Game: Dungeoneer: Vault of the Fiends

Thread: Re: Level 4 stats - Never used?

Firepigeon — 2008-07-27T15:12:44+00:00

Or just use the variant that when the 3rd quest is completed, you must end at the entrance to win the game.

Thread: Re: Level 4 stats - Never used?

Wulf Corbett — 2008-07-27T12:18:21+00:00

Get one of the 'epic' quest games and they'll come in useful. And then there's the Legendary ones
Epic Dungeoneer : Call of the Lichlord
Legendary Dungeoneer: Wrath of the Serpent Goddess

Thread: Level 4 stats - Never used?

joseph777 — 2008-07-27T11:33:13+00:00

Has anyone noticed that on the 3rd Quest you gain level 4 but win the game, therefore never using your level 4 stats? This sucks. Why even bother to print them. A friend and I play need 4 quests to win, which means that you'll use your level 4 stats for the last quest. Yay. Please correct me if I've got the maths wrong.

Thread: Re: Reprint differences?

Lou-Dawg — 2008-04-24T02:46:51+00:00

You are correct. All English editions of Dungeoneer titles should have speed 2 3 4 4 for ALL heroes, while all foreign Dungeoneer titles should have speed 2 3 3 4.

I've never tried speed 2 3 3 4, but I will next time I play to see if it is better.

Thread: Re: Reprint differences?

Aubigny — 2008-04-23T22:23:54+00:00

Lou-Dawg wrote:
The reprint, and foreign editions, do not have the correct speeds.

According to Thomas Denmark this is only true for the reprint, but not the foreign editions: "The translations use a speed score of 3 at level 3 because it is better balanced."

Thread: Re: Slow hero's

Lou-Dawg — 2008-04-22T03:55:27+00:00

Speed 3 at level 3 is a misprint. The original edition of Vault had it right. Take a marker and change your speed to 4 at level 3 if you own the reprint of Vault.

Thread: Re: Reprint differences?

Lou-Dawg — 2008-04-22T03:53:58+00:00

dcorban wrote:
Dungeoneer.net does.

Basically, a couple cards were modified, some of the fonts were changed, and one card was actually misprinted (but I may be confusing that with the Lich Lord set).

Actually four cards were misprinted in the reprint. All the character's speeds should be 4 at level 3. The original has the correct speeds. The reprint, and foreign editions, do not have the correct speeds.

Thread: Re: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

Sprydle — 2008-04-09T04:56:45+00:00

I haven't played Descent, but I will say this, Dungeoneer is a much better game than Runebound which, with its unbalanced characters (and yes you could choose your own and help that) and it's INSANE downtime, is an utter bore. There are player-made fixes for the game to help the horrible game length as written. And Runebound has a horrible "rolling whammy" with the rules as written, whereby the first player to fail at an encounter will be forever trailing behind unless more players suffer the same bad luck. And I simply cannot believe that anyone would think that Runebound is not rife with insane amounts of luck--Dungeoneer with its peril and glory based system is much more controllable by player actions. The main complaint that I would agree with is in the even that one of your quests require a certain room to come up and it just doesn't--although this is fixed with the optional pre-built dungeon rules (but we like the exploration element too much to play using this). Plus that problem is mitigated by being able to complete the open-to-everyone quest.

We don't play Dungeoneer as much as we did 3 years ago (we're just not playing that many dungeon crawlers at all right now), but it was a lot of fun then, and it it's still a blast when we get it out now.

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jsper — 2008-02-17T14:28:32+00:00

Promotional in spanish

Thread: Re: Reprint differences?

Lou-Dawg — 2008-02-14T05:34:02+00:00

Two Adventure cards were removed:
Ethereal Relocation (Bane)
Sword Fiendslayer (Treasure)

Two Room cards were added:
Corridor
Intersection

One Grim Intersection card was changed to Grim Corner

I don't know if any of the cards' texts were changed. If I had the choice between the original (2.0) and the reprint (2.1) I'd choose the original for the extra adventure cards. The rooms that were added are quite boring.

Thread: Re: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

KingCroc — 2008-01-31T08:27:17+00:00

Well, I appreciate your opinion, but you really wrote enough that you probably would've been better off writing your own review. Still, it's always good to have a counterpoint.

I almost completely disagree with your assessment though.

The Rules could use some work, I agree. Though I don't think they miss much. It's more that the game can seem overwhelming when first read. In that respect, the rules could definitely be improved. I remember thinking the game would be far too complicated, but it really is very easy to understand.

Any card game is going to have a random element. There are plenty of easy fixes if you want a more predictable game. One of the simplest is to divide the decks by category, so that if a player draws from the creature deck or boon deck or treasure deck, he knows that is exactly what he'll get. And yes, some quests are easier than others with a lucky draw, but that's just the nature of card games of this sort. Personally, I rarely find it to be a problem, but some players are less tolerante of luck.

I have to completely disagree on the glory and peril complaint. I've always found it worked beautifully. Then again, I'm not looking to spend it all every turn. It's not there to be burned. It's there to keep players from being overwhelmed, especially at the beginning.

There's no denying that Descent, Runebound, etc. are far more complex than Dungeoneer, presenting players with far more choices and strategy options. But again, Dungeoneer isn't designed to be that kind of game. So I'm not sure how valid I feel the complaint is. Though of the same "genre" they fill different niches.

I do like Anima too, though I feel your complaints about Dungeoneer could just as easily apply to Anima. After all, pretty much everything is random. Players can get stuck with bad cards, luck into easy quests, and don't have many meaningful strategies beyond doing the best they can with the cards they have. Perhaps it is the theme or art of Anima that wins you over, rather than the gameplay, which is pretty much the same as Dungeoneer as far as I can tell.

Thread: Re: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

deedob — 2008-01-29T19:06:37+00:00

We got (me and my wife) a copy of this dungeoneer for really cheap.

