Dungeon saga or silver tower?

Silver tower is a known quantity to me, and is a great game.

But the more I hear about dungeon saga, the more I think it would align to be played by the family and has decent prices online.

Dungeon saga has a metric ton if stuff out, and silver tower is falling back into gas old ways, despite my love of gw fluff, I am leaning a bit more towards dungeon sagas tropes. That, and it resembles heroquest a bit, other than the decent if inflated facing rules.

What's says fortress ameritrash?

I wish I knew the answer to this one. I'm not sure enough of us have played both to tell. I think Drewcula has played a bit of Dungeon Saga, but don't know about Silver Tower. Have you played ST?

I'm riding the 'what dungeon crawler to get?' fence myself. I'm afraid at the end of the day I'm going to end up with two:
1) MB Heroquest - For the family because of the colorful minis, furniture, dice, cards, etc, plus as Zargon I can take it easy if need be
2) Silver Tower - For myself and the gaming buddies. I'm getting more and more curious about stepping into the AoS setting. I'm just held back by how small the dungeons look. Doesn't look like much exploring...

NOTE: I might just borrow Heroquest from a buddy...

The dungeons look smal because they start disappearing behind you.

The choice is actually pretty easy.

- if you are into the GW "thing"- the fluff, the meat and potatoes gameplay, the ultra high quality models then ST can't be beaten.

- if you are interested in a more mutable, flexible system where you can do more with campaigns and made-up scenarios with lots of extra stuff available, then DS could be a contender.

I think ST is the best dungeoncrawler on the market...it is just so well done, and the Tzeentch stuff really sets it apart...even the stock goblins are spider-hybrids.

That's one of the main issues I'm having is the background. The spawn just turned nine, which is a ripe age for beginning to explore such things, yet innocent enough to be awed by even the dumbest cliché.

I was 15 when rogue trader hit the shops, and found the entire thing intriguing. I blame that book for my love affair of lead dollies.
But d&d has been around me all my life and find the imagery of fritz lieber, Michael moorcock inspired material more compelling than anything I ever read in the realms of chaos books.

But I do like how streamlined the silver tower system is, and how well the tzeentch background fits in with everything in the game. In fact, silver tower appears to be the game that is easier to understand. The only mechanical downside is the automated coop system, which I am never a fan of.

The spawn enjoyed it, but attempting to educate him on the nuances of what a horror is seems to be jumping ahead of a few fantasy tropes. I could be wrong.

I guess I just need to go find someone who has dungeon saga to play with and see if its good.

Silver Tower is on my "regularly played" shelf.

Dungeon Saga got sold after about six games.

In case anyone's missing the announcement, Mantic's going to have a kickstarter for a streamlined DS in sci-fi setting called Star Saga.

MattDP wrote: Silver Tower is on my "regularly played" shelf.

Dungeon Saga got sold after about six games.

As a person who has owned and played both, would you mind expanding a bit on the reasons why?

I have a copy of Dungeon Saga for sale, $40 shipped. PM if interested.

Colorcrayons wrote:

MattDP wrote: Silver Tower is on my "regularly played" shelf.

Dungeon Saga got sold after about six games.

As a person who has owned and played both, would you mind expanding a bit on the reasons why?

www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-warhammer-quest-silver-tower/

fortressat.com/articles-boardgame-review...-dungeon-saga-review

TL:DR - Dungeon Saga crimps bits of lots of other games for a fun but forgettable experience. Silver Tower is a unique choose your own adventure twist on the genre.

Dungeon Saga fan reporting in!
Where was I before lunch? Priming the second expansion for Dungeon Saga, Infernal Crypts.

As Mr. White knows very well, I'm a Heroquest addict. It's my jam of all jams. I love it love it love it. I love it like Dracula. Dungeon Saga was developed with Heroquest very much in mind. That, coupled with Jake Thorton's design of my beloved DreadBall, - it was an easy investment. I passed on the resin casts, but KS backed all of the expansions.

I've been playing Dungeon Saga a lot lately. And boy do I mean A LOT. I ran seven hours of demos at a growing convention in DC; WashingCON2. Twenty four heroes ran through the first two tutorials while my Overlord got his ass kicked all over the place. As intended. They're learning scenarios.

