DungeonBuilders

Description

This is a game that combines different mechanics into one fun multiplayer experience. First you've got the Dungeon Building phase, where everyone participates adding items, monsters and rooms to the Dungeon or powering up their character. Then the most powerful adventurer will enter the dungeon and try to get as much gold as he can without being defeated by the monsters inside. In the end, the player that manages to get a set amount of gold after a number of rounds, wins the game. It's a short game but with enough tension as you don't know who'll enter until the last moment...

This game needs testing, especially for multiplayer games. Please, send me an email with your comments or post them at the wiki or at the piecepack list.

Rules

http://george.makasoft.net/piecepack/DungeonBuilders.pdf

Designer Notes

Update: I've clarified some rules that weren't so well explained... Thanks to Si Perry from the piecepack mailing list for bringing some issues to light

This is my newest design. I've been thinking about Dungeon Crawlers lately, and about what could be done with the genre. I've recently also played a little, very nicely designed flash game called Grow RPG ( http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/RPG/index.html ) where you place different things into a world and then an automated character tries to win the adventure. Depending on the order you chose, he will be more or less successful.

This game was inspired by all this. First I was thinking about it as a whole new game with its own components (cards, tiles, etc...) and I may still design that game, but then I thought that if the game could work with only the piecepack system, then it would be a step in the right direction. And here it is...

The game has a first building phase where players build the dungeon together. As no player can be sure if they'll be the ones entering the dungeon or not, there are some nice decisions to make: Should you make the dungeon very difficult? Should you add helpful items? Also, bluffing is encouraged (place an item that looks like it's a monster to scare other players away from trying to enter, etc...).

Then the exploring phase is like a quick mini dungeon crawl in which one player uncovers all the mysteries of the dungeon as their character explores it tile by tile, trying to get all the treasures (tiles of the same suit as the players). Here everyone can get some points. The player that placed a monster gets gold for each unit of damage it inflicts. Also if the character exploring takes helpful items, it benefits the player that placed them...

And when that is over, another round is played. Each round can be played very quickly, and the length of the total game can be easily adjusted to the players' liking.

So, I hope you enjoy it, and I'd really appreciate suggestions and feedback...

Update (Oct 2007): I just thought about a simple variant that might make the game more interesting. I've added it to the pdf file, but I'll describe it here briefly: When a hero dies in the dungeon, the next hero with more power (or the one that bid the most gold in case of a tie) may try if he wants, to go inside. All the defeated monsters stay defeated. If he reaches a dead hero, he may take his sword or potions (if the dead hero had any). The hero must reach his own tiles to get the treasure, but he may only gain treasure reaching the tiles with numbers that the dead hero didn't reach. If the second hero dies, then there may be a third, etc... So, if the first hero reached the 2 and 4 tiles before dieing gaining 3 gold (half the gold for those tiles), the next hero can only gain gold from the 1, 3 and 5 tiles. Still, he has to explore all his tiles before leaving the dungeon. This variant, if good enough may make it into the full rules if I find no problems with it. I think it's nice that the other players also get a chance at the dungeon if the first one is not succesful... Again, feedback is greatly welcomed. --JorgeArroyo

Update (Mar 2008): Played today and have been thinking about possible changes to the building part to encourage people not to always go for the strategy of entering the Dungeon. I'm pretty sure I'll change the rules so that each power level for the hero will cost some money (possibly 1 coin). Another idea I'm not so sure of is to play the game as many times as twice the number of players. Each player may enter the Dungeon Twice. After that, they may not power their hero up anymore, just play tiles/monsters/items. Any thoughts about this would be really welcomed.--JorgeArroyo

Reviews & Comments

Post your comments here (or in the yahoo group)

Links

BGG Page: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/32153

CategoryGame CategoryNeedsTesting ThemeFantasyCategory