We played it once frankly, we hated it.

It's not the worst game there is out there, but we have much better alternatives to this kind of games at home that are much better.

Here's a few of the problems we saw with it:

- Rules are a mess. Quite simply, the rules doesn't provide every answer we required. We actually had to go to the internet to find newer versions of the rules that were provided in the box in order to make sense of it all.
For example, there were no mentions of what to do with your pack. We all know HOW the creatures get there, but no mentions of how to actually "play" cards in the pack. At least, not in the ruleset provided.
Same problem with the actual use of the fourth level of your character. Most quest providing the reward of a level, and games ending after 3 quests are provided, level 1 + 3 quests = level 4. What's the point of the actual level 4 when the game is over as soon as you reach it.
Of course the use of the level 4 is hidden in expansion cards and campaign rules found only online, not in the rule book itself that came with it.

- Players "options" are totally random. In our try-out games, it happened that one player had a bunch of card to upgrade monsters and other such stuff, but no actual monsters to put them on. For the "lord of the dungeon" role, too much depends on the luck of the draw.

- Some quests require specific cards to come up. If you have personal quests that requires specific cards to come up and they come by fast in the game, then you are lucky as they might never even show up for you to actually DO your quests. this provides players who have quests that are actually do-able a much greater advantage.

- Peril / Glory counts are most of the time unbalanced. Near the end of the game, players sometimes have so much glory and peril on them that are of no actual use. You might have lots of glory, but no treasure cards or lots of peril, with no opponents with cards in their hands to play against you. I know that you can have separate decks for treasures / trap,monsters, but this is an optional rules that is mentionned as best with expansion sets and not a single base set. With just a basic set, the peril/glory system was completely unbalanced.

- Too simple. Strategies are very limited by what you draw. Even RuneBound has the simple strategy of: trying to do an adventure and fight a monster or go shop or go heal yourself every turn. In dungeoneer, there's only continue advancing trying to do quests as soon as possible, hoping you'll draw a good card.

For this kind of game, or games in the same vein, we have much more fun with Descent/Doom and RuneBound/Talisman than this. I accept that this is intended to be shorter than those games, but for this kind of shorter game, we've had much more fun with Anima: Shadow of Omega than Dungeoneer.

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madziar — 2007-12-11T19:50:09+00:00

Dungeoneer: VotF. Heroes figures from polish version.

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madziar — 2007-12-10T12:49:01+00:00

All six characters you can play in this Dungeoner episode. (polish ver.)

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Firepigeon — 2007-11-29T23:39:06+00:00

Back Cover

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Firepigeon — 2007-11-29T23:24:25+00:00

Front of the card box

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buras — 2007-11-23T10:20:35+00:00

Thread: Re: Review for new player to Dungeoneer

baradifi — 2007-11-09T08:20:06+00:00

i agree -- be forewarned -- the cards are NOT the quality stock you have seen in many other games. they are VERY thin and I would not even want to THINK of what would happen if they got wet.

Thread: Re: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

baradifi — 2007-11-09T05:40:59+00:00

Thanks for the review/comment!

I bought Dungeoneer precisely because it seemed like a Runebound-light type game that my wife and casual gaming friends might actually play. I was frankly scared that Runebound and Descent would never get played if I bought them. I hope Dungeoneer keeps expanding, and I fully plan to but minis to go with the game.

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jax900 — 2007-08-03T09:57:48+00:00

back of box from Polish edition

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-=Dani=- — 2007-07-13T16:34:55+00:00

Components of the Polish edition (cards are in protectors)

Thread: Re: Splitting cards into 2 decks?

Aubigny — 2007-07-04T21:18:18+00:00

All cards from the latest printings (including Vault and Tomb) contain these numbers. Older printings from Vault and Tomb don't have them, but in this case you could use the card lists from Atlas Games to split the decks:

http://www.atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/VAULT%20Card%20List.r...
http://www.atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/TOMB%20Card%20List.rt...

Thread: Splitting cards into 2 decks?

quartex — 2007-07-03T19:54:08+00:00

In "Call of the Lich Lord" someone mentioned that the cards were numbered sot hat you could split the 2 deck set into two induvidual decks, one containing easier cards, and one harder. They said that this would be useful to create a smaller, easier dungeon, or a smaller, harder one. Are the cards in "Vault of the Fiends" named a similar way?

Thread: Re: Reprint differences?

dcorban — 2007-06-25T17:35:41+00:00

Dungeoneer.net does.

Basically, a couple cards were modified, some of the fonts were changed, and one card was actually misprinted (but I may be confusing that with the Lich Lord set).

Thread: Reprint differences?

Venent — 2007-06-25T15:44:32+00:00

Does anyone know what the differences are for the reprint of 'Vault of the Fiends'?

Thanks,
Christian

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Gadler — 2007-04-09T07:59:09+00:00

Boxshot Back (German)

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Gadler — 2007-04-09T07:58:22+00:00

Boxshot Front (German)

Thread: Re: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

KingCroc — 2007-03-23T18:15:31+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

I've never had the problem with being overwhelmed in a 2P game myself. I find the Peril system is good at keeping it balanced. But then again, maybe I'm not playing with folks who are just out to destroy the other player.

I've seen Anima, but didn't know enough to consider it. Any favorable review to Dungeoneer means I'll be happy to give it a shot. So thanks for the recommendation.

Thread: Re: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

TrekkerMJ — 2007-03-23T17:31:56+00:00

I appreciate your straight forward review. I jumped in to Dungeoneer as a response to playing Runebound. I wanted something just as fantasy filled without spending three hours playing. Like your experience with Descent, Dungeoneer fits that bill for me.

