and as each player gets to the edge of the map, the next tile is placed on the unexplored edge to continue the dungeon. The tile itself will display how many monsters or traps to put on it, and the actual type is determined by drawing from a deck of monster cards or trap tokens.  It creates a sense of immediacy and doesn't interrupt the flow of the game by bogging it down in dice rolls and table lookups. Even though I realize its a more limited version of what was going on in those tables anyway, it makes for a much more enjoyable experience in which I can spend more time actually playing as a character.

Even though the system is limited, it provides all the necessary materials to expand the system into a full featured dungeon crawl, simply by injecting a few rules.  I like this chart from the D&D Basic Set for stocking a room's contents:

It's a lot simpler than the AD&D tables, and you don't need AD&D's room layout tables anyway. Simply roll on this chart for every new tile, and couple it with the wandering monster charts. It creates a simple, efficient dungeon crawl that doesn't require a gamemaster, and so can be played solo or cooperatively.

The D&D Adventure system board games use a stripped down version of D&D 4th edition rules, with PC powers and abilities being represented on cards. To play this using any other system, simply replace the characters with your own, and roll up your own character sheets and equipment, using the rules of your favorite RPG.