Let's Talk DUNGEON CRAWLERS

Here's another interesting dungeon crawling system for using the old stuff you already have. It's called Trapdoor. It's a D10 system. The PDF is presently free.

www.wargamevault.com/product/139366/Trapdoor

I also enjoyed reading over the author's blog where he developed and play tested his system. You get to see how it evolved. He also has a tutorial about his Trapdoor dungeon crawl system.

drumsdeep.blogspot.com/2015/02/trapdoor-...l-i-exploration.html

drumsdeep.blogspot.com/2015/02/trapdoor-tutorial-ii-melee.html

drumsdeep.blogspot.com/2015/03/trapdoor-...-ranged-attacks.html

Ok, I think I find something I dislike about WHQTACG. It's way too much work to be solo-ed. The actions are fun, yes. Dice, good, always. Enemy movements? Good.

But the actual players action and the physical movements involved with it can be too much.

First, an action is like a laundry list. You do 2-4 steps. The rolling dice step can be very involving when dealing with multiple enemies ("oops, I'm diseased" may happen). Then you have to consider the conditions. And then you have to remember tapping the cards to mark that they've been used ("oops, it was empowered" may happen). And then your activation ends (but "oops, I'm bleeding" may happen).

Then the tapping. Like I said, you have to remember doing this at the end of your turn. Tapping when you first choose the action doesn't work since it makes it hard to follow the card's laundry list.

It's doing a great job simplifying enemy's tactical position & behavior, but now the player actions can feel like work sometimes...

Is Thunderstone considered a dungeon crawl? I've been thinking about trying this one out. How does everyone like it?

Sevej wrote: Ok, I think I find something I dislike about WHQTACG. It's way too much work to be solo-ed. The actions are fun, yes. Dice, good, always. Enemy movements? Good.

But the actual players action and the physical movements involved with it can be too much.

First, an action is like a laundry list. You do 2-4 steps. The rolling dice step can be very involving when dealing with multiple enemies ("oops, I'm diseased" may happen). Then you have to consider the conditions. And then you have to remember tapping the cards to mark that they've been used ("oops, it was empowered" may happen). And then your activation ends (but "oops, I'm bleeding" may happen).

Then the tapping. Like I said, you have to remember doing this at the end of your turn. Tapping when you first choose the action doesn't work since it makes it hard to follow the card's laundry list.

It's doing a great job simplifying enemy's tactical position & behavior, but now the player actions can feel like work sometimes...

Fields of Fire is this way but worse. But probably provides a better narrative.

Thanks for the feedback, Drewcula!

According to my Magic 8 ball, the outlook is good for me buying Dungeon Saga. Real good.

If I do so, it probably won't be until next summer though. I have a bunch of gaming arts and crafts projects I need to get under control before I bring on painting up a DS set. Also, I've got a good buddy with a copy that I'll get to test drive first.

Egg!
Apologies for the late reply.
I'd say if you already own Heroquest, Dungeon Saga is unnecessary.
I put myself in an exceptional camp:
a) I f***ing love Heroquest
b) Dungeon Saga was developed with Heroquest specifically in mind
c) I like a lot of what Mantic is trying to do
d) The Kickstarter value for DS was hard (for me) to pass up

I have barely scratched what DS has to offer. I may feel differently after a while, but I suspect I'll always have a grudge about DS's graphic presentation. IMO, nothing will beat the layout and artwork of HQ. Still, the DS combat is a perfect enhancement of HQ: engagement and facing rules adds some much needed tactics. Game Mastering is still a portion of DS, but the Overlord is much more of a threat to the heroes, and that's a welcome adjustment. DS's Adventurer's Companion expansion has rules for solo play, but I haven't cracked it yet.

On the graphic design of DS...I too have a few beefs...

3) The card art doesn't seem all that great, but damn that font is small! Tiny!