One drawback on Dungeoneer for me is that in a two-player adventure, the game can quickly become a 'How can I screw you over the most as DungeonLord?' That can keep it off the table for me at times. Three or more becomes a much better balance of 'Who should I throw this master dragon at?' Still that's only an issue because I play the game with my kids and they don't like it when Dad picks on them. Interestingly enough they don't have much of a beef if its working the other direction!

Keep on the with the Dungeoneer gaming. It's a great little community with out all the chrome. That is until the miniatures come out!

P.S. if you want a little detour try Anima: Shadow of Omega. It's an interesting game along the lines of Dungeoneer as well.

Thread: A truly fiendish double-deck!

TaleSpinner — 2007-03-23T14:57:50+00:00

Before I start, if you're looking for reviews on the game play in Dungeoneer, you should read this review of "Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich lord" first.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1026948#1026948

OVERVIEW
So when I got hooked on to Dungeoneer, I did the next thing any good gamer would do - get some friends addicted too so that they can purchase more decks for me to play with without needing to buy one myself. Once a friend of mine bought Vault of the Fiends, I gave myself a pat on the back for a job well done. However, the downside of not owning the deck myself meant that I needed to borrow it to write a proper BGG review on this deck, and that took four months of excuses from said-friend: "Sorry, forgot to bring it along", "Looked everywhere; I don't know where I put it, dude." and even a "Must have left it in a hotel room during our honeymoon." The implications of the last comment was scary on so many levels.

Vault of the Fiends (VotF) is the second double-deck in the Dungeoneer series and is themed around a type of creatures known as Fiends. Fiends, apparently, are creatures that have been experimented on and mutated by unspeakably dark arts. One such practitioner of these dark arts is some BBEG named Ramalith, who's a sort of butt-ugly, self-experimenting, mad scientist/mage armed with a VERY SHARP scapel grafted into his hand. Our heroes are to infiltrate his underground vault complex and disable his reign of terror by completing 3 Quests.

Being one of the early decks by Thomas, this means that you'll get a double-deck chock full of mostly unique cards with beautiful artwork. Most players consider this deck as the "Advanced Tomb" deck (of course, this is before Call of the Lich Lord turned up), mainly because it has a lot of more advanced mechanics compared to Tomb.

I find this deck very interesting in terms of its Warp and Shift mechanics. As you might know, Warping involves re-locating your hero to another Map Card, while Shifting is relocating Map Cards themselves elsewhere. In this deck, you have a number of cards/sites that do this, but at the same time, you get a number of cards that counter these effects in a neat little balancing act.

So anyway, onto the heroes:

HEROES
Shara Quickblade (Elf Assassin) Assassinate: pay 1 Glory to add +1 to your hero's next melee attack, and inflict 1 additional wound if successful. This may only be used once per turn.
What's there not to like about a hero with plus modifiers to combat? Shara is even better than Kron in the sense that Kron's +2 melee ability only works in counter-attacks while Shara's ability works in attacks AND counter-attacks. Shara is a real killer, for both monsters AND heroes. I've seen Shara players take their turn by first stabbing someone in the same space as they are, and then running off elsewhere. Losing 2 Life is painful for any 6 Life hero.

Hemp Ghostcaller (Ork Shaman) Healing: pay 3 glory and 1 movement; target hero in same space (or self) recovers 1 Life. This ends your turn (go to Discard/Draw Phase)
At first glance, Hemp looks like the magic-user version of Rodrik the Paladin from the Tomb deck. He's got exactly the same special ability, but his stats are all Magic instead of Melee. However, Hemp simply isn't a survivor like Rodrik. First off, his inventory is 1 Treasure/4 Boons. This itself kills Hemp since most of the cool effects are from Treasures that you find. With Dungeonlords being 'considerate' enough to only send melee monsters at Hemp, this ork shaman is doomed to wandering the dungeon helplessly hoping for a lucky boon or two to buff up while anguishing over which single cool Treasure should he equip. I have yet to see anyone win using Hemp.

Throngar (Dwarven Runecaster) Runespell: pay 1 glory to add +1 to your magic score for the duration of this turn. Use this ability only once per turn.
A more robust magic-user, Throngar does well enough on his own. His cheap special ability is very handy especially if he's attacking (or attacked) more than once during a turn. I still can't get over the 'court jester' skirt that he wears though; a hero dressed like that ought to get first strike at opponents too amused to attack first.

Maluvius (Drakan Sentinel) Terrorize: pay 2 glory plus 1 additional glory equal to the peril value of a target monster attacking your hero; that monster is discarded. This may only be used once per turn. Resolve as a Response.
Ahh.. the Drakan Sentinel. Over-powered? Hell yeah, and when you keep a mere 8 glory in reserve at all times, dungeonlords will be caught in a dilemma on what to attack you with. Send something weak and it won't have a chance against any buffs that Maluvius might have picked up. Send something too powerful, and it gets cruelly ripped out of the dungeonlord pack and sent to the discard pile in an almost insultingly easy manner. Definately a second favourite after Shara.

Nord Fimble (Gnome Illusionist) Illusion: pay 1 glory; target attacking monster must over magic threat 3+your Level or it cannot attack for the duration of this turn. Play this ability as a Response only once per turn.
Nord's ability is very cheap and exceedingly useful. He can use it to avoid combat with monsters he can't defeat, or use it to attack monsters he wants to kill.

Grog Nordham (Human Beastmaster) Control Fiends: pay glory equal to the peril value of 1 Fiend attacking you. That Fiend attacks another hero or monster of your choice in the same space instead, or ignores you. Use this ability as a Response.
All Dungeoneer decks have a deck-specific hero, and Grog is the hero in VotF. With the majority of monsters being Fiends here, Grog will find little difficulty in his encounters.

