Dungeon Pages: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Print and Play, Solo, Roll and Write, Sudoku
Player Age: 8+Player Count: 1 PlayersTime to Play: 15 - 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Jason Greeno, Jason TagmireGame Artist: Vittoria PompolaniPublisher: PNP ArcadeYear Published: 2023Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Jason Greeno, Jason Tagmire
Objective:
Dungeon Pages is a roll-and-write solo adventure. This game contains 6 heroes and 6 dungeons and each can be paired in any preferred way. Players have to navigate through four dungeons by collecting items, gaining experience and defeating enemies. Finally, they must conquer the boss and complete the boss dungeon to win. Players lose if they run out of health, fail to reach a treasure chest in a dungeon, or reach the chest in the boss dungeon before defeating the boss. This is a modular game that benefits from mixing and matching the heroes and dungeons to find different challenges and benefits to exploit. This base set only contains 6 heroes/dungeons but there is a yearly release that will bring a new hero and dungeon every week of the year. For that abundance of variability you can click here.
Game Anatomy:
Character:
The character sheet will include the player's health, a special ability, an experience track with unlockable effects, weapons and relics. All of these attributes will vary from character to character.
Experience:
Players gain experience when completing dungeons by having a sequential path from the door to the chest (more on this later). Players will gain experience from defeating monsters equal to the XP value noted in their description, and one XP per every filled column.
Experience Bonuses:
Once you reach a certain amount of XP you will gain bonuses for free such as rerolling dice, adding dice and added health. Some of these benefits are detailed in the image below.
Weapons:
There are four weapons available, the starting weapon will be unlocked and the other three can be unlocked at the end of a dungeon. These weapons consist of range, movement type (straight, diagonal, or orthogonal adjacent that can change direction if the range is higher than one) and some weapons contain a bonus effect.
Effects:
These bonus effects on the weapons can include going through walls, splitting a die, rerolling, or modifying dice values (see below image for more detail)
Relics:
Relics can also be gained after completing a dungeon. Each relic has a special ability based on the character and each relic is capped at a certain amount of uses.
Dungeon Sheet:
Each dungeon sheet has four standard dungeons and one boss dungeon. The standard dungeon cannot be entered until the four other dungeons have been completed. The sheet will also highlight the two monsters spread across the dungeons, the wandering monster effect, the boss and the trap
Dungeon:
Each dungeon will have a mix of white spaces that players can venture into, dark sections that are walls, monsters, traps, items, a starting door and a treasure chest. Each dungeon also has the amount of evil die added for the dungeon on the top right of the map and a signal denoting whether the wandering monster effect is active.
Items:
Each item is considered gained if there are two adjacent locations filled with the same number. These items do not have to be used straight away they can be saved for a future dungeon. The items are either a key, coin or potion.
The key can be used to unlock any locked location in a dungeon, allowing the player to write a number in that location following the standard rules.
A coin can be used to modify dice where each coin counts as a +/- modification. The same die can be manipulated multiple times but it cannot exceed 6 or go below 1. This can be used to avoid a monster attack by adjusting the evil die, but cannot be used to avoid a wandering monster.
There are three potions; the health potion unlocks a new health section to give more health, the teleport potion allows a wall or locked door to be marked as of it was a standard location, and the poison potion allows for an adjacent empty location or trap to be marked as a 4.
Monsters:
Each dungeon sheet has two monsters; a wandering monster and a boss monster. The wandering monster will activate whenever a double is rolled with the evil dice, assuming the wandering monster is active in this dungeon.
The monsters have several key details, starting from left to right, you have the number that the monster will activate on, the damage the monster does, the amount of defence it holds, the amount of damage needed to defeat it, the XP it will give upon completion of the dungeon if defeated, as well as a special ability.
Monsters are defeated by having numbers equal to or higher than its defence surrounding the monster equal to its HP.
Traps:
This explains the disarm cost and special effect of a trap. This location on the map can be ventured on as normal but it will activate a special ability once encountered unless the value you write is equal to or higher than the disarm value.
Setup:
- Retrieve a pencil/marker, three good dice of one colour and three evil dice of another colour.
- Choose your hero and dungeon sheet.
- Choose the dungeon you want to venture into first.
- Add the evil dice for that dungeon and one good die.
How to Play:
Roll Phase:
Pick up the dice pool for the dungeon and roll the dice.
Monster Phase:
If any of the evil dice meet an enemy's activation cost that is alive in the dungeon then the monsters of that type will now attack, at a maximum each monster can only attack once per turn. This can still equal a whopping amount of damage so if you have any way of modifying the evil dice then this is the time to do it. This will also be when the wandering monster activates if you have rolled doubles on the evil dice.
Explore Phase:
Using one die at a time until all die are used, a player can explore the dungeon working from any previously explored space and starting with the door when the player first enters the dungeon. Exploring consists of choosing a weapon and then writing a number in a space. If the weapon is diagonal the player can only place a number diagonally to a previously placed number. This is when a player will gain items, defeat monsters and fill columns. The numbers do not have to be equal or sequential to an adjacent number, however, you will want to create a sequential or equal path from the door to the exit (treasure chest).
Completing a Dungeon:
When the path from the door to the treasure chest is made the dungeon is now completed and each item will still be usable in any future dungeons if they haven't been used already. If the path from the start to the exit aren't equal or +1/-1 from the previous number then that is all a player gains. If you have managed to plan this path effectively and meet that sequential requirement you will gain XP for any monster slain, as well as 1 XP for any column filled. You are then able to add an item or weapon to your repertoire for the rest of the game that is equal to or less than your current XP level.
End of Game:
The game ends once a player has defeated all dungeons, including the boss dungeon or if your hero dies. Your score is equal to your XP level. Shuffle up the heroes and dungeons and play again to try for a better score if you want, I know I wanted to.
Final Thoughts:
- Sudoku like puzzle.
- Puzzle changes with each dungeon sheet and character.
- Plenty of variability, especially if you went with the yearly pack.
- Plenty of changes between the heroes' weapons, relics and special abilities.
- I would of loved to see this as a multiplayer solo competitive game with a shared dice pool.
As someone who doesn't normally play solo games, this one kept me captivated the whole time. It is quick and constantly gives the players a sense of exploration and sudoku like puzzles. Each number placement is crucial and leaves you wondering whether you can afford to place a dead number on this path, will you lose out on an item as you put the number in the only space available, or have you finally managed to create a sequential path to upgrade your character in preparation for the final dungeon?
This game is filled with tough decisions but at no time does it feel stretched out. Combined with the modular set-up each game feels different while having a new amalgam of puzzles. I strongly recommend this game and it is earning a Silver Seal. If you want value for money I would recommend looking at the yearly release as you are bound to get more variability and maybe even a favourite hero.
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