There aren’t a ton of games where you have to draw your own board, but in Doodle Dungeon, it’s not just setup — it’s part of the fun!
The concept of Doodle Dungeon is that you’re the proud new owner of your very own Dungeon, purchased at a surprisingly affordable price… because, as it turns out, it’s just a cave. Hero season is rapidly approaching, but before you can slay the foolish adventurers, you need to hire your monsters and lay out your traps!
This is the first phase of the game. Trading off the starting player token (pencil sharpener) each turn, players go around the table choosing one of the face-up cards; there will be one more than there are players. The bottom part of the card you pick will determine what you add to your dungeon this turn. Note that if it’s a trap, goblin, orc or dragon, it has to have at least one open space between it and any other trap/monsters. Don’t worry though, you can make sure the hero gets hit by ’em all anyway with… walls! Walls usually come first on the card, which you address from left to right, and also come with set configurations — for example, two adjacent spaces and then a diagonal — but you choose how to orient it. The only other rule of placement is that every non-wall space must be accessible and not completely blocked off. And don’t worry, there are stencils for all of these, so while the faces are at-your-own-risk, the shapes are uniformly recognizable.
There are two other additions during the drawing phase: treasure and improvements. When you get a treasure, you write down its location secretly, on a separate sheet — it doesn’t have to have a monster on those coordinates when you place it, but if by the time you’re scoring there either is no monster there, or the monster is dead, you don’t get the points for having it. How many points it’s worth is determined by improvements, and so are several other important factors. These are at the top of the page, in a series of checkboxes — each box is worth one improvement, and, checked off in order, each new row that you’ve marked is the next level of that stat. This determines the treasure’s value, the trap’s damage, how many cards you have in hand, and each monster’s strength — I’ll get to that part later. First, finish your drawing and place your card face-down next to you. Make sure you’re sure before you do, though! Once you’ve flipped it, all placements are final.
Once you’ve gotten through 14 rounds of drawing, it’s time to draw the hero’s path from entrance to exit. More accurately, time for your neighbor to draw your hero’s path — you didn’t think you got to choose your own, did you? This part is a strategic balancing act — on the one hand, the fastest route to the end will leave the hero with the most remaining hit points, which are -1 point deductions each for your opponent; on the other, they get points for each surviving monster, proportional to its damage level (goblins are 1, orcs are 2, dragons are 3). This is, of course, providing they left you multiple routes, and not a very strongly suggested main path, with a few optional branches (probably where the treasure’s hiding, but is it worth the detour?). The hero can pass over each space a maximum of twice.
Now comes the actual adventure phase. If you’re thinking it took us a while to get here, you are absolutely right, but you’ll find you don’t mind when you get to watch the poor overconfident hero stumble into a dragon on space one, or get forced through that carefully unavoidable corridor of trap after trap. The way this works is simple — on your turn, your hero moves to the next encounter in your dungeon, and either takes the trap damage or fights the monster. How this works is pretty simple – you roll two dice, add that monster’s strength to the sum, and if it’s 20 or higher, the monster survives and the hero takes damage (meddling via cards notwithstanding). If it’s lower than that, the monster dies. This is the time to play Dungeon cards (blue), which mostly affect the outcome of combats.
Where did you get your Dungeon cards, you ask? Well, when you were picking earlier, of course! Those 14 cards that built your dungeon are now your deck, so I suggest you pay attention to all parts of the card when you’re choosing. (We didn’t, the first game, and I was bitterly surprised to discover Bomb cards and their habit of gravitating towards me.) Bombs are an example of Hero cards (red), which you play once your Dungeon phase is complete. These are cards that will help your opponents’ heroes win fights, regain health, and generally be greater nuisances. It is important to note that there is no out-of-turn play in this game, so all screwing over of other players must be done in advance. Once you’ve sabotaged to your heart’s content, you can choose to recycle any card in your hand by placing it at the bottom of your deck; afterwards (or if you didn’t recycle), draw back up to whatever number of cards your checkboxes indicate.
The game continues until everyone’s heroes are dead or have made it all the way through the dungeon, so if you’re already done, you’ll just have to watch and wait. You still technically have a turn, though, so if you have Hero cards you’d like to play, you can! At the end, everyone tallies up their successfully hidden treasure, surviving monsters, and deductions for hero HP (or +5 bonus for a dead one), and whoever has the highest score wins!
It’s a small detail, but I also appreciate how each page is double-sided for multiple uses, and they include both an eraser and a pencil sharpener along with the pencils. All in all, this game is a fun, well-executed balance between creative strategy and sheer dumb luck, and I highly recommend it.