QUESTS
Some of the Quests in this deck are tougher than what you normally find. One quest involves you escorting "Princess Penelope" to the Vault Entryway; on the condition that you cannot wound Fiends while you have her! The "Cryptic Doors" quest allows your opponent to your left to re-locate your hero to an adjacent space if you fail, thus ensuring that you'll be spending precious Movement getting back into that Map Card just to re-attempt the quest.

Saying that though, there are some quests that are just too good to pass up. The "Unsavory Bargain" and "Feed the Bloodstained Gate" quests are located at Map Cards that can Warp, which effectively means that you can complete this Quest this turn, and warp to the location of your next Quest in your next turn, effectively completing 2 Quests in 2 turns! And there is a quest that gives you an Artifact as a reward - a pair of +2 Movement Boots. Yeah, you heard me - all together now: "The hero with the most Movement wins the game!"

Interestingly enough, there are a couple of quests that actually deactivate things in the quest location. Like the "Dismantle Armor Golem" quest gets rid of the Armor Golem in the Armoury, allowing anyone to visit that place afterwards without worrying about being attacked by the golem.

MAP CARDS
Gosh, there are so many interesting Map Cards in this deck that it's hard to decide which ones to comment on. As mentioned previously, some locations like the "Laboratory" or the "Armory" can have their dangers de-activated via completing the Quest associated to that location. It gives the game a nice "we're shutting down this place" feeling as you play.

The "Black Cyst" location allows you to retract or let down a bridge in the "Fiery Chasm", or de-activate the "Transdimensional Gate". I've had one game where my hero went off to retract the bridge right before another hero had to cross it to get to his Quest location. Great "take that" effect!

There is a "Flooded Chamber: Anytime you enter this space, overcome speed Threat 5+ or take 1 Wound; add +1 to the Threat for each readied Treasure you have." Map card that seriously hurts those who have buffed up on Treasures.

There is a "Turning Chamber: Anytime a hero enters this space, rotate it 180 degrees." space that could have come straight out from the old "Dungeon!" game's Rotating Chamber. Two of the exits have high-valued traps, so heroes could find themselves passing through these as they back-track.

Lastly, there are two locations that make this game Warp-crazy. "Bloodstained Gate: Pay 2 movement and 1 Life to relocate your hero to any space." and "Transdimensional Gate: Unless deactivated, you may pay 1 Movement to relocate your hero to any Grim Passage." Locations like these attact heroes like flies, particularly if they are easy to get to. The chance to warp directly to your next Quest objective is too good to pass up.

ADVENTURE CARDS
I mentioned interesting Warp and Shift effects in this deck, and here's where I elaborate. There are 62 Adventure cards in VotF. Out of these, 13 cards have some sort of Warp/Shift effect. Aside from straight-up "Re-locate hero/map card" cards, you have monsters that warp heroes upon hitting, traps that relocate heroes upon succeeding, cool items like:

Cloak of Phasing (Hero, Permanent, Cloak): Pay 1 glory to move through any 1 door or Wall as if Open. Do not collect peril or glory for the next space you move into and ignore its effect.

and completely insane mass warp-type cards like:

Gathering (Dungeonlord, Instant, Warp): Pay any # of additional Peril to relocate the same # of heroes to the target hero's location.

With so many warp/shift type cards, you'd expect heroes to be bouncing all over the place like caffiene-soaked jumping beans, and you're partially right. Countering these warp/shift-type effects, we have these:

Boots of Planting (Hero, Permanent, Footwear): Your hero cannot be affected by Warp-type cards.

Boots of Stability (Hero, Permanent, Footwear): The space your hero is in cannot be affected by Shift-type cards.

And also handy Anytime, Instant cards that resist Warp and Shift effects.

The other major mechanic introduced in this deck are pumpable monsters/effects. This is the answer to the problem faced in the original Tomb deck; once heroes got to a certain level, they cut through monsters like a hot knife through butter. Pumpable monsters are simply monsters that get more powerful if more Peril is pumped into them. Therefore, high-level heroes still can find their match while delving through the dungeon.

Son of Ramalith: Pay any # of additional Peril. Son of Ramalith's attack score is the same as opponent's total attack score +#. Opponent chooses attack form.

Enchanted Golem: Pay any # of additional Peril to add # to Enchanted Golem's next magic attack.

Other cool cards that ought to be mentioned are:

Vampiric Dagger (Hero, Permanent, Weapon): Vampiric Strike: your opponent must overcome melee Threat 4+. Fail: your hero recovers 1 Life.
Low on Life? Go pick a fight with someone!

Diversion (Response, Instant, Skill): Target attacking monster attacks another monster or hero in the same space instead of you.
I have fond memories of playing this against a dungeonlord's monster - to make it attack his own hero in the same space as my hero.

Disruption (Anytime, Instant, Foil): Prevent the effect of any 1 target Boon card or hero special ability for the duration of this turn.
This is a positively evil card. Players come to rely on their boons or special abilities to get them through some key situations, and plans get seriously stuffed whenever this card comes out to play. In one game I played, the dungeonlord played a Warp-type card to re-locate a hero away from his Quest location. That hero anticipated the move and played "Warp Resistance", an Anytime, Instant Boon that prevented his hero from being warped. And then, yet another player played "Disruption" to disrupt the "Warp Resistance", kicking the hapless hero off to his new location!

Dampening Field (Anytime, Instant, Foil): Prevent the effect of all Treasure in the space of the targeted hero for the duration of this turn.
Again, this is another evil card. Like "Disruption", this Anytime card can make its appearence when least expected, and can seriously stuff up a player's plans.

CONCLUSION
VotF is a wild deck, chock full of unique cards with special surprises. Hardly a game goes by without some twists being played and unexpected effects kicking in. I highly recommend getting this deck, and combining it with Tomb to make it even nastier.

