Who doesn’t love exploring a dungeon? If you are ready and do your best at the most renowned academy in the realm you can be the best hero the world has ever seen. It will require taking on some monsters, using the right potions and collecting the best loot to make sure you master each level and earn the most glory to win! Let’s see if you can stand up to the challenge that awaits!
Dungeon Academy is published by The OP Games and plays 1-6 players in 20 mins. It is designed by Julian Allain with Illustration by Regis Torres.
Setup and Gameplay
The Dungeon is placed in the middle of the table and the loot and exit cards are placed in the middle as well. The energy tokens representing health and mana are placed in a pile on the table as well. Each player is given an Adventure sheet and a random Hero card.
The game takes place over 5 rounds in each Level, and the game runs a total of 4 Levels. The exploration of the dungeon takes place over these 5 steps:
- Set the Exam Length
- Prepare the Dungeon
- Reveal the Dungeon Level
- Resolve the Dungeon
- Earn Loot
First you should choose in Set the Exam Length how long the dungeon crawl will be. It can be easy for 60 seconds, moderate for 45 seconds or hard for 30 seconds.
Next is step two Prepare the Dungeon where you take all 16 room dice and roll them into the dungeon. Then you cover the roof and flip it over, leaving the roof on it covered.
Step three is to Reveal the Dungeon Level and start the timer. Everyone will draw on their Adventure sheet in the time allowed. You have to start and finish on an outer room and move move orthogonally and not diagonally through the dungeon. When you finish, take the top exit card. When time runs out you move on to the next step.
The fourth step is to Resolve the Dungeon where starting the player who collected exit card 1 goes first. Each time you fight a monster, you lose an energy of that color. Big monsters lose two energy of that color. Potions will allow you to gain one energy of that color. If you exit the level in time, you have completed the adventure! You earn coins for the monsters you beat and you complete a chosen Quest at the bottom of the sheet as well for defeating the level.
If you fail the level you do not score any Glory and do not achieve a Quest for the round. Failures will be when you can’t make it out of an exit, run out of health or mana or if you break one of the Golden Rules.
The fifth step involves earning loot-here players will draw as many loot cards as there are players and pick one for each player who passed the level. Finally in the last step players will reset their sheet, add new Boss and Labyrinth dice and repeat the first 5 steps.
After the fourth level, you add all of your Glory points and see who is the winner. The player with the most points wins!
Impressions
Dungeon Academy takes the roll and write mechanic and adds in a bit of time restraint with a real time feature and challenge that really adds some fun and suspense to the game. The roll and write is simple and easy to understand, however the addition of the timed aspect of the game can make it a bit more difficult for players that are a little more prone to need a lot of time in decision making or who struggle with speed. I would recommend starting on the easy exam length time for new players and then ease into more time as it goes.
The game is definitely unique with the addition of the dice to determine how the adventure will lay out. I like the different monsters and the addition of the Boss and Labyrinth dice mix it up enough to be able too see a lot of variety. The Heroes each bring some unique abilities as well, giving you some direction in how you want to go in the game. I really like the Loot cards as well, giving some fun abilities through it all.
The box art and the overall graphic design on this game is great. I love the characters-the Heroes are all really well done and shine with personality in this game. I like the dice design also, they are fun and very colorful and shine on the game board/dungeon. I really like the overall packaging of this game-it is cute and really pops off of the table when we played it. All the players that have tried this really seem to enjoy this one.
Overall I would recommend this one to any number of players who are looking for a chance to play a roll and write a little different twist, adding in some real time pressure to players who want to do their best to slay the beasts and come out on top in the dungeon. Players of all ages and skill level are bound to find this one enjoyable-make sure to check it out soon and see if you can earn the most Glory at the Academy!
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