Stats:
No. of players: 1-6
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 9+
Set-up time: 10 minutes

Dungeon Run Rules Description:

Dungeon Run is a dungeon crawl with a twist. You and your “friends” must kill the dungeon boss and retrieve the summoning stone. The problem is only one of you can exit with the stone and win the game.

Dungeon Run a fairly light dungeon crawl. You start by choosing a character and selecting a special ability for them. Each turn you may take two of these actions: move, escape, battle, search, equip or advance.

When you move onto a new tile there might be treasure or a monster/trap or both. Monsters attack first and every monster rolls a certain number of dice and hits you on different numbers one through six. You attack by rolling dice based on your character’s brawn or magic rating. You can use die that matches a monster’s die that hit you to block. Any dice you roll above the monster’s defense value hits the monster.

Traps must be disarmed as soon as you enter a room. Any trap you disarm or monster you defeat goes into your loot pile. When you take the advance action you discard two encounter cards. This lets you get another special ability and add one point to your brawn, magic or skill rating.

Treasure is found by searching and can also boost your character’s stats if they can wear the equipment.

You are also able to assist or sabotage other characters on your tile. This is a free action and if they succeed with your help you can heal one wound. If they succeed despite your interference, you’ll take a wound.

There are a set number of tiles based on the number of players. Once all the tiles are placed you put the boss room out. You must defeat the boss who will drop the summoning stone. After you claim the summoning stone, you become the boss. Each character has a special ability they can only use when possessing the stone.

If you have the stone you want to exit the dungeon to win. If you don’t have the stone you want to kill the character with the stone.

A Quick Dungeon Run Review:

Dungeon Run is a fairly quick dungeon crawl that is full of betrayal and action. You must work together with the other players but know in the end they are the enemy. This can create some interesting politics and tension.

The components for this game are excellent. The art and materials are very well-done. The rulebook is a bit wordy but not too hard to follow. You will probably reference it a few times you play and might even need to google a few rulings. Most answers are pretty easy to find though and shouldn’t slow you down too much.

The end game might slow you down a bit though. Our group found that once the stone was grabbed players were jockeying for position, especially if there is more than one way to the exit. So we sped to the climax and things slowed a bit.

One of the best parts of Dungeon Run is the combat. Although pretty random it is fun and unique. The way you can block or just decide to get and give hits is great. I also like having a hand full of dice to chuck across the table.

The way you advance your character is great too. You draw two special ability cards and keep one. This makes each character different every time you play it and really adds to Dungeon Run’s replay value.

Dungeon Run is not perfect, but it is a lot of fun and appeals to a wide range of ages. If you enjoy other dungeon crawls you should check this out. Also gamers who like sticking to fellow players will love this.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6