I started playing adventure games when I was 8 or 9 with Basic D&D (yeah, I'm old). I've read many fantasy books over the years, and exploring the secrets of a dungeon is what I think of when I think of fantasy. You know, Conan escaping the hounds and getting his sword from the skeletal fingers of an ancient king. Tanis Half-Elf escaping the draconians and, um, getting his sword from the skeletal fingers of an ancient king. Well, there are lots of other examples too.

When computers arrived, I played many dungeon crawl games. Rogue, Tunnels of Doom, Wizardry, Diablo (much later), and it all culminated with Everquest. I loved grouping with my friends and crawling through all the unique dungeons in Norrath. Sadly, future MMOs haven’t had the sheer square footage of EQ dungeons.

Over the years, my gaming time has dwindled, and I’ve run out of friends interested in pen and paper RPGS, so I’ve been searching for a solo game to fill that void. I’ve tried to recreate the dungeon exploration experience with other games; notably Magic the Gathering for raw battle and 2 Hour Wargames (tabletop miniature rulesets that can be played solo) for the tactical battles. I’ve thought of trying dungeon games like Descent, but they are a tad intimidating and not likely to be played by my gaming friends (i.e. a waste of money). Heroscape (D&D edition) is another great dungeon crawl game, but it takes up a lot of room and isn’t designed to be played solo. Also, games that use miniatures take up too much room to be portable (can’t take them on vacations or work trips).

I’m grooming my kids to play Heroscape with me, but that will take a few years. I needed something to hold me until then. Enter Dungeon Crawler.

Dungeon Crawler is a card-based dungeon crawl game from indie game publisher Gifted Vision (and you know I love indies). I heard about in from a Fathergeek review (http://fathergeek.com/reviews/dungeon-crawler/) which featured the fact that it is a good game to play both solo and with kids (extra bonus). Fathergeek and the Dungeon Crawler site cover the rule details pretty well, so I’ll speak from a bigger picture standpoint. If I pique your interest, you can check those links for more. I’ve only played in solo mode, but there are co-op and competitive modes as well. I have the base game and two “delve” packs, which have more of all types of cards. There are 3 more delve packs that I haven’t gotten, yet. Adding packs lets you fine tune the game even more to fit your play style, or to give broader variety.

Dungeon Crawler is a lot like Magic the Gathering meets Diablo. All the action is done with cards and counters (Magic style), but the game is a crawl through a randomized dungeon complete with a “boss” monster. Since you build the dungeon deck, you know what to expect (like each time you go into a Diablo dungeon), but you don’t know when the different creatures (which range from yard trash to the nasty boss), events, traps, or terrain will come up. And you don’t know what combinations of cards you’ll encounter. That keeps it fresh. In addition to the dungeon deck, you also have a crawler deck with all your spells, equipment, tactics and skills. Kind of like Diablo where you know there are scrolls you can learn and gear you can find, but you don’t know if you’ll have a particular bit of loot when you run into the level boss. Those two decks give all the randomness I need to keep me playing.

But wait, there’s more. You also get to choose your party of four adventurers. Depending on who you choose, you’re adventure will play out differently. Oh, and you get to pick different quests. Quests are task that you have to accomplish. You pick three, and have to complete one, two, or three (depending on difficulty) to win the game.

During the game, you have to manage your hand (drawn from the crawler deck) and decide whether to use or save your tricks. Your party members will take wounds and possibly die, which can change your ability to play your crawler cards. So during each encounter (which is kind of like a room in the dungeon), you have to decide to use resources to get by unscathed, or save the powerful tricks for later and suck up a wound or two. Check out the flash demos here to get a better idea of what’s going on during a game.

I do have some criticism. The rules are not simple and easy, and the rule book can be daunting. There can be a lot of information to digest in each encounter. My first playthrough was pretty rough, and I couldn’t figure out what a few of the rules meant. I just picked an interpretation and went with it. Fortunately, the rules seem robust enough to handle my flawed interpretation and still provide a fun game. My second game went much smoother. After playing twice to get a feel for the game, I reread the rules and FAQs. The third game was as smooth as silk. I recommend playing and not stressing about getting the rules just right on your first few go throughs. The rulebook makes a lot more sense after you’ve played a few games. The website also has a lot of good explanations, FAQ, etc. And the devs are extremely good about answering questions on twitter. Follow @dungeoncrawler and @Greenknee to see what I mean.

On the plus side, the wide variety of rules and special abilities leads to some interesting encounters that would have been bland if the rules were much simpler. I like variety and unpredictability, so I didn’t mind the learning curve.

One minor quibble is that the adventurers are given generic names (gypsy rogue, dwarf fighter-ish sorts of titles). I would have preferred real names, in order to feel more attached to the characters. A minor thing, but it is made more noticeable because the dungeon boss has a name and a lot of personality. Too bad the heroes don’t. I’ll have to make up my own and write on the cards.

I expect to play solo for the most part, but I’d like the game to have some fun pvp (like Magic the Gathering) for times when I can talk my friends into playing. Unfortunately, the pvp mode boils down to double solo mode. I play against the dungeon you made, and you play against the dungeon I made. There are some cards that you can play against the other person, but it isn’t head to head fighting.If you want to play head to head pvp, you might be disappointed. Although… I’ve got some ideas for how to do it. One player would be the Dungeon Master. Hmmm…

Along that same line, Dungeon Crawler looks fairly easy to modify. There is one boss mob included in the current game. Since I make games as a hobby, I like games that are amenable to tinkering. I’m planning to make my own bosses in order to change the flavor of the dungeon. I can also see making some new adventurers and quests without breaking the game. But if my ambitions outpace my free time, I needn’t worry; Gifted Vision has an expansion coming soon that will have a new boss and some new flavor.

The bottom line is that Dungeon Crawler is a fun, portable, solo dungeon crawling game. Each game only takes about an hour, so it is perfect for playing after the kiddos go to bed, in the hotel when I’m on work travel, etc. If you are interested in that sort of thing, then you’ll like this game. The biggest problem is that I got busy and forgot to order the rest of the delve packs when they had their free shipping sale.

Todd "Winin" Edwards

When he's not playing games, Todd also writes and illustrates geeky stories for kids. For more info or to buy a book, visit: www.nerniandfriends.com