The first adventure (3) with all four heroes is something else. It's tough for the heroes. I've played it three times with wife and brother-in-law, as well as my normal gaming group. It took veterans two attempts to find success. Those same veterans will be squaring off against me this evening as we close the book on the core set scenarios.

I like Games Workshop stuff. I like Mantic Stuff. I appreciate the top quality of GW, and I appreciate the price points of Mantic. Dungeon Saga is surely not going to win any awards for originality, but damn if don't really dig the combat. I'd consider the complexity to rest between Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest. I can play competently both sober and drunk. A nice wrinkle in the adventure party; the barbarian, elf, dwarf, and wizard start getting sent to the bench in expansions. A Cleric subs in for an elf, a lizard for a dwarf. Tree people, hobbit thingies, and aquatic demon slayers join the fray too. I appreciate the switch up.

I always play the Big Bad. Heroquest's Zargon was less an opponent as he was a Dungeon Mastering Story Teller. Nothing wrong with that, but it can become a bit boring after forty plus quests. In Dungeon Saga, the "Overlord" can actually fuck shit up. And between campaigns, the Overlord role changes. The core box and first expansion feature a necromancer Overlord. In the second expansion, the Overlord is a demon. In the third, it's an orc warlord. And in the fourth, it's a big dragon. Each overlord has different minions, skills, and cards to pull. Further, the climax adventure features the Overlord character itself.

Still, there are warts.
- Player progression is pretty weak. There are gamey rewards for jobs well done, but they're fairly superficial. Equipment and such will carry over into future adventures if it fits the storyline. Stat development is a bit arbitrary, as 2/3 through a campaign, the heroes becomes "legendary" with more kick ass abilities. I try to put it in perspective: Heroquest's progression sucked too, and these DS campaigns are very story/character specific.
- The "toolbox" expansion is called the Adventurer's Companion. It tries to be everything for everyone, and is master of none. Pure co-op, solo rules, character development, bestiary... It's all a bit more work than it should be, but it does work. Character development from scratch seems the weak link, but it's also the one area I've not fully explored.
- The games comes with clips to join Dungeon tiles. These are garbage. I bought a roll of black shelf liner, and have never looked back.

I read somewhere (here, I believe) that Dungeon Saga is more akin to Space Hulk; a great game with pre-set scenarios. I think that's pretty accurate. The core box adventures thus far are well balanced. Looking prematurely into the expansion scenarios, difficulty ramps up significantly. I'm excited to play again this evening, so I guess that's a telling endorsement.

I haven't played Silver Tower, but it looks fab. I'm sure I'd dig it, but my 2016 GW purchases will be focused on Blood Bowl.

Josh Look wrote: I have a copy of Dungeon Saga for sale, $40 shipped. PM if interested.

PM incoming...

Just a little follow up: I like the Dungeon Saga narrative too.

Yes, it's ripe with every fantasy trope possible. But it's well written, and there's a clever arc across everything I've read. The DS core box sets up for a sequel as the Heroquest core box set up 'Return of the Witch Lord.' For Dungeon Saga, the first expansion is called 'The Return of Valandor' and one of the returning heroes gets to swap out with an Angelic Avatar. A holy Incredible Hulk if you will. It's pretty neat.

Interesting. Thanks for the info so far everyone.

One of the aspects of Heroquest that I've always loved (and that almost every newer dungeoncrawler has ignored) is the searching for loot and secret doors. Heroquest brilliantly balanced these searches against increased likelihood of wandering monsters. Do Silver Tower, Dungeon Saga, or any other dungeoncrawlers for that matter have a mechanic for loot/secret door searching?

RabidWookie wrote: Do Silver Tower, Dungeon Saga, or any other dungeoncrawlers for that matter have a mechanic for loot/secret door searching?

In Silver Tower, if the heroes clear the board of monsters they can claim a "respite". This involves each character rolling a dice against the number of skills they have: if anyone rolls lower, a random encounter occurs. Otherwise party members can either heal or search of treasure, the latter with a 50% chance of success. There are no secret doors in Silver Tower.

I have forgotten if there are any similar rules in Dungeon Saga.