Become a Hero of Legend in Dungeons, Dice, & Danger!

Are you brave enough to traverse the deepest and darkest dungeons in search of legendary treasure? Find out in Dungeons, Dice, & Danger! In this humorous roll & write game designed by Richard Garfield, you’ll make your way through dungeons, battle imaginative monsters, and collect treasures. Whoever collects the most Victory points wins the game!

The Adventure Begins 

In Dungeons, Dice, & Danger players navigate a labyrinth, looking for the most efficient routes toward treasure while facing off against increasingly ferocious creatures. There are four different Adventures that they can experience, including Annoyed Animals, Clumsy Cultists, Puzzled Pyramid, and Defiant Dinosaurs. Each Adventure has a similar layout. Along with the map detailing all the Treasure to be had and all the Monsters to conquer, each Adventure sheet helps players track their Life points, Special abilities, scoring spaces, and bonus rewards. 

To start, players will first need to agree which Adventure they’d like to journey through. Since Annoyed Animals is the simplest one to explore, it is usually recommended that first-time players begin with this Realm. The group will then designate the Active Player, who’ll roll all four white dice, and one black die. The result of these dice will need to remain where every other player can see them, as each will need to build two pairs of dice combinations from the results of the four white dice. Only the Active player can use the result of the black die as part of their dice combinations – the other players can only use them to play a Black Dice ability during that specific round.

These dice combinations are used to cross out two corresponding spaces on their individual maps – these are counted as visited and cannot be visited again. During this process, players may encounter Treasure like Gold or Gems, which award Victory points, Treasure Chests, which can award different Special abilities, or they may come across the dreaded Monsters!

Getting Closer to Victory 

There are two ways that players can collect Victory points and get closer to winning the game. The first of those is simple enough – as players navigate their map, they’ll come across spaces that contain Gold or Gems, which are worth a different number of Victory points. While looking through available paths, players might want to keep in mind that Gems are worth one more Victory point than Gold, since there are limited scoring opportunities available during the game.

The second way is to fight the Monsters! Using the die results that the Active player rolled, players will need to choose one dice pair corresponding to one of the Monster’s room numbers. Each time they do this, they’ll be able to cross out a Life point box in the Monster’s room. When all Life point boxes are crossed out, a player has dealt Lethal Damage, and the Monster is defeated! The first player to defeat this Monster will get the highest Gem reward, and all subsequent players gain the lower Gem reward. Once again, players will need to consider their routes carefully to defeat higher-value Monsters and receive the most Victory points, as a Monster’s room can only be accessed through visited spaces. Additionally, a player can only visit spaces beyond a Monster’s room when it has been vanquished.

Roll Well, Choose Well 

As mentioned previously, players will come across Treasure Chests while exploring each realm. These contain Special abilities like an Extra Life, which allows players to gain additional Life points. It’s important to avoid losing Life points, as these affect Victory points at the end of the game. Treasure Chests can also contain a Torch, which make it easier to travel through the Dungeon, and can even deal Damage to a Monster. 

Treasure Chests can also award a player with an Extra Black Dice ability – giving them more chances to use all dice combinations when they are the Passive player. Making sure that players can always use their dice combinations is paramount to success, as each time they are not able to cross out two items during each round, they must subtract a Life point, thereby losing Victory points. 

Apart from the standard numbered spaces that allow players to gain Victory points, achieve Special abilities, or defeat Monsters, each Dungeon has special requirements that makes Dungeons, Dice, & Danger even more replayable. For example, players may come across a Fist symbol in certain spaces within the Annoyed Animals Adventure. To visit these rooms, players will need to have a pair of doubles in their available dice combinations. When these rooms are visited, they’ll deal 1 Damage to each Monster on their Dungeon map. And as a bonus, when a player checks off five of the six spaces containing a Fist symbol, they’ll get even more Gem rewards!  

Counting Your Spoils

Once a player has managed to defeat their last Monster, the game ends and it is time for all players to calculate their riches! Although it may seem that the first player to defeat the last Monster will likely emerge victorious, other players should not lose hope. Each subsequent player will be allowed to finish the current round before moving on to scoring. Players should keep in mind that they gain Victory points for every 3 Damage they deal to a Monster, so fighting one will be a great way to gain some extra points during this last round.

To calculate their fortune, players will total all Victory points, then subtract any Life points lost.  The player with the most Victory points wins the game!

Gather Your Courage and Pack Your Sword!

Dungeons, Dice, & Danger will test players’ strategy chops while tickling their funny bone, as this roll & write game’s tongue-in-cheek tone is present throughout each Realm’s gorgeous artwork. Its scalable difficultly makes it extremely replayable, and its solo option will allow players to explore a dungeon on their own and practice their Treasure-hunting and Monster-fighting skills.   

Dungeons, Dice, & Danger is available now at your friendly local game store, so go on a quest for your own copy!