Tiny Epic Dungeons (2021) [+]
Aug 22 2022
Tiny Epic Dungeons is a board game where a group of four adventurers wander into a dungeon to find and defeat the boss. It runs in two phases. Phase 1 the adventurers explore the dungeon (which is up to 7x7 big with the entrance at the center) which is made of random tiles and one of the bottom tiles is the boss lair. Phase 2 starts when an adventurer enters the lair to reveal the boss and then the adventurers have to lure the boss out to specific dungeon tiles before they can defeat it.
There are about a dozen character cards. They have Strength, Agility and Intellect of 1-3 which is the number of (special) dice they roll for checks. They also have a hit point track (to 8) and an energy track (to 5) and a few special powers and/or special rules on their cards. Special powers use energy and you can use 2 energy to modify a skill die after a roll. Adventurers collect items (which can be part of sets) and spells (which use Intellect check and energy to cast).
Dungeon cards can have a trap or an event both of which require a skill check to avoid. Traps can be disarmed with Agility and you get a treasure. Dungeon cards can also have a goblin (there can only be four goblins on the board, a fifth one ends the game), or a mini-boss (there will be # of mini-boss equal to # of adventurers and all mini-bosses have to be killed before the boss lair can be entered), or the boss lair. The boss lair is also it's own area with spaces for players and the spaces have modifiers, mostly bad, though the last space you get back shots and a bonus.
Game timing is done with a torch that burns down one each adventurer turn. Spaces on the torch track can have another goblin appearing at the entrance or all bad guys take their action. Bad guys move and attack (or just one or the other) and do automatic damage. For adventurers combat is roll skill dice and overcome monster defense rating; in the same roll monster die (normal d6) plus monster attack rating minus adventurer defense is damage adventurer takes, uh if monster lived after adventurer attack.
Skill rolls, including combat, use special dice with 1++ 2++ 3++ 4+ 5e 6h. One die is chosen as skill result. Dice with ++ or + can be used to add 2 or 1 to the skill result. Leftover dice with e or h give one Energy or Hit point. You can use 2 Energy to modify a die by one face up or down after the roll.
The game takes a couple of hours the first time and probably faster once you get used to it. We lost the first game though it was fairly close. We activated the boss too soon (there is a separate torch track for phase 2 so could have spent more of phase 1 getting stuff). Also you can get to a point where a couple of adventurers are unconscious, on their turn they can only recover (+3 hp +5 energy), torches tick down then monsters go and knock the adventurers down again so we wasted a turn or two getting out of that.
It is a fun game. Because there are a good number of characters and bosses it has some replay-ability so I guess three or four playings before it gets boring which is good for $35 and all the cards and cardboard components.
There are about a dozen character cards. They have Strength, Agility and Intellect of 1-3 which is the number of (special) dice they roll for checks. They also have a hit point track (to 8) and an energy track (to 5) and a few special powers and/or special rules on their cards. Special powers use energy and you can use 2 energy to modify a skill die after a roll. Adventurers collect items (which can be part of sets) and spells (which use Intellect check and energy to cast).
Dungeon cards can have a trap or an event both of which require a skill check to avoid. Traps can be disarmed with Agility and you get a treasure. Dungeon cards can also have a goblin (there can only be four goblins on the board, a fifth one ends the game), or a mini-boss (there will be # of mini-boss equal to # of adventurers and all mini-bosses have to be killed before the boss lair can be entered), or the boss lair. The boss lair is also it's own area with spaces for players and the spaces have modifiers, mostly bad, though the last space you get back shots and a bonus.
Game timing is done with a torch that burns down one each adventurer turn. Spaces on the torch track can have another goblin appearing at the entrance or all bad guys take their action. Bad guys move and attack (or just one or the other) and do automatic damage. For adventurers combat is roll skill dice and overcome monster defense rating; in the same roll monster die (normal d6) plus monster attack rating minus adventurer defense is damage adventurer takes, uh if monster lived after adventurer attack.
Skill rolls, including combat, use special dice with 1++ 2++ 3++ 4+ 5e 6h. One die is chosen as skill result. Dice with ++ or + can be used to add 2 or 1 to the skill result. Leftover dice with e or h give one Energy or Hit point. You can use 2 Energy to modify a die by one face up or down after the roll.
The game takes a couple of hours the first time and probably faster once you get used to it. We lost the first game though it was fairly close. We activated the boss too soon (there is a separate torch track for phase 2 so could have spent more of phase 1 getting stuff). Also you can get to a point where a couple of adventurers are unconscious, on their turn they can only recover (+3 hp +5 energy), torches tick down then monsters go and knock the adventurers down again so we wasted a turn or two getting out of that.
It is a fun game. Because there are a good number of characters and bosses it has some replay-ability so I guess three or four playings before it gets boring which is good for $35 and all the cards and cardboard components.