2) The board tiles. These _really_ needed to have a border. Even a thin border around the edges would have gone a long way to give the dungeon a more polished look. Also, it would have prevented the mini bases from going right up to, if not over, the tile edge. IMO, it takes a bit away from feeling like one is 'inside' something if the minis are hanging off the sides.

1) Terrible player/character card art and layout. I will toss them all. Even for the pre-generated base characters. In their case I'll do one of two things Either A) simply re-write all their stats using the character sheets from the AC or b) simply make my own character sheets and re-write their stats. Again, I'm AHQ spoiled, but I like my dungeon crawls to have a bit more rpg feeling. No Trapper Keeper picture on the sheet. Just pencil and paper. Let the painted mini provide the visual.

Those tiles are the only thing holding me back. They are so busy and there are some with the pattern going against the grid. I guess my perfect style would be somewhere between these tiles and the drab D&DAS tiles. Why do games choose dark over clean?

Substitute others for the DS tiles?

Hey, it's only $175 to get a complete collection of the finest dungeon tiles that were ever crawled...

Tim Champlin wrote: Is Thunderstone considered a dungeon crawl? I've been thinking about trying this one out. How does everyone like it?

I hate Thunderstone. Tried both the original and the revised editions, and it's just a boring deckbuilder. A dungeon crawler should convey a sense of exploration, and Thunderstone utterly fails at that. And the deckbuilder mechanics are unable to support even the concept of an adventuring party. One turn, you might have a handful of gear and no characters. The following turn, you might have characters but no gear. Thunderstone sucks.

Tim Champlin wrote: Is Thunderstone considered a dungeon crawl? I've been thinking about trying this one out. How does everyone like it?

I'm not the biggest fan of deck builders, so maybe that's part, but I HATED it.

Thunderstone is a poster child for multiplayer solo. You can play it in complete silence if you like. And it's about as far from a dungeon crawl as you can get. I won't say it's a terrible game but it's more like a foundation of another game that could have been a whole lot better.

Colorcrayons wrote: I still say that the parker bros. Dungeons and Dragons fantasy adventure boardgame is the best. Its heroquest, more or less, but with a bonafide D&D setting instead of the hack knock off setting that GW and milton bradley threw together.
There are some oddities such as the rogue healing herself when she disables traps. But overall, a really good game that is super simple allowing you to just have fun instead of worrying about mechanical minutiae. Matt Drake's D&D Fantasy Adventure Boardgame review

That "hack Knock off setting" is none other than Warhammer's Old World and it's pretty great.

One thing that HeroQuest has over EVERY OTHER GAME mentioned in the entire thread: that cool furniture! No other game comes even close to that. Torture rack: check. Weapons rack: check. Book case: check. Treasure chests: check. Doors, both open and closed: check. Tables, sarcophagus, cabinets, arcane shit: it's ALL in there.

hotseatgames wrote: I just completed the tutorial quest of the Road to Legend app for Descent 2.0. I only have the base set. It is disappointing that there is no support in the app for the conversion kit. Hopefully they add that in the future; if I were to buy stuff for Descent 2, that would be my first purchase since I have all the 1st edition stuff, except for Sea of Blood, which no one seemed to care about.

Dude, just add all the monster-hero collections to your stuff in the app. Who cares if you're using the old minis and the rules from the Kit instead of their new remade stuff? Just be aware that a few heroes and monsters aren't yet represented, and one of the latter boxes has a new monster type (crones or something).

Columbob wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: I just completed the tutorial quest of the Road to Legend app for Descent 2.0. I only have the base set. It is disappointing that there is no support in the app for the conversion kit. Hopefully they add that in the future; if I were to buy stuff for Descent 2, that would be my first purchase since I have all the 1st edition stuff, except for Sea of Blood, which no one seemed to care about.

Dude, just add all the monster-hero collections to your stuff in the app. Who cares if you're using the old minis and the rules from the Kit instead of their new remade stuff? Just be aware that a few heroes and monsters aren't yet represented, and one of the latter boxes has a new monster type (crones or something).

I'll have to look at those to see what's in them; I've never really paid attention to that stuff.