This past weekend I elected to give this game a try based on a few recommendations. One Deck Dungeon from Asmadi Games is a very interesting little game both mechanically and thematically, especially if you want a single player experience that is not in a digital or video game format. (Yes, technically there is a digital version as well, but that’s not the point of this particular train of thought.)
The game starts by picking your hero from a number of fantasy mainstays: Warrior, Mage, Archer, Rogue and Paladin. Each character of course come with their own strengths, weaknesses and special ability of some kind, conveniently all formatted onto a two-sided character card with one side being dedicated to single player and the flip side containing the info for the character in a 2-player game.
The stats for each character will match a color of die and indicate how many of the given dice are rolled during challenges encountered during play. Yellow for strength/combat as represented by swords, magenta for dexterity represented by a winged boot and blue for magic indicated as a mystic symbol. Finally, a fourth die type used as ‘Heroic dice’ is indicated by a black die. The heroic dice tend to be gained through level ups and special items or abilities.
Sometimes a character will be rolling all of these dice and sometimes a character will only be allowed to roll one type of them depending on the type of challenge being encountered. Generally speaking, combat encounters will include rolling all of the dice while traps and obstacle type or peril challenges allow only one type of ability plus heroic dice to be rolled but usually come with a choice on how to engage the challenge.
Now we get to the main game mechanic and the game’s namesake, the dungeon deck. The deck consists of a mix of challenges split between combat and peril. The deck is shuffled with the stairs card placed face up at the bottom. Each turn consists of passing time by flipping cards from the deck and then a choice of exploring or opening a door. Exploring on the first turn will put four cards face down in the play area as the doors that can be opened, exploring on later turns instead fills up to four depending on how many doors are active in the play area. The second option is to open one of the four face down doors. Opening the door reveals the challenge, once the challenge is revealed the player has the choice to encounter it or flee.
Fleeing lets the card remain face up to be encountered later or ignored as the player sees fit. Encountering the card brings us to the chucking dice portion of the game (The best part some might say) This is where the fun and silliness really get started. The player rolls all of their dice in a combat encounter and a group of them in a peril encounter as mentioned above. The encounter will have several numbered and colored boxes either single dice sized or double boxes. Single boxes need to have their number matched or exceeded by a single die matching the box color while double boxes can contain any number of dice to meet the numeric value. Heroic dice can be used in any box and if you have a surplus of dice, you can spend two dice to gain a single heroic dice that’s equal to the lowest dice spent.
After all of the dice have been chucked, battles fought, numbers tallied, wounds bled and such the consequences of the encounter will be determined. Each box that remains uncovered will contain a symbol that will indicate if time is spent and wounds are taken and in some cases an encounter special ability may also indicate secondary effects as well. Once consequences are doled out it’s time to reap the rewards!
Each encounter card implements a very solid piece of design for the rewards. It will be put under either the hero card or the level card in the form of three possible types of reward: Items, Skills, Potions or Experience. Items line up with the hero’s primary abilities to indicate a bonus given. Skills will go under the bottom of the hero card for new abilities. Experience goes under the level card which will determine the number of potions as well as max items and skills heroes are allowed to have. Potions will go with the level card as well to give new effects that potions can be used for.
Once one of the above choices has been made and resolutions are completed it goes to the next turn and time passes again. Once the card deck is exhausted, you have the option to proceed to the next dungeon level. The new level is started by shuffling all current door cards and discarded cards back together and moving the turn reference card down to reveal the next level of the dungeon on the dungeon card. The dungeon card will add additional boxes that need to be covered for each challenge on the next floor making each level a bit more challenging than the last.
The game will conclude itself in one of two ways. First, if you suffer enough wounds from encounter consequences, the hero dies and everyone’s old frenemy game over occurs. Second and considerably more satisfying, defeating the dungeon’s boss! After completing 3 levels on the front of the dungeon card, it is flipped over to encounter the boss. The boss is played as a combat encounter over multiple rounds with consequences occurring at the end of each round. An extra symbol gets added to some of the boxes to indicate damage to the boss. Once either the heroes or the boss is dead the game is complete!
Finally, for added fun on additional plays there is both a difficulty system provided as well as campaign play and skills that can be acquired between dungeons to make your hero more flexible on the next run. This has a nice little rogue legacy type of feel to it and makes additional playthroughs more interesting and may even change your playstyle approach on subsequent games.
I definitely see myself spending a chunk of my time with this on days I need to get away from a computer for a while or just need a fun distraction. I also look forward to trying the game’s multiplayer with some friends as it plays very quick and is very easy to travel with as I can fit all the necessary contents into a backpack pocket or easily toss it in a travel bag. Definitely worth a shot if you enjoy a fantasy dungeon that isn’t going to eat up hours at a time.
Thanks for taking the time to read this review and I hope my fellow gamers find this review helpful!
Relevant links
Asmadi games site:
https://asmadigames.com/games-onedeckdungeon.php
Board Game Geek Page:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/179275/one-deck-dungeon
Amazon product page:
https://apenaquillandadatapad.com/OneDeckDungeon
Forest of Shadows:
https://apenaquillandadatapad.com/ODDForestofShadows
Abyssal Depths:
https://apenaquillandadatapad.com/ODDAbyssalDepths
Youtube how to play: