Rogue Review - Dungeon Mayhem

A friend introduced us to this game as a quick and easy time passer.

Gameplay- A

Dungeon Mayhem, from the makers of D&D, is a quick and straightforward game. Your goal is to be the last character standing after an all-out brawl between the members of a Dungeons and Dragons party. You have the choice between a Wizard, Barbarian, Paladin and Rogue. On your turn you draw a card and play a card. The card played might give you an extra action, allowing you to play multiple cards. Beyond what card to play, the only decisions you have to make is who to deal damage to. Which can be the tricky part. Do you gang up on one person? Or do you spread the damage around, providing more targets for the other players to focus on instead of you?

Each deck has five basic abilities that are the same between classes: block damage, draw cards, deal damage, play extra cards, recover hit points. Each card has a different combination of these abilities though. One card might deal three damage while another might deal a damage and allow you to play another card. Additionally, each deck also has different combinations. The barbarian, for example, is the only one that I saw that dealt four damage on a single card. The Rogue, sneaky buggers that they are, had more with the ability to play an extra card. And the Paladin has more healing potential.

Beyond the five basic abilities, each hero also has unique Might Powers. These abilities are what give the decks their class flavor. The barbarian destroys shields with a mighty swing, heals when outnumbered and then deals damage and messes up everyone’s plans by discarding hands. The wizard has the ability to steal shields to protect himself, switch health with another player but also to throw a fireball and damage everyone including himself. I thought this was bad at first, but remember, you just need to be the last one standing. So if everyone has three or less, except you, it’s an “I Win” card.

The Paladin meanwhile only has two Mighty Powers but their strength comes from the abundance of heal cards among their regular powers. The ability to redraw a particularly useful card at the right moment has a lot of potential. The Rogues are typically sneaky, able to draw a card from anyone’s deck and use it to protect themselves from all effects for a round. This one is particularly frustrating. I was playing the Wizard and had planned to steal the Rogue’s shield and his health but the turn before he protected himself from all affects and then the Barbarian made me discard my hand.

Production- A-

Each deck is a different color which makes keeping them separate simple and easy. They each come with a cheat sheet card that tells you what types of cards you have in your deck so you can pick up and play any of them. The only minor complaint is the Wizard’s and the Paladin’s health tokens look similar. The Paladin, while ostensibly red, has too much of her blonde hair in the tiny picture so at a glance is indistinguishable from the Wizard’s yellow background. But that’s fairly insignificant. The box also didn’t have a baggy or slot for the small tokens so could see those potentially getting lost.

Theme- B+

Themed after classic Dungeons and Dragons, the game gives that flavor without really feeling like a D&D adventure. Primarily because it’s not a dungeon crawl but a slug fest between what would traditionally be the players. Aside from the theme not jiving with the gameplay, the decks themselves do convey their roles well. Each feels different and in line with their traditional classes. At