Dungeon! board game unboxed

Wizards' new (yet old and familiar) Dungeon! board game
Just in time for Christmas. ;)

I've quickly been skimming through Wired/Geek Dad's unboxing of the new Dungeon! board game and I'm glad to say that it appears that Wizards' have been fairly loyal to the spirit of the original - including victory by xp/gold-maths:

 To win the game, heroes must collect treasure totaling a certain value. Clerics and rogues only need 10,000 gold pieces of value, while the stronger fighter who can delve deeper into the dungeon and win greater treasure needs 20,000 and the all-powerful wizard needs 30,000.

Family games where the board is travelled by counters usually don't have such abstract goals, so it would be interesting to hear thoughts from a modern playtest by non-roleplayers.  For roleplayers, however, this game is a delight because it provides a glimpse what the original D&D might have looked and played like in completely boiled down form (and I mean really boiled down).  A contemporary to Dungeon! was the modular tile game Sorcerer's Cave - the rules to which I find are very strange but resemble D&D as some sort of Hobbit/Fairy Tale explained through a maths teacher's dream, but I digress....  Compared to that, Dungeon! is a much closer cousin to early D&D.  There were plenty other quest games on the market, but the next more most fondly by my own friends remembered after Dungeon! is Talisman (which was much later).  A couple of years ago I was disappointed by a review of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain board game which stated that it was a straight copy of Dungeon! which I strongly refute - apart from room encounters and a d6 combat system the comparison barely stands.  However the simplicity of the Fighting Fantasy system and the tiny cards would owe a lot to the fantasy board games of the 70s -including Dungeon!

Last year I was very chuffed with myself for finding a Dungeon! set from 1981 and only the other night I had the honour of reblogging these monster cards on Tumblr (1, 2)

It's reassuring to see that this game looks very similar to the original and isn't just a new game smuggled under a nostalgia-brand.

Anyhow, stop reading this and ascend those dark stairs to GeekDad's unboxing of the Dungeon! board game.

Old School Dungeon Tiles by Eric Chaussin

Eric Chaussin, better known for his dramatic character art, has been wowing us all on Facebook recently with his new dungeon floorplan designs.  Eric draws by hand - but I believe it must be straight to tablet - he is able create unique details which bring so much more to battle mats or tiles than would standard textures or vectors.  His doorways alone are a delight to behold.

E.C.'s Old School Dungeons Tiles and Geomorphic Tiles are now available to download through RPGdrivethru and other OneBookShelf sites

By "Geomorphic..." I believe Eric just means square tiles which fit together - as opposed to the 10x10squares small scale geomorphs which usually have multiple exits.

E.C. is certainly a designer to keep watching, and I must confess that I am a little jealous at the speed at which he's brought his first three packs out!


Old School Dungeons / E.C.'s store on DTRPG

Fields of War Battle Report and Story Competition

Jagged Jaw of Fields of War has asked me put in a mention for a competition that he is running in October, you may write a story or post a battle report using his in-progress tabletop battle system.

The competition can be found on his blog here,

The Fields of War rules can be found on their forum here.

Charge, you scum, charge!