1-4 players - Age 8+ - Playing time 15-30 minutes
What is it?
This is one of the few great games that I've played, that can be played purely solo. The only reason this is for 1-4 players is because, basically one person plays as a Hero, and the other rolls for the 'Dungeon'. Then the rest of the players can all get a go being the Hero and being the Dungeon.
Each Hero has their own 'Speciality' which is a passive power that allows the Hero to manipulate the game somehow. For each round the Hero also gets to use an 'Ultimate power'.
A game consists of 3 rounds (delves into the dungeon) and the Dungeon has a maximum of 10 levels. Each level sees the same amount of Monster dice as the level you're on, level 1 has 1 Monster etc. It's up to the party of 7 Heroes (dice), rolled at the beginning of the round, to beat as many Monsters and progress as many levels of the Dungeon as possible.
Each of the sides of the party dice are either; A Thief, a Mage, a Warrior, a Champion, a Cleric or a Scroll. Apart from the Scroll, each side has the ability to either kill one of any Monster type or, if the colour matches, then duplicates of Monsters can be killed with just one side. For example - A Warrior (green) can kill multiple Goblins (which are also green). The same happens with the other party dice, apart from the Champion, which can kill multiples of anything.
Among the different types of Monsters, it is possible to roll a Dragon. These get put to one side as a delve (round) progresses but once there are three, it's time to "Slay the Dragon", which means you need three different types of Hero to kill off the Dragon.
As you kill Dragons, you gain Treasure tokens, which do different things. You may get a party token, which basically acts as an extra to your party dice. You may get Dragon Scales for extra XP (experience points). There are also other Treasures which let you do different things too, like being able to run away from the Dragon and go back to the town.
XP is gained by advancing levels and is counted up at the end of each round, plus any treasures you've gained along the way. The good thing about this, is that you are then just told what kind of Hero you are, so it's not really about beating the other players, its just about beating the game for as much as you can!
What I thought
Dragon Roll is a really well thought out game, which plays really nicely if you have other players that don't like losing or are just really competitive...you're kind of out for yourself on this game and it really doesn't matter who gets the highest, I just think of it as "have I beaten my personal best?"
It's a really neat little box so can be travelled with very nicely. At the beginning of lockdown, I let my partners kids borrow it while they went off in their caravan for a long weekend. The pieces are made of nice thick card and the dice are just dice, but feel and sound really good...wow...that's quite a geeky thing to say!!
The Verdict!
If you're bored one evening and everyone is doing something else, maybe playing a different board game, then Dungeon Roll will be enough to keep you busy. It's quick, it's fun and there's loads of heroes to choose from so you can get used to how their specialties work. I really like the Leprechaun at the moment! His speciality is that he can open treasures before killing monsters, so there's more chance of pulling party dice and not using your own dice straight away!
There's also expansions you can purchase too which provide different heroes with more Specialities.
Adult Rating: Good for the adults, while the kids are busy with younger based games.
/5Family Rating: Although everyone in the family can get involved, only 2 people will be doing anything at one time, so little ones could get a little bored.
/5
It's currently available from Fishpond.co.uk for £23.62, however this is shipping from the USA, so not sure how long that will take, although they are offering FREE shipping.
Alternatively it's available on Amazon.co.uk for £19.97.
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