Lords of Waterdeep, the classic 2012 board game based on Dungeons and Dragon, is getting reprinted by Renegade Game Studios. A new pre-order page on the publisher's website has listed copies for $55, and it promises an April 2026 release date.
D&D board games are dime-a-dozen, with hordes of the licensed products hitting the market in previous decades. Lords of Waterdeep is one of the most famous, and we'd argue that it's one of the best quality.
This is a fairly approachable worker placement game where you become one of the esteemed lords in charge of Waterdeep. You'll gather adventurers and send them to different parts of the city to complete quests on your behalf. Exert your influence over the city by building useful new structures that reward you when used, or manipulate the political landscape by playing Intrigue cards that affect other players' plans.
If you're a lover of the most complex strategy board games, this might not be innovative enough with its worker placement mechanics. However, it makes an excellent introduction to the genre, and it packs plenty of fun in for its complexity levels. Lords of Waterdeep won the 2013 Origins Award, as it was considered the best board game of the year. It also won an Ennie in 2012 for the best RPG related product.
Renegade Game Studios will also reprint Lords of Waterdeep's Scoundrels and Skullport expansion, which will similarly be available from April. This box will set you back $40, and it adds new buildings, more intrigue and quest cards, and a sixth player.
Renegade hasn't confirmed whether there will be any design tweaks as part of these reprints. We doubt that much will change, though, given that even the art on the boxes has stayed faithful to the original.
What do you think of Lords of Waterdeep? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord. Or, for more on the tabletop RPG, here's all you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races.