Dungeon!

Dungeon! is a fantasy board game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe published by Wizards of the Coast.

By Aaron T. Huss



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In excellent Wizards of the Coast fashion, the classic Dungeons & Dragons dungeon crawl board game, Dungeon!, has been brought back from the TSR vaults. Although being essentially set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe and containing the same epic fantasy themes, Dungeon! by no means requires knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons or any of it rule systems. This standalone board game is themed to follow the family, but contains its own mechanics and resolution system dating back to its original edition.

Dungeon! is a rules-light epic fantasy board game. And when I say rules-light, I mean that I was able to successfully play it with my young children without interruption or fiddling over the mechanics. It is a quick play board game featuring a massive dungeon crawl with options to make it more difficult. This is done by utilizing different types of characters (Rogue, Cleric, Fighter, or Wizard) who function better or worse in different sections of the board. The board is marked in sections with different levels more or less indicating the difficulty and possible reward. The best part is that the mechanics don’t change throughout the entire board, meaning scaling in difficulty is an integral part of the mechanics allowing for a quick, easy game with youngsters or a lengthier, more difficult game when the desire is there.

The goal of Dungeon! is quite simple: collect enough loot according to your character type and get out of the dungeon. This is achieved by defeating monsters of picking up treasure dropped by injured or fallen characters. Each player takes their character pawn and moves throughout the dungeon fighting the monsters appropriate to the level they are traveling in. Combat resolution is a simple roll of 2d6 against a predetermined difficulty marked on the monster’s card. And that’s it. Play continues around the table until one character has enough loot according to their character type and tries to get out first. It’s simple, it’s fast, and it’s fun; a great, lighthearted game that is playable from 1-8 players and easily played with a variety of age groups.

To make this game even better, it has a low price-point of only $20 USD and can easily be supplemented by new monsters, new Wizard spells, new loot, new characters, and even an expansion to the dungeon. Not to say this will ever happen, but at least the game is flexible enough for many years of fun.

FOR ROLEPLAYERS

Dungeon! may appeal quite heavily to the old-school renaissance gamer that lives to delve into a dungeon, fight the monsters, and collect loads of loot without dying. The non-OSR gamer will find a quick romp through a dungeon without getting bogged down in rules and mechanics for those in-between or down times, or even when you just want a quick change of pace. The learning scale is almost nil and game-play can start fairly quick. Plus it fits in with the theme of Dungeons & Dragons and many other epic fantasy role-playing games, just without the role-playing part.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10

Not only is Dungeon! a beautiful looking game with a colorful board, thick cardboard pieces, and sturdy cards, the rulebook is assembled quite well and I applaud Wizards of the Coast on the continued improvement to their non-RPG rule books.

Mechanics: 9 out of 10

The mechanics for Dungeon! are so simple that even young children can easily grasp them. I would love to see additional spell options for the wizards or more interesting monsters, but the game itself is not only good, but very solid. We never came across a situation that wasn’t explained in the rulebook. In fact, game play was very smooth and we only came across a couple situations where the rulebook was consulted.

Desire to Play: 9 out of 10

This is a great, quick-play dungeon crawl. The monsters are a little ho-hum in the lower levels and interesting in the higher levels, but overall it fits in with a very standard fantasy theme (especially common OSR themes). It is a dungeon crawl and nothing more so attempting to use too much strategy won’t get much of an advantage, but players will at least find that the different character and monster types are enough that repeated game play offers new options.

Overall: 9 out of 10

I really like Dungeon! and was even able to play it with two of my young children. We all had a good time as game-play was fast moving and turns were over quickly. For a game such as this, you wouldn’t want to get bogged down in fiddly mechanics, and Dungeon! definitely avoids that. A great game with a great theme!