The Expedition Begins
Heroes of the Endless Dungeons (HED) is a light role-playing party game that seeks to bridge the gap between complex RPG games and casual players. Elements from conventional TTRPGs like class abilities, equipment and leveling are still present, but taken to their most basic form in order to make the game approachable and easy to pick up for any type of player.
Game nights shouldn't have to take 30+ minutes just to set up a game. While some of us board game afficionados don't mind it, trying to convince the group of friends that consider Catan a complex game might be tough.
HED has a simple set-up that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. The game has plenty of depth focused on player interactions in order to keep game nights fun, interesting for everyone and without feeling like you’re being left out. Whether you tackle the game in co-operative fashion or you compete against each other, the random nature of HED allows for the game to feel fresh yet familiar.
To better understand the game, let's go over the basic actions and mechanics of the game.
Choosing Your Hero
The first thing you do in HED, like any good RPG worth its salt, is ponder the age old question: do I want to swing a big axe or make things explode with magic?
It may sound scary at first, but HED boils down the essence of each archetype into a conveniently easy to understand Hero Board. Each Hero has different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Whether they have an ability that rewards teamwork or abilities that reward going solo, there's something for every type of player.
To pick a hero, first you need to know what you’re looking at:
Discovering Rooms
Each turn players may discover new rooms by drawing a Dungeon Tile and placing it next to the tile they're currently occupying. The doorways of the current and the new tile must connect, it doesn't matter if other doorways are blocked, as long as the one to your current room is connected to the new room tile. When entering a room you might have to battle a monster, trigger an event or encounter a shop, but most importantly, among the 35 Dungeon Tiles hides the Boss Room where you'll fight the big bad of the dungeon.
Battling Monsters!
When battling monsters you’ll have to roll dice, add your heroe’s Attack Bonus (ATK) and try to beat the monster’s HP in one single strike. Otherwise you’ll have to make an Escape Attempt to retreat back to safety. Thankfully, you’ll be able to rely on Treasure cards and your fellow adventurers if worse comes to worst.
Monsters come in 3 different Threat Levels to match your Hero Level :
Treasure Cards & Items
While exploring the dungeon you might come upon Treasure Cards. These cards can give empowering effects, they might allow you to take extra actions, or even directly interact with other players in... fun ways.
Alternatively, you may come across some coins when defeating a monster, you can later use said coins in the Merchants Shop to purchase various Equipment cards to aid you in your adventures.
The Boss Room
The main objective of HED is to defeat the ancient evil hiding in the labyrinthian dungeon, otherwise known as: The Boss. Sooner or later you will come upon the Boss Room tile while exploring, this will trigger the reveal of the monster that will be The Boss for the remainder of the game by pulling one of the 10 cards from the Boss Deck.
Boss monsters are unique in that they will impose a new rule for the dungeon affecting players, monsters, the dungeon or multiple of the above. Along with their “Lord of the Dungeon” ability, battles with the Boss look a little different than with normal monsters.
Unlike the regular monsters, this ancient being won’t just stand there and take your attacks silently, they will fight back until only one stands. When fighting a Boss you will roll your ATK against that of the Boss. If you manage to match or beat the Boss’s roll, you’ll deal 1 point of damage to the Boss. And just like the players, the Boss has more than just 1 HP.
