Designed by:
The theme of this game is of an adventurer, equipped with armour and shield, perhaps a cloak of invisibility and a vorpal sword, entering a dungeon full of monsters and attempting to come out alive. As such it will definitely appeal to fans of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, or to older gamers raised on a healthy diet of Dungeons and Dragons. But this is not really an adventure game, and certainly not a role-playing game, though it borrows those clothes: it’s actually a very neat little game of chicken.
The single adventurer, be it a warrior, rogue etc. is laid out the table fully equipped with six items. A deck of monster cards is face down next to him, Players take turns adding monsters to the dungeon and stripping equipment from the adventurer; the dungeon gets harder, and at the same time the adventurer becomes increasingly ill-equipped to take it on. At some point, players will begin to pass, and the last player left in will have to battle it out. Win two dungeons and you win the game, lose two dungeons and you’re out.
There’s a delicious tipping point, where on your turn you think the dungeon might juuust be do-able; but the only way to stay in the running to take it on is to add another monster, or take away the adventurer’s precious shield worth 5 hit points. You pause to try and read your opponents; they look pretty relaxed, confident even; and after all there are only 6 monsters in the dungeon. You stick a seventh in, and one by one your opponents quickly pass, leaving you to face the by now slightly over-powered dark alone.
It’s a clever mixture of bluffing, mind games and blind luck, all in a tiny box and a game that won’t outstay it’s welcome.
It's all about convincing your opponents you're ready to take on the monsters and then dropping them in it. But that psyche-out is the essence of the game, rather than an aspect of the game that can mess with your opponents otherwise well-crafted plans, so it's unlikely to cause tantrums.
There's very little down-time here; if there's a pause it's likely to involve spaghetti-western style glances round the table, which everyone can enjoy.
You probably should keep an eye on the number of hit-points that have gone in to the dungeon versus the adventurers, but there's a useful player aid and it's all just numbers from one to nine, so no real maths.
Rounds are fairly fast, and a whole game is unlikely to take more than half an hour; once you've begun to understand the parameters it's all about the mind-games.
2-5
Players
10+
Years
10 per round
Mins