Thread: Descent + Portability + Quickness = Dungeoneer

KingCroc — 2006-12-03T08:14:23+00:00

I've been playing a lot of Dungeoneer lately, a fun card game that combines the good old fashioned style of RPGing with straightforward rules and an actual game.

Dungeoneer came out several years before Descent, but their themes are nearly identical. A group of fantasy adventure characters explore a dungeon (or wilderness), encountering monsters and traps, attempting to complete quests. While Descent appears to be a fine game (haven't played it yet, but I've played Doom, which has the same basic mechanics and plays well in my book) I prefer Dungeoneer for a couple of reasons.

MONEY: Dungeoneer decks come in 2 player $10 decks or 2-4 player $20. There are several decks availabe, each with their own theme, monsters, heroes, etc. The game is non-collectible, meaning that the cards aren't randomized. This is another plus for me. You can combine the decks easily, but it isn't necessary.

PORTABILITY: I'll admit that Descent looks cool and it has got nice miniatures and a nice looking dungeon. But it's also a big box that you can't really lug around easily. The expansions come in large boxes too. I don't always play games at my house, so it's nice to be able to just grab and go. You can take the entire line of Dungeoneer card games (along with some dice and tokens) in fraction of the space of Descent.

TIME: Dungeoneer games take about 20 minutes per player compared to Descents two to three plus hours. I don't really get to play games all that often, and when I do, it's usually not a marathon. Just a few hours. So I could either squeeze in one game of Descent (maybe) or play a few games of Dungeoneer. Not a hard call for me usually.

SIMPLICITY: Dungeoneer is a simpler game than Descent. This isn't an insult to Descent, which isn't trying to be simple. But Dungeoneer is easy to learn and play. Even non-gamers can get into it rather quickly, and the few times I've played it with friends who had no RPG or game experience, it was easy to teach. The cards are clearly labeled and the rules are rarely confusing. And everything is resolved rolling a simple 6-sided die.

EVERYBODY'S A PLAYER: Unlike Descent, in which one player must take on the Overlord position and "run" the game, Dungeoneer allows everyone to be both dungeonlord and hero as they throw obstacles in their opponents ways and try to complete their own quests.

CUSTOMIZATION: It's easy to customize Dungeoneer for shorter or faster games and easy to create a unique game experience based on what you enjoy. Atlas Games has house rules posted on their website that can give you some ideas.

BALANCE: Dungeoneer is a balanced game. It accomplishes this with a simple system of Glory and Peril, which heroes accomplish just by exploring their world. Good things cost your hero Peril. Bad things use up your Peril. So even if all the players have it in for you, they won't be able to just swarm you with dragons and giants and acid pits. And even if you draw a great hand of useful treasure cards, you're not going to be able to just throw them down and become invincible. It's rare for anyone to run away with a Dungeoneer game, and it only happens when all the other players are napping.

FRIENDLY COMPETITION: Games like Descent usually revolve around a Heroes vs. Overlord mechanic. But in Dungeoneer, every hero is out for himself. On the other hand, it's unusual for the game to devolve into heroes attacking each other because that's not the object of the game. The first player to achieve three quests wins. If one player ignores the others and goes about his quests, even if the other players kill each other, it doesn't mean squat.

REPLAYABILITY: Because the map is laid out in cards and quests are randomly dispensed, Dungeoneer doesn't rely on scenarios which can quickly go stale. Also, because the Hero cards and the Dungeonlord cards are drawn from a deck as game progresses, no game is exactly the same.

EPIC: Atlas has just released the first Epic quest which allows for a longer, more involved game that allows heroes to reach new heights of glory. It's a nice addition to the line, and again, like all the decks, it still is designed to be played alone as well.

It's unfair to compare Dungeoneer and Descent too much. After all, despite their themes, they are very different games. Descent is more complex, prettier, and intentionally involved. Dungeoneer is an easy card game that isn't trying to be ultra-sophisticated, just fun and light. I think fans of either of these games would probably like the other. It just depends on where your particular gaming interests lie which you might prefer. But for all the reasons above, I'd give Dungeoneer my thumbs up.

Thread: Re: User Review

The Prince Of Araby — 2006-11-15T23:56:12+00:00

You can easily cut down on the playing time of combined Dungeoneer sets by removing the generic "connecter" cards. The ones that are just straight passages or corners with no special rules.

Thread: Re: Review for new player to Dungeoneer

dude163 — 2006-10-21T15:10:43+00:00

Thanks for the review

Thread: Re: Slow hero's

djbcrawford — 2006-10-13T16:59:26+00:00

But the Dwarf's got little short dumpy legs, while she's got long slender legs in leather....thigh-length....boots....

Thread: Re: Slow hero's

ronster0 — 2006-10-12T16:50:19+00:00

SatanicEssence wrote:
It's because people move faster in Tombs than they do in Vaults.

Duh.

Yeah everybody knows that... sheez.

Thread: Re: Slow hero's

SatanicEssence — 2006-10-12T00:26:27+00:00

It's because people move faster in Tombs than they do in Vaults.

Duh.

Thread: Slow hero's

djbcrawford — 2006-10-12T00:13:50+00:00

How come this is the only set where the hero's speed at level 3 is only 3. All other sets has it as 4. This means the short, fat - er, I mean, stocky dwarf from TOTLL is actually quicker than the Elf Assassin from VOTF?

Thread: Review for new player to Dungeoneer

legendgod — 2006-09-14T00:18:30+00:00

[BGCOLOR=#FF6600]Background:[/BGCOLOR]
"Vault of the Fiends" is my first game to Dungeoneer series. I choose Vault of the Fiends because it has the highest rating among all the dungeonner game in boardgamegeek.com

Before I buy it, I was looking for a travel game. So it should be game easy to carry, fun with 2-3 players, and short game time. However after knowing the game it is not so good to be travel game. It is because you cannot play well without 10 dices and a large table.

