Recommend me a good dungeon crawler ;)

[meanboneParticipant 837xp 1]

The Others…

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 1]

My current favourite is, without a doubt, Dungeon Saga. Star Saga and Imperial Assault are also great if you want a sci-fi twist but purely for Fantasy Dungeon Saga.

It’s got a really simple but effective dice mechanic that you could probably show to children (I reckon 7+ should be able to manage it). The miniatures can be a little hit and miss, though mostly hit – being PVC they do need a bit of prep work to straighten a few things out but it’s nothing a bit of hot water can’t fix. You get a really good number of quests in the box and it’s quite well supported with a further 6 expansions availble for it. In terms of price it’s €80, well within your price range, and the expansions are €50.

The down side is that you can’t really customise your adventuring party – each campaign is written for a specific set of characters who are even named in specific scenarios. Changing the characters would be quite difficult. That said with all the extra campaigns availabe you can get replayability that way.

A single mission will take about an hour to two hours to play through so you’re unlikely to finish a full campaign in a single day unless you put a serious shift in so it’s something you can play over multiple sessions.

Another plus is that once you get the hang of the rules, you can pick Star Saga up in no time. Star Saga is the same rules with a few improvements here and there including custom adventure parties

I know I sound like I am singing Mantic’s priases here but IMO at the moment they really are King of the Crawlers.

[collins 16358xp 0]

Another +1 for Imperial Assault. its based off Decent and Im told fixes the annoying things from that game. IA is a great, tough crawler and I’ve had many hours of enjoyment from it.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

There’s also an “Invisible Overlord” mode for full co-op, although my personal preference is with an overlord.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

Descent has some really horrible features that IA fixes. The overlord can basically camp monsters in corridors and just block them completely. IA allows you to move through enemy models with a movement penalty. Line of Sight is also vasy improved. I honestly couldn’t recommend Descent unless you try playing with the IA rules changes, which would require a copy of IA as well as descent

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

@angelicdespot

 

Sounds like it is very similar to the video game, which is a deliberate design choice for flavour and theme.

[jocke 4043xp 0]

Nobody mentiond Gloomhaven yet… Since I´ve played Gloomhaven, I don´t need another Dungeon Crawler. ^^

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

Oh @jocke you cant just tease me with that, spill the beans on Gloomhaven 😉

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

Dark Souls can be a bit of a grind. The dungeon is laid out at the start and you go through the rooms sequentially. Then when you have been through each room you do it again. And again. And again. Until you collected enough equipment to have a crack at the boss at which point you enter the final room. Each time you repeat a room it is EXACTLY the same.

You also only have a finite number times you can rest, limited to about 5 if I remember. The problem is in order for the dungeon to “reset” so you can repeat the rooms to acquire more loot, you have to rest. We house ruled it such that resting doesnt cost you a life, as it were, you only lose a life if you actually die and respawn. I enjoy Dark Souls but I don’t think it would scratch your itch at all; the only box it would tick is that it has some very pretty miniatures.

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

Some amount of recommendations. I need to edit this and make a top ten list, or something!

[wrusher 5494xp 1]

I second Dungeon Saga, great little game and as someone mentioned it has the ability to be fully co-op. It’s simple yet still extremely tactical, placement can make all the difference between winning and having to start over.

The minis are actually very good compared to early Mantic stuff. It’s a firm favourite with my mates.

I have a soft spot for some of the oldies too, Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest were my childhood staples.

Descent is not bad either

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

Wish I could get my hands on the Heroquest stuff.

 

Is there different versions or editions of Dungeon Saga?

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

There’s only one version of Dungeon Saga, however there are currently 5 (maybe 6 although I can’t see the 6th one on their website any more) expansions for it, so including the base game there are currently 6 (or 7) campaigns available. There are also some digital campaigns that you can download I think.

The basic game comes with a load of floor tiles and furniture as well as 4 villains, 4 heroes and a load of undead minions. The expansions generally come with 1 villain, a load of minions (all themed to the adventure) and 2 new hero models but 4 character sheets and you re-use heroes from the base set. Expansions also come with new sets of floor tiles.

The exception is “Eye of the Abyss” which has 4 new heroes, 1 villain, a smaller amount of minions and no floor tiles. This was released in tandem with a big Kings of War campaign, something I can see them doing in future.

On top of this you also have the Adventurer’s Companion expansion which is purely game related mods such as custom heroes, dungeon design support, play as evil characters and solo/full co-op mode. I think it also has a campaign in it.

It’s quite a well supported system so after you have painted and played the basic game you can add to it. I think it’s all fairly reasonably priced too.

In addition to Dungeon Saga, there is also Star Saga, a science fiction reskin/update of Dungeon Saga. The rules are broadly similar but have been improved on slightly. So in Star Saga you can build a custom adventure party by purchasing mercenaries (aka adventurers) from a points pool. It uses custom dice rather than D6 but the mechanics are mostly unchanged. There’s also slightly different cover rules because the game is focused more on shooting than fighting.

One of the Kickstarter add ons was character sheets and miniatures for Deadzone mercenaries and it’s not listed as Kickstarter Exclusive. So it’s possible that Star Saga will also have a few extra characters you can buy and play.

However broadly speaking it’s the same game so you really can choose your poison – sci-fi or sword and sorcery. I would say Star Saga has much greater replayability.

[limburger 21704xp 0]

@mage : mice & mystics could be an option too.

Let’s play (minor spoilers ahead)

part two :

[andre77 13013xp 0]

I would recommend Shadows of Brimstone.

Shadows of Brimstone

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146791/shadows-brimstone-city-ancients

No DM, difficulty level can be adjusted in-game, nice progress of characters, can be hard at the beginning (just start with the base mission), Miniatures are ok to be painted (some base paints and washed do them them right), The missions miss a combining element means campaign. There are other themed contents with linked missions.

ATM there are 2 base-games, with different enemies and heros.

What i can say about Dark Souls is, i dislike the endless grinding of the same enemies and rooms, to then decide its time to get the end Boss.

Imperial Assault is ok, i tried the original Descent but never liked it. Needs a DM, maybe that is why i disliked it. There are missions who cannot be won by the heros or the DM.

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