Back in the late 90’s, Peter Molyneux still knew how to make games. Two of the best ones were Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper II. The basic idea behind the games was that you were an evil overlord in charge of a dungeon who had to constantly put up with such things as do-gooders invading dungeons. Cute concept that was pretty decently executed. Sadly, Dungeon Keeper 3 never materialized…
But enough about that. My every-other-Saturday group doesn’t just play tabletop RPGs. We play board games as well… cleanse the palette between games, don’t you know. Well, one of the best board games we’ve stumbled across is a board game called Dungeon Lords. (If you wanted to make a board game version of Dungeon Keeper, you could do a *LOT* worse.)
The general gist of the game is that you are in charge of a dungeon and you have to manage it… generate food, generate gold, generate traps, generate monsters, manage reputation, dig tunnels, build rooms, and, of course, manage minions. And you have to do all of these things without those darned heroes ruining everything when they go adventuring.
It’s perfect for four players, you’ll get through a game in an hour, hour-and-a-half, and everybody will laugh as the various dungeon keepers jockey and vie for all of the various things that they will all be buying, managing, or bidding upon. The first time you play, you’ll want an experienced hand guiding you along (maybe not someone who has played Dungeon Lords before, but someone experienced with next generation board games)… but by the time the second game ends, everybody will leave the table a Dungeon Lords missionary.
So that’s my recommendation for you this week.
I will second jaybirds reccomendation and note that the minions and monsters are unionized 🙂
I had a couple of jokes but they were both political.
> My every-other-Saturday group doesn’t just play tabletop RPGs
More information needed.
Every other Saturday, I hang with a buncha folks.
In recent months, it’s more like “every third or fourth Saturday” but we aspire to every other.
We have recently finished creating characters for a 4th Edition game of D&D, before that we had played the Harry Dresden RPG, before that, we had played Descent. (There are posts a-brewin’ for each of these, mark my words.)
When we aren’t playing tabletop stuff like D&D, we play board games. Sometimes we watch movies. A few months back we watched Near Dark (which only one other person in the group had seen and I thought we needed to rectify that… it hasn’t aged as well as I thought it had).
This weekend, Maribou is going out to visit friends so everybody is coming over to my place and we’re going to watch Legend of the Guardian or Superman:Doomsday and order a bunch of pizzas.
I still rock the 1st edition (with home rules). Wandering Harlot Table and all, albeit not currently running anything. Time is zeroed out.
I’ve played several different game systems, if we ever get together for that beer we’ll have to spend most of our time haggling over game mechanics. d20 vs. bell curve. Points vs. random generation. Detailed combat vs. rudimentary to facilitate story. And my favorite: mass combat rules.
First edition was back when your character class options were limited to Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, Magic User, and Thief? Only three alignments? That’s some old school stuff there, man.
No, that’s basic edition.
AD&D, 1st edition is Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-Orc, Elf, Human with Fighter/Ranger/Paladin, Cleric/Druid, Magic-User/Illusionist, Thief/Assassin classes available. Also, the Bard.
I don’t use the Unearthed Arcana stuff, except for weapon specialization.
The roommate owns dungeon lords. It’s a fun game, but I haven’t played it in a while. I could use another go at it.
My game of the hour is Mansions of Madness. It’s one of those boardgame rpg hybrids, but instead of being the boardgame version of Hack-and-Slash D&D like Descent is, it’s a boardgame version of Call of Cthulhu–your character is exploring a haunted mansion, looking for clues, and trying to figure out what’s going on. Lots of fun so far.
How many players?
Is it co-op or competitive?
Oooooh. Fantasy Flight! They’re really good. 2-5 players… Hrm. Am I right in reading that this is a keeper vs. everybody else?
Have you ever played Betrayal at House on the Hill? I think you’d love it. You start exploring a haunted house co-operatively and then randomly one person can (doesn’t always) turn into the enemy and try to kill you all.
I haven’t! I’ll toss it out there for my group.