[BGCOLOR=#FF6600]Component:[/BGCOLOR]
I purchased US edition. It is a small box containing all the cards and a sheet of rule paper. The card artwork is very nice. But the card material is NOT so nice. The size and material is simliar with M:tG. Some cards is damaged after some uncareful suffle. After protect the cards with protector, cards are not longer fit into the box. It is another problem with US edition.

The game come with a few of "tracker" cards. By placing token on the number it represent your hero 's glory & peril have. I am wondering, if I need to prepare token, why not prepare a D20 dice? The rule sheet also suggest you use a D6 to represent your hero HP. For a 3 players game, you will need at least 9 dices.

The dungeoneer game require you placing random dungeon cards together to form a maze. It is interesting but it occupy more space then I thought. It it the major reason I cannot make it a travel game.

[BGCOLOR=#FF6600]Rules and Gameplay:[/BGCOLOR]
As other review mentioned, the rules is hard to learn and very confusing. I absolutely agree. The rule sheet come with the game is a rubbish. It has erreta everywhere. If you just purchase this game, you should throw the rule in rubbish bin right away and download the Rule v2 instead. You can download it from offical site or boardgamegeek.com. New version is much more clear. Reading the original version only confuse you.

After understand the rule, it is the begin of fun. It is clearly a hack and slash dungeon. It means the game pace is quite fast. Every players deliver their heros deep into the dungeon and complete their quests assigned. At the same time, each player get monster/trap cards to harm other players.

During every end of your turn, you will redraw up to 5 cards to ensure you have enough monster/trap to play with and with enough of equipment to upgrade your hero. It make sure the game have enough of challenge. The fun come with careful planning of use of equipment and hero's special ability. Also the fun come with all the random factors (the random dungeon, random encounter and random treasures). The game also allow different hero kill each other. It is part of fun in this game.

Last night I introduce the game to my friends and it is only 5 minutes to explain. They can catch up the rule after few rounds or playing. The entire game spend around 1 hour. They agree that this game is interesting to play and easy to learn.

You can also play solely by using the sole rule. You can find a lot of variant on web and offical site. I played offical sole rule once and found it intersting. Because you have no opponent to compete with, my hero keep walking around the healing place and the treasure room to draw treasures. Finally it spent around 1.5 hours to finish.

[BGCOLOR=#FF6600]Overall:[/BGCOLOR]
It could be a good filler game (well... for 1 hour game time). The artwork can attract people's eye. After knowing the rule it is easy to explain to other new players. Also, because the game have a large amount of random factors, new players will have a fair chance to win experienced players.

The only tradeoff is you require a large table, some tokens (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/146059), a number of dice to help you represent hero's stat. All above are not included with the game.
The dungoneer game is compatilable each other. You can mix different dungoneer game together. But personally I don't suggest. Double the game only make the quest double the difficult. Dungeonner is a good game for 1 hour. Spending 2 hours on hack and slash is too much for me.

I have rated a 7 to this game. I hope the review helps you.

Thread: Re: Can this game play solely?

legendgod — 2006-09-07T04:22:32+00:00

I play tested it and reply in that thread.

Thread: Re: Can this game play solely?

Chris Dorrell — 2006-09-06T20:05:20+00:00

Yes they can all be played solitaire. Why not try my solitaire variant at:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/112230

and let me know what you think.

It's for Lich Lord but should work OK.

Chris

Thread: Re: Can this game play solely?

abrannan — 2006-09-05T19:51:08+00:00

All Dungeoneer games can be played with the solo rules if you wish.

Thread: Can this game play solely?

legendgod — 2006-09-05T13:56:38+00:00

I checked "Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord" can be played between 1-4 players. But this one is 2-4. However I see some of review here indicate it can play solely.
Which one is true?

Thread: malaysia?

crixster — 2006-05-31T05:17:28+00:00

are there any stock in malaysia?

Thread: Re: How can I tell if it is the reprint?

Tanrec — 2005-12-04T09:16:14+00:00

It will look like this:
http://studiodenmark.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=298

Notice the slightly different box graphics from the ones in the pictures here on BGG. Also notice the little Dungeon Set words in the top right corner on the back of the box. Those were also on the reprint of Tomb.

Thread: How can I tell if it is the reprint?

DrNate — 2005-12-03T18:07:02+00:00

The FLGS has a copy of Vault of the Fiends that wasn't there three weeks ago. I checked every inch of the box and couldn't tell if it was the new version or the old version. Is there an easy way to tell the difference?

Thanks

Thread: Request for more pictures of Vault of the Fiends

Tanrec — 2005-08-04T15:24:57+00:00

I'm very interested in Dungeoneer: Vault of the Fiends and have been hearing good things about it. I have though, been hearing some mixed opinions about the artwork of this set. Therefore I would like to ask users who own this game to upload some images of the cards. Not all of them, just a small selection. I think that the presentation of this game could be improved here on BGG by the addition of more images. I'm interested in any kind of images, but especially map cards, monsters and quests.

Unfortunately I've only got a single GG. I'll gladly tip it away though to a good image and tip again when I've earned some more. I would just like to make it clear that I'm not offering GG to all submissions (I can't afford that). This is more of a friendly request to users that own this game and wouldn't mind to upload some images.

Kim

Thread: Re: Pumpable monsters

Tanrec — 2005-06-06T13:02:39+00:00

Cool, that's what I wanted to hear Kyle.

I've just ordered Dragons as it's the only of the large sets that was in stock, and I was hoping to be able to use the pumpable monsters rule.

Thread: Re: Pumpable monsters

philafan2000 — 2005-06-06T12:54:41+00:00

I have Vault and Tomb, but keep up with the series and plan to add the expansions to my collection.

As I understand it, Tomb is the only set that does not have pumpable monsters. Vault introduced the concept, so I am assuming that all sets from now on (including Vault) will have this feature.

