Crusaders Games

Dungeonquest

dungeonquestboxDungeonquest is an older dungeon adventure game that has been around since 1985, originally from Games Workshop. It has seen a couple of reprints over time, and the version i have is from 2014 called the revised edition from Fantasy Flight Games, which has improved artwork and components and brings it into the Terrinoth setting. The core gameplay has not really changed drastically over time, although combat has seen some different interpretations.dungeonquesthero

This is a push your luck style adventure where you gradually lay small tiles on a large board to build a dungeon map as your hero progresses towards a central treasure chamber. A sleeping dragon lies in wait here, and you must try to steal treasure before he awakens, the risk increasing with each turn heroes remain there. There is a huge pile of room tiles to draw from with different art with combinations of corridors, rooms, locked and unlocked doors. Events will be triggered when the tiles are revealed, some you need draw cards for, while others are automatic triggers such as rotating rooms, dead ends or cave-ins. As you adventure you will encounter bodies to search, secrets to search for and monsters to fight. Additional optional complexity rules are included such as exploring catacombs or a torch mechanic.dungeonquestart

Each hero comes with their own starting statistics for health, strength, agility, armour and luck together with a special skill they can use at important times in the game. Combat has seen various implementations from the original rock, paper, scissors tile choosing to dice rolling and card play. The original tile selection is certainly the slickest, but the revised edition cards are nice enough, cards are played for the both hero and monster and the results compared in a grid and wounds awarded, and this continues until the monster is dead or the hero decides to escape.

A time track will be counting down before the dungeon traps all the heroes in forever so you are always having to decide when to start your retreat, and as a result the play time is consistent and not overly long. This game is also largely about unfortunate events and survival, and once you know this, it becomes a really fun game, as you laugh at terrible things that happen to your heroes. This game is extremely luck based which means it is not for everyone, and is a dangerous adventure where the chances of survival are very low indeed. Whilst it is not a pure dungeon crawler it is pretty close to being one, and i find it a lot of fun.

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Expansions

Whilst there were two expansions for the original 1985 version called heroes and catacombs, the revised edition is now self contained and includes most of the new rules introduced.