Game Review - Dungeon

Long ago TSR released a board game based on basic Dungeons and Dragons called Dungeon. Players explored the map on the board rooms, chambers and corridors defeating monsters and collecting treasure as an Elf, Hero, Superhero or a Wizard. I never heard of it. But when we saw the new edition released by Wizards of the Coast, we thought it looked like fun and the price, $20, was right so we bought it as a Father's day activity. The new version allows the players to be wizards, rogues, fighters or clerics. The goal of the game is to gather a set amount of treasure, decided by your class, and get out of the dungeon. Thieves and clerics need 10,000 gold. Fighters need 20,000. Wizards need 30,000. Each class has its own perks and each has their own level of difficulty for each monster. Rogues can find secret doors, but tend to have higher difficulty in combat. Clerics are better in combat, but not as good as fighters. Wizards are worst at combat, but can cast spells, fireball or lightning bolt from outside the room before entering, or teleport for movement. Some spells have no effect on some monsters, and some are just worse against certain monsters but most of the time the spells have lower difficulty and if they fail, the player suffers no penalty. There are six levels of the dungeon each with their own monsters rising in difficulty, and their own treasures rising in value. When in combat the player needs to roll higher than the number for their class listed on the monster card. If they do they usually draw a treasure from that level. If they fail another player rolls for the monster's retaliation, and the monster and any treasures it holds remain. Failure usually results in dropping at least one random treasure, and you could drop up to half of your treasures. You might stay where you are, be pushed back a step or all the way back to where you started. Or on a really bad roll, you can die, drop all your treasures, get a new character. The first game we chose to play the cleric, the fighter and the wizard. The wizard rolled well for number of spells, and so she dominated upper levels while her parents were still clearing out the lower ones. The second game we chose characters randomly and got two fighters and a cleric. It was more balanced and went smother because we followed closer to the suggested strategies in the rules. Then we discovered alternate rules on the internet. The official WotC website has alternate rules for another methods of movement which sped up the game, another method of regaining spells which further unbalanced the wizard class, a boss fight, and cooperative play, which ended in happier players because there were no losers. New York Hobby Examiner had more variants. They add a chance of wandering monsters, class skills and multi-classing. They give multiple skills for each class but suggest adding 5,000 gold to the player's goal to compensate for the benefits of each skill. Rogues can choose to have a sneak ability to avoid encounters in chambers or receive treasures from a level above the monster they defeat. Wizards could get spells back faster by defeating specific monsters, or gain treasure that allow them to peek at the monster and/or treasure cards. Clerics could attempt to lower the level of retaliation of failed combats, or gain bonuses against specific monsters such as undead or evil clerics. Fighters could choose to focus on killing certain types of monsters, receiving bonus gold at the end of the game for each of that type they kill, or could start with a magic sword to aid them in combat. Our first cooperative game we played the wizard and the cleric, (until I died then I played the fighter), each with both of their class skills, the wizard took standard movement and unlimited spells, and the others took the new movement rules. With the cooperative rules, you add up everyone's goals and divide by two, but the goal is the combined total of all treasures of all players. So in a two player game we had a really low goal even with the extra costs for skills. We discovered that the unlimited spells and the foresight really made the wizards overpowered, but as it was combined total we were going for we were OK with it. If it had been a competitive game people would have felt cheated. We didn't really have a chance to explore the cleric's skills before a series of really unlucky rolls killed her, but they looked like they would help balance out the game well. The fighter getting to start with a magic sword was a big help and allowed me to head for higher levels earlier in the game because adding two to a 2d6 roll makes a big difference. Fighter's difficulty numbers are generally the lowest, (except for spell attacks), so it made success almost assured. The specified targets may have worked better if I could remember what monsters I was collecting, but I kept forgetting so I lost track. Which is how we wound up nearly doubling our goal before we even considered checking how close we were to reaching it. Our second cooperative game we had two clerics and a rogue. We decided to try the multiclassing rules. One of the clerics multi-classed to fighter giving the option of using the fighters difficulties instead of the cleric's if desired. And the rouge decided to multi-class to wizard to gain a limited number of spells. She also took both the rogue class skills so she was able to avoid the combats that wouldn't get her treasures, and get better treasures for the combats she won. We kept better track of our goal and where we were on the road to completing it. So my overall review of this game is about four stars. It is a little unbalanced right out of the box, so at first sight I would only give it three stars, but definitely worth playing. The WotC rules tipped the balance further our of wack in favor of wizards, but the boots of speed really get the game moving and the cooperative rules make it a fun team experience. The multi classing was a mixed bag. A fighter or rogue with spells can get a bit overpowered, so can a wizard with fighter's difficulty rolls. But multi-classing to rogue only gives the same perk that is found on a first level treasure for 500 gold, so seems underpowered in comparison. The class skills are what pushed it to four stars for me, they balance the classes better and with the cooperative rules they make it really fun.