When I was growing up in the ‘80s, D&D was one of my favorite games – there was nothing better than hanging out with friends and adventuring through dungeons, battling monsters, and bypassing ingenious traps. Clank! is a board game inspired by that familiar dungeon crawl where players steal treasure from the hoard of a dragon, but with a mashup of modern mechanics applied to this theme.

I love deck-builders, and deck-building and roleplaying are a natural fit, as power progression in both genres is a mechanical staple. By adding a map where you get to explore the dungeon with a character, I aimed to bring some accessibility and context to what is often (in deck-builders) an abstract points-accumulation game. The story arc and context of dungeon exploration and character progression lets casual and younger players have fun with the game alongside veteran players, regardless of level of mastery.

Character growth is represented by card acquisition as you buy cards for your deck, granting you advanced abilities, companions, and potent items. As in many deck-builders, you start with a weak deck in Clank!, including ‘Stumble’ cards that make noise. And noise – or as we call it, "Clank!" – is at the heart of what makes the game special.

~ Clank! Cubes ~

You use wooden cubes to represent how much Clank! you make while crawling the dungeon. Some cards are powerful and aggressive, but generate more Clank! than other less potent cards. Using such cards means you put more wooden cubes into the bag that comes with the game. When the dragon attacks, cubes are pulled out of the bag at random to see who it hits, so the noisier you are, the more you risk getting knocked out by the dragon!

~ Danger Rising ~

The game’s mechanics create a story arc of rising tension from start to finish. The Dragon's bag is seeded with 24 black cubes, which are blanks; when these are drawn, the dragon fails to hit its target – so the players are safe. However, cubes never go back into the bag, so the ratio of player cubes in the bag gets higher and higher as the game approaches its climax.

The Dragon's Rage Track is another way that danger escalates. This represents how angry the dragon is and how many cubes are pulled from the bag when the dragon attacks. The Rage Track starts at two cubes, but increases as players pick up artifacts or dragon eggs.

Because the game gets very dangerous as it nears the end, there is often an inflection point when everyone at the table realizes that time is running out and they need to get out fast! Adding further risk is the fact that if you’re knocked out while in the depths of the dragon's lair, you’re eliminated from the game! Also, any player who grabs an artifact and flees the entire dungeon successfully gains a major 20 point bonus. There’s a lot of fun tension around knowing just how far to press your luck – one false move often means the difference between victory and fiery defeat.

~ Fun for All ~

Clank! was designed to have rich, deep gameplay that will be satisfying for veteran board gamers, but also be enjoyed by families and game groups looking for some laughs on a wild, dungeon-crawling romp. Often, deck-builders can feel like multiplayer solo experiences. In Clank! you have to keep a close eye on other players and where they are in the dungeon.  Plus, there is the just plain fun social aspect of pulling wooden cubes from the dragon's bag that gets people on the edge of their seats, hoping their cubes don't get pulled and cheering for the dragon to punish the noisiest players at the table.  And if you’re knocked out, you don’t have to wait long for a new game to start - the end-game countdown starts then, and danger escalates quickly, while you get to help the dragon serve just desserts to everyone still in the dungeon.

~ Replayability ~

With a double-sided board representing two different dragon lairs, and dozens of randomized secret tokens distributed across the dungeon at the start of each game, no two runs through the dungeon are exactly alike. The dungeon deck itself provides a lot of replayability, with 100 cards that are shuffled to create different strategies and opportunities for each run. This means you can’t rely on the same strategy you used last time; successful adventurers will be flexible and pursue different strategies and cards from run to run. Being a thief means living in the moment, and in the depths of the dungeons of Clank! you never know which moment will be your last.

Quotes from Reviewers:

Tom Vasel, The Dice Tower -

"I like deckbuilding... but I also like the idea of exploring and going and finding stuff and then getting out before time runs out, and those two are combined here in a very good, entertaining way."

Man Vs Meeple -

"This is the deckbuilder that culls all the deckbuilders out of my collection. It is the best one I've ever played." - Jeremy Salinas, Man Vs Meeple