Grab the Most Treasure and Avoid the Most Wounds to Win in Dungeon Raiders

Work together to defeat monsters and collect treasure. But only one hero can be the winner, so be careful as traps are sprung and your fellow adventurers might decide not to pull their weight.

Published by Devir Games and designed by Phil Walker-Harding (Imhotep and Sushi Go!), Dungeon Raiders is a simultaneous action selection and hand management game with push-your-luck elements and a bit of 'take that.'

Gameplay

Each player is dealt a character card which tells them how many coins, how many wounds, and any items they start the game with. Each player is also given five power cards which are numbered one through five. The room cards are shuffled, a certain number removed from the game, and a random boss card placed at the bottom of the deck. Five level cards are also randomly selected and shuffled.

At the start of each round a level card is drawn and five room cards are placed in a row on the table. The level card shows which of these cards will be placed face-up and which ones will be placed face-down. Players start in the room on the far left and must work their way through the dungeon, resolving the rooms one at a time. When they reach a face-down card, it is flipped face-up. At any time during a round, if you have a torch item card, you may discard it to peek at a face-down room card.

When resolving a room, each player secretly selects one of their cards. All players then reveal their selected card simultaneously. If you played a crystal ball, you now discard it and replace it with any power card in your hand. After resolving the room, you will place your played card face-up in front of yourself so that everyone can see what cards you have already played.

Different types of rooms resolve in different ways. If it is a treasure room, the player or players who played the highest value power cards split the coins shown on the largest chest. If there is a second chest, the player or players who played the second highest value power cards split the number of coins shown on it. A key item card counts as a power card of five when played at a treasure room.

When resolving a room with a monster, if the combined value of the power cards played on it equals the monster’s health, it is defeated and nothing happens. The sword item card counts as a five. If the monster is not defeated, then the player or players who played the lowest valued power cards receive wound tokens equal to the number shown on the monster card.

Vault room cards allow each player to take a different item card, number of coins, or heal a number of wound tokens, based on what power card they played. More than one player can receive the same reward. Trap room cards will trigger if certain power cards are played, and will have different negative effects such as taking coins away from the player with the most or giving wound tokens to the healthiest players.

After all five room cards are resolved, they are all discarded and players take up their played power cards, and a new round begins. The game continues until all room cards and the boss have been resolved. Bosses are resolved in the same way as monster cards are, only each boss has a special ability such as taking away coins as well as causing wounds or attacking the person who played the highest power card instead of the lowest.

At the end of the game the player with the most wounds is eliminated, and then whoever has the most gold wins the game.

Review

Dungeon Raiders is a quick and simple game that still offers you various elements to balance in your strategy and the opportunity for some clever gameplay. Where do you spend your high value power cards? Can you trust your opponents to defeat a monster or do you intentionally want to try failing an attack in order to get another player hit with wounds?

The uncertainty caused by the face-down dungeon cards makes choosing each power card more difficult, and it’s important to remember to keep your number of wounds low as well as grabbing as much gold as you can.

We did wish there were a few more room cards in the game to increase variety from one playthrough to another, and we’d have also liked a mechanism for spending gold to acquire more items.

Dungeon Raiders is an enjoyable balance of simultaneous actions, trying to read your opponents, and pushing your luck. It’s light, portable, and easy to learn. It combines its elements nicely into a smooth and well-balanced experience.

Pros: Plenty of player interaction, fast and easy to play, nice combination of mechanics

Cons: Would have liked more room cards, no mechanism for purchasing items

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.