Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King's Quest

Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King's Quest is a 2-5 player game with 2 sides: one is the dungeon full of dangerous beasties, and the other is a party of adventuring heroes. The dungeon is always played by one person, but the adventurers can be divided between different players to accommodate up to 5 players in total. During the game the heroes team up to tackle the dungeon and do heroic things. The player controlling the dungeon full of monsters does their best to stop them.

The game is played on a map that is built out of tiles, as before, and like before the games follow a series of narratively linked scenarios or adventures.

The rules build on the previous editions of "Dwarf King's Hold" with a new layer of even tougher characters on top of those we have met before: heroes. These come in several flavors, with some on each side. Note that “Hero” does not always mean “good guy”.

There may be some backstabbing elements introduced, to help spice up the typical cooperative game. Each player may have a secret agenda or goal, and his winning may therefore not always work out so well for everyone else...

Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King's Quest is really two games in one. The first is a simple and fast game where you are given a story and a puzzle (in the form of a scenario), and the tools to unlock it (in the form of heroes). The miniatures will be pre-assembled or single piece, the dungeons planned out for you, the bad guys and heroes’ stats calculated, and each scenario balanced. This is much like the previous games Dwarf King's Hold 1 and 2, with added heroes. As the story unfolds, both sides grow in strength and experience, with this all being pre-calculated and balanced. All you need to do is set up and play.

The second game is much more open ended. This advanced game is described in the fearsome, separate tome, "the Book of Depravity". Now everything becomes an option. Instead of a specific, named individual Dwarf hero, you get the ability to design your own. When you gain experience, you get to choose how you improve. There will be stats for all the models in the Kings Of War range (scores of beasties to choose from), stuff to do between adventures, items to buy (and loot to buy them with), doors to unlock, more spells to conjure, traps to set and so on. You get the idea.

These games lead on from one another in terms of complexity, so you can play through the first game’s scenarios and learn how all the core rules work before worrying about any of the extra level of detail.