This is a fun little card game that's pretty quick to pick up, and doesn't take very long to play. It's a perfect filler game for those times when someone in your gaming group is running late, or if you just want a fast play to end the night. At its heart, this is a press your luck game. You're betting the other players that you can beat the dungeon, based on the limited information you have about what monsters await the adventurer who enters. Or, if you've decided you don't think you can beat the dungeon, you want to make the dungeon harder for whoever ends up going in. But you need to consider your actions carefully, or it may just be you that ends up taking on the dungeon.
To break this game down, let's begin by talking about the components of the game. The game starts with an adventurer in the middle of the playing area. There are 4 to choose from, each with a specified amount of Hit Points (HP).
Each adventurer also has some special items to help in defeating the dungeon. There are 4 sets of adventurers & special items, but only one set is used at a time. Each item either adds HP to the adventurer, defeats a certain type or types of monsters, or gives some other special ability specified on the card.
The monsters in the dungeon are represented by these cards. Each card contains a power rating, as well as some helpful symbols to help you remember which special item defeats it.
Players take turns drawing monster cards and then deciding to either place the monster facedown in the dungeon, or remove the monster from the game, along with a special item of their choosing. Monsters removed in this way will not be faced by the adventurer who enters the dungeon, but they will also not have the use of the special item that was removed. Instead of drawing a monster card, each player may also choose to pass. This means that the player will not enter the dungeon this round, and also will not draw any more monster cards this round. To aid in your decision, the game comes with this handy player aid.
Play continues in this manner until all players have passed but one. This player is the one who enters the dungeon. When a player enters the dungeon, all facedown monster cards are flipped over in order. If a monster is not defeated by one of the special items, the monster's power is subtracted from the adventurer's HP. If the adventurer's HP is reduced to the zero before all the monsters cards are flipped over, the adventurer is defeated. If not, the adventurer is victorious, and has beaten the dungeon. If a player is defeated twice, they are out of the game. The first player to beat two dungeons is the winner.
My group had a good time with this one, and we played with 3 and with 4 players. It's everything a light, fun, quick card game should be. There aren't many complicated mechanics and it's easy to learn. There's a bit of good-natured bluster when someone gets stuck with a dungeon they didn't want, and cheers all around when that last card flipped over means victory. All in all, it made for an enjoyable time with friends, and that's really what games are all about for me.