To my Secret Satan 2011 (Whom I am 99% sure is Space Ghost): Thank You.

Thank you for your generous gift of the D&D Adventure Board Game.  After getting it and doing an inventory of its missing parts, I made it an effort to make it whole, by photocopying tokens and cards and mounting them on cardboard.  I also replaced some of the missing figures with generic fantasy miniatures (two were missing out of the entire set you sent me) and remade the DM's Guide and Player's Guide from scans off of BGG.

But all that work paid off in spades. I was skimming through the DM's Guide at bedtime and The Boy cuddled next to me and started reading along with me.  After a moment, I asked him the question.

"Do you want to play this tomorrow?"

"Yes."

Now, I know my son.  I tried to hold my enthusiasm, because he does try new games that I have, even some in his age range.  But somehow, they don't really grab his attention and I let him do other things after he loses interest.

Let me tell you, that did not happen last night.  I laid out the boards for the first scenario and read the back story to him.  I could hear him trill in anticipation.  He was like a bottle rocket ready to explode.

Then he entered his first room and encountered his first goblin. 

He did pretty well, with a little assistance from me.  He caught on rather quickly and was taking down goblins like a champ.  It warmed the cockles of my heart when I told him how to loot the treasure chests.  "I LOOT THE TREASURE!!!!" was his rallying cry.

He was a bit overeager in opening new rooms, and splitting the party (a huge no no).  Regdar was a true goblin slayer and Finder of Traps (the hard way).  Regdar died in the final room, but it was all good.  Jozan came up and healed him back to goblin kicking mode, laying waste to the last goblin who was severely messed up by Acid Arrow Queen.

After the the scenario was completed, I asked him if he wanted to continue to play the next scenario tomorrow.  He, of course, agreed.

So, in the end.  Thank you very much, Space Ghost.