Dungeons, Dice and Danger is a tabletop game that spans all ages. We’ve played this as a family, with our seven year old, and in our board game group with adults. Everyone always has a good time, and it’s sort of like an introduction into heavier tabletop games, so it’s a great way to introduce children into dungeon looting.
Dungeons, Dice and Danger features a few different dungeons to choose from, through dungeon sheets that are ripped off their notepad and given to each player. These are each double sided, with a different game on each side. The box has a ton of these, with different difficulty levels, so you can start off slow and make your way to more advanced dungeons.
All of your game is played in this dungeon, on the sheet in front of you, and everyone should have their own dungeon in front of them. Each of the players are in this specific dungeon, but aren’t working together or able to interact. Instead, the game has you spending dice rolls to attempt to get more points then anyone else.
On the bottom of the dungeon sheet, you can track your gems and other loot that you end up finding in the dungeon. On the right hand side of the paper, there are some abilities. A golden area showcases abilities that you can unlock by finding a chest in your dungeon; two torches that allow you to “open” any space on the map, without using dice, three black die uses, and a combination of a heart and a gem. Below this yellow space is your three black die uses that you get by default. Let’s talk about the dice!
When it’s your turn, you will roll four white dice and one black die. You must then add two dice together to get a number and fill in that number on your dungeon. If you roll the dice, you can use the black die. If you have not rolled this round and want to use the black die, you need to use one of your three uses of the die. You can only use the dice that were rolled once each.
When you first start the game, you can only fill in green spaces on the dungeon by adding up the two dice. You need to use two combinations to avoid losing a life, as each time you cannot spend two combinations of numbers, you will lose some health which can result in negative points at the end of the game. Once you have a dungeon tile filled in in the green area of your dungeon, you can then see which doors in that room lead to other areas of the dungeon, and if you have a path to a tile, you can add up the numbers to get to those tiles, creating a path around the dungeon. This is much easier done then explained!
In Dungeons, Dice and Danger, there are tiles that are not specific numbers; some tiles require two dice to have the same number. Other tiles have beasts on them that need to be killed before you can travel through the tile onto the tiles on the other side. This is done by using the black numbers on their dungeon tiles or by rolling the numbers you have unlocked by getting to the tiles around them. There are different rewards for being the first person to kill a beast and being anyone afterwards.
Dungeons, Dice and Danger ends when someone defeats the monster in the middle of the map, which is the strongest and most challenging. This then triggers the last round and everyone will then start adding up their points to see who won! It’s a simple game to follow but one that is a lot of fun. There is also a lot of strategy around what numbers you go for and what paths you are making in your dungeon. It’s simple enough that children can follow it, but has enough strategy in it that when adults play, there is suddenly systems and a lot of movements that are similar!
You can find Dungeons, Dice and Danger on Amazon.