- Kyle

Thread: Pumpable monsters

Tanrec — 2005-06-05T20:52:51+00:00

I've read that you can pay extra peril to make monsters more powerfull. That's really all I know. This set is often combined with Tomb, and all sets are compatible. Is it then correct to assume that all monsters are pumpable, or is it just the ones from Vault?

Basically: If I don't get Vault immidiately, but instead start out with for example Dragons, can I use peril to make monsters more powerfull?

Thread: escort tokens and player aids on Lair page

epilgrim — 2005-05-28T20:28:14+00:00

posted two files with stuff for use in a largre Dungeoneer game world, including a collection of DIY 3-D escort tokens. check them out and enjoy!

Thread: Re:User Review

bluebishop — 2005-03-28T06:05:15+00:00

Chris R (#32657),

"I wonder if you transfer the characters over after completing a game of Lich how that would work out. Sort of as the characters go up in level the adventures get harder type of thing. "

One issue is that the game only has four levels for characters to progress through. If you started at the third level, which most would be after a complete game, then there would be no further progression. If you did come up with a house rule to add the further progression it would bust the balance.

I have found that the game naturally gets tougher the longer you play with the same group of people. As the peril cards become more familiar to the group, better and more deadly strategies for playing them occur to you. This just makes the game more fun and challenging.

Thread: Re:Son of Ramalith - Printing Error?

AUGG — 2005-02-18T07:51:34+00:00

Cheshire Cat (#26786),

Incase someone still has a question about this card here is the answer from what I understand. The might, magic, and speed are equal to the hero he is attacking. At the time of the attack peril points may be spent to increase the might and magic stats but not the speed stat. Also at the time of the attack the hero (person being attacked) picks how the Son of Ramalith is going to attack (might, magic, or speed).

Thread: Reark Altar and Bloodstained Gate

AUGG — 2005-02-18T07:47:06+00:00

drewchap (#69175),

1a. The monster that it is referring to are monsters in the other players packs. When a monster is played and still alive after the initial attack you can either keep it in your pack (maximum of 3), return it to your hand if not wounded, or discard it.

1b. To preform a counter attack you must have movement left. During your hero phase you are not required to use up all of your movement. When you are attacked during another players dungeonlord phase you can initiate a counter attack if you have movement left. Each counter attack requires 1 movement to be spent and you get to pick how you want to attack (Might or Magic). Note, your movement does not get carried over to your next turn. At the beginning of your next turn your stored movement is gone.

2. We have always played that the abilities of the Bloodstained Gate are optional since it does not say that when you "enter the room" you do the gate ability.

I don't have the cards in front of me and we could be playing these all wrong but this is how our little gaming group has interpreted them.

Thread: Dark Altar and Bloodstained Gate

drewchap — 2004-12-05T21:34:17+00:00

1. The dark altar lets you target another hero or monster with a magic attack as part of using it. What monster is this referring to? Just quest monsters, or others? How do monsters "stick around" in rooms as part of the counterattack rule? If you as the hero move into a different room from the one you were attacked in (ie the dark altar room), are you attacking (with saved movement) a monster that was in that room or the same one that attacked you on the previous player's dungeonlord turn? This flip-flopping of roles within a turn is very confusing to me as it carries over into the new player's turn.

2. The gate ability of the bloodstained gate: this looks like a "must use" ability. True? In that case, when does it have to be used? Can an action be taken before using it? Or can the room be exited by the door the hero came in, making the gate an optional ability?

Thread: Re:Session Report

tldenmark — 2004-11-17T00:16:31+00:00

castiglione (#65111),

The rules expansions are available right here on BGG

Check the files section:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11159

td

Thread: Re:Session Report

castiglione — 2004-11-12T23:05:57+00:00

Where did you dig up these official solitaire rules?

Thread: Session Report

BilboAtBagEnd — 2004-09-21T19:08:36+00:00

Playing solitaire, due to a cold and feeling antisocial. I decided to pull out Dungeoneer and see if the official solitaire rules were any good....

Short summary of the solitaire rules:
- separate peril and glory decks
- instead of gaining peril, you roll that number of dice; any dice with values at or below the peril amount means that you draw that many peril cards to play on yourself
- you draw one glory card at the end of each turn, and one per defeated monster
- you can only play permanent boons in an entrance, and you can only play permanent treasures during the reward phase of combat

I did not play by the hard rules, e.g., highest level surviving monster goes into a 3-card pack that keeps attacking you.

In addition, I used the stacked deck variant, in which you layer the peril deck so that you get 1-2 peril cost cards first, then 3-4, and finally 5 and up. You also stack the map cards so that the quest locations are at the bottom, and the rest (usually just grim passages, corridors, and the like) are on the top.

I ended up playing two games in a little over two hours.

The first was just one set, Tomb of the Lich Lord. I was Kron Axereaver, "Dwarf Avenger", whose cool little avenge ability I'd forgotten about until late in the game, at which point I died horribly after completing just one quest (the maiden). It's annoying to be limited to just two movement points at the beginning, and towards the end four movement points are often a bit much. I think I'll use the three movement points always rule next time.

It wasn't clear whether I started with a hand of cards, so I didn't. It also wasn't clear whether the monsters activated every time I rolled for random attacks based on peril; I decided that every gain of peril meant doing the random attack roll, and queueing up monsters for the *next* turn's Dungeonlord phase. This worked out fairly well.

The game was, I felt, too short (even if I did lose), because if I hadnn't lost at that point I would have soon run out of a peril deck---and then what? Especially since it's supposed to be a stacked peril deck....

So I decided to combine Tomb and Vault to see if this resulted in a more satisfying game. This time around I was Maluvius, "Draken Sentinel", who has a very nice "Terrorize" ability that I did not forget to use, although I'm sure towards the end (when I'd "accumulated" far too much peril to handle and was fighting against five monsters) I didn't use it as well as I should have.

