Put THE ADVENTURE ZONE: BUREAU OF BALANCE on Your Table

The Adventure Zone is coming to your tabletop! A new cooperative storytelling game, The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance, is hitting tabletops everywhere in August 2020. Designed by Keith Baker (creator of the Eberron campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons) and Jenn Ellis, with illustrations by Hari Conner, you won’t be required to have in-depth knowledge of role-playing game mechanics or even be familiar with The Adventure Zone to play. All you need is your imagination!

The team behind The Adventure Zone podcast

The Adventure Zone

Bureau of Balance uses twenty-sided dice and storytelling cards to craft, well, an adventure in The Adventure Zone. Two to five players (ages 12 and up) can join in the fun to spend an hour or so to collaboratively tell a story. Naturally, there will be obstacles to overcome, challenges to face, and you’ll probably even find yourself in a dungeon or two. While it is a role-playing adventure, the game focuses more on the story than the rules. It makes it accessible to game players of all stripes. Here are the nitty-gritty gameplay details from Twogether Studios:

TAZ: Bureau of Balance uses a modular system to dynamically generate missions. One night you may find yourself fighting sarcastic specters as you make your way through haunted caverns, while your next mission might pit you against cunning gerblins on a train racing towards a perilous destination. With 12 decks of double-sided cards as a foundation, TAZ: Bureau of Balance provides players with over 120 hours of unique challenges.

If you’ve never heard The Adventure Zone, there’s no better time to start listening! Starring brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy and their father Clint McElroy, the Dungeons & Dragons actual play podcast is currently in its third season. The successful show has already spawned two graphic novels based on the party’s early adventures, both of which quickly became bestsellers.

Art from The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance

The Adventure Zone

If you want to see Bureau of Balance in action before you preorder, you’re in luck! Catch these livestreams (live or on video on demand) to see the game in action. Then preorder now to join the Reclaimer Club and unlock exclusive item cards, a special edition of the game, and more. Preorders are only open from December 11, 2019 though January 24, 2020. Not all friendly local game stores will have the game in stock, so be sure to pre-order. You definitely don’t want to miss your chance to go on the cooperative adventure of a lifetime!

The Adventure Zone is a biweekly comedy and adventure actual play podcast based loosely upon the popular Dungeons & Dragons game series, along with other role-playing games. The Maximum Fun network distributes the show, from brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy, and their father Clint McElroy.

The McElroys released a special episode of their flagship podcast, My Brother, My Brother and Me, called “The Adventure Zone” on August 18, 2014. It featured the brothers playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons with their father, Clint, and was released in lieu of a new episode of My Brother, My Brother and Me due to Justin being on paternity leave. “The Adventure Zone” was later developed into its own podcast on the Maximum Fun network.


Featured Image: Twogether Games / The Adventure Zone

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