In the midst of a game of Dungeon Run.
Recently, I played the board game Dungeon Run with some friends of mine. It was a pretty fun game! Dungeon Run is another type of fantasy, dungeon-delving, treasure hunting games like HeroQuest and Descent. You play against the game itself (there is no dungeon player), and the player with the “First Player” token gets to roll dice against the players. It was definitely easy to pick up and play since most of the rules are located on the game tiles and cards. I think one of my favorite things about it is that it plays quickly. With 3 players, a full game took about an hour. Not bad when compared to the 4-5 hour Descent game I played!
So the game starts with everyone picking a character. Similarly to my experiences with Runebound, not all the characters are created equal, especially to us newbies. Once you get your character and draw your skills from the character’s skill deck, you move into the dungeon. Each turn gives you 2 actions. Actions typically consist of moving, searching, and fighting. The goal is to move from one dungeon tile to the next, placing and revealing more dungeon tiles as you go. When you reveal and move to another tile, you roll a d6 for encounters and/or treasure. Encounters consist of monsters, traps, or strangers (NPCs), and take effect immediately. Treasure can be searched for once any encounters are dealt with.
The game continues on with the party revealing tiles, fighting monsters, and gathering treasure, until the last tile is revealed. Once the final tile is placed, the boss tile is added to the board at the furthest point from the dungeon exit. Once the boss is on the table, it can be attacked and defeated. If you defeat the boss, you get the Summoning Stone! Now this is where the game becomes different. While you have the Summoning Stone, you become to boss! You become the first player as long as you have the stone, and you can summon monsters wherever you want. Your objective is to get to the exit of the dungeon with the stone. The objective of the other players is to kill you and take the stone! This mad dash to the exit while summoning monsters to block other players is a blast.
I only touched the surface of what you can do in the game. I’m not saying that the game is incredibly deep, but there are various things you can do to assist, or hinder, other players. Overall, it’s a really fun game, and it definitely scratched that dungeon delving itch.
From the Tabletop 