Due to the stackedness of the decks, the game was fairly satisfying.

I completed two quests this time around, and then got killed due to thinking I could handle seven peril in one turn. (I often do this to myself in normal multi-player games.) I hadn't gotten to play with Vault before, so it was interesting to explore the map cards and see some of the new boons and treasures (and the heroes!).

Definitely should use the three-movement point variant next time, though. Back Dungeoneer goes into the box.

Once the expansions come out, you could have a forest and city upper level, with two lower levels (the dungeon and the tomb), and that would be one super-duper rainy day escape-from-reality game.

Thread: User Review

fractaloon — 2004-09-13T18:45:12+00:00

I played Dungeoneer for the first time today. In fact, I played a solo variant on the game as described in this article for Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord here on BGG.

As I said, it was my first game so it took me forever to figure out how to play. I found the rules rather confusing to read and I was constantly going back and forth through the book looking for a specific rule.

The game is fun to play for various reasons. It's quick to set up and get started. The combat is quick and simple so the game can go by relatively quick. It's fun to lay out the map litte by little and "explore" it that way.

I found the game rules rather hard to learn. This was mainly because of the layout of the rule book. When I needed to look up a rule I had missed or forgot, it was sometimes very very hard to find the right locatin for it. For example, I missed the section in the set-up that you first lay-out the Entrance and four passages around it. As I played my game, I started with only the Entrance on the table. The first card I drew was a passage. In the rulebook, the section on laying out maps said you can only place passages next to the entrance. Obviously, I wasn't supposed to play this card but it didn't say what I should do in this case. The rule I needed unfortunately was not listed anywhere in the section on playing map cards but was only listed in the set-up section of the rules.

Anyway, enough of that rant, once I got past learning the rules, the game was fun to play. The game isn't deep, but the exploring and combat is fun.

The game seems easy to add house rules to to alter it. For example, I think it may be fun to explore rooms as you enter them instead of spreading the map out each turn in any direction. It may give the game more a sense of really exploring. Combat can probably be fleshed out a bit. I didn't care to much for the idea that each fight is just one round.

I'm looking forward to trying out other expansions so I can explore larger dungeons.

The solo version of the game was fun to play and kept me interested. There were a few cards I could not use but for the most part, I felt like I was getting a pretty complete game, only lacking in player interaction. Once I got past the learning curve, I found the game easy to win. This was in part because I forgot to include a couple of rules. The game is random enough to allow repeated plays.

All in all, I'd say this is a good quick game for solo play.

Thread: Session Report

timlillig — 2004-09-02T23:14:03+00:00

I set up this game after the first meeeting of the year for my university gaming club. I combined this set with the main Dungeoneer because there were 8 players, I acted as a moderator and rules guide. The participants were mostly D&D players and only one of them had played before. By the time everyone had taken a turn the concepts of the game were clear and I had stoped having to guide people through thier turns.
Unfortunately, the game fell apart after a little more than an hour. Some players got bored with the game due to the long streches between turns and one player was eliminated. Ultimately, four of the players had complted a quest and several escort quests were started but not completed.
In the future I think I'll split the game up between two groups rather than combining sets.

Thread: Session Report

Ryhesling — 2004-06-06T17:32:21+00:00

Last night MotherCrow, C.R.Dwarf and I set out on a noble quest into the Vault of Fiends... There were a few hang-ups, though. MotherCrow and I had played Dungeoneer before but we had a hard time breaking C.R.Dwarf of the idea that it was like Munchkin. The concept he had the hardest time with was spending his opponent's Peril to play things against them; however once he understood the system he agreed that it is a very good one.

Before long our heroes were trudging thru a vicious labyrinth that was ferry well populated with all sorts of nasties. MotherCrow won the game by completing her second quest before C.R.Dwarf or I got one. This was greatly due to luck; the first quest was an easy win for her because she drew the room she needed to be in during her build phase. The second quest she completed, there by winning the game was due to me placing a room she needed to find right next to her; that is the risk of playing with the optional secret quest rule.

The game was a pretty quick one, and so we played another round, this time adding in Tomb of the Lich Lord. I enjoyed the game with the two decks mixed together a great deal more. The additional map cards were the best part; with the bigger dungeon we had to spend a lot more time searching down corridors to find the rooms our quests were meant to lead us to.

That Secret Quest rule came back to bite MotherCrow when she placed the Dark Gate off of a hall I was in, I had only to find a secret passage in to the gate room and I was up one quest. Meanwhile C.R.Dwarf was wrestling with a tentacle monster, a Bug-a-Bear and a giant rat named Nard that he was sent to destroy. MotherCrow attempted to make amends for having helped me by first releasing a lost soul that she was sent to rescue (her first quest) and then unleashing the mighty Ramalith on me. I took a pounding and escaped through the Dark Gate just barely alive. The Dark Gate deposited me in the dungeon's Crypt (Hey, I'm not dead yet!) so I thought to make the most of it and attempted to slay the Vampire Vladimir. Vlad thought different and sent me packing for the front gate, clinging desperately to my last life point. MotherCrow Was already at the entrance to the dungeon, preparing fro her next foray into it's dark recesses, and together we could hear the faint screams of our comrade C.R.Dwarf getting thoroughly beaten by what sounded like a really beg rat. MotherCrow found that the Well of Healing was close by the entrance and was starting towards it. I bolted right past her in desperate need of healing but more importantly I wanted to lift Rigg's Curse. Arriving at the well I surprised my companions by giving up my special ability to free the spirit of Rigg. Having completed my second quest I won game two.

We all agreed that Dungeoneer should find it's way to our gaming table again, and I personally can't wait for the new sets to come out; nothing better than a bigger more deadly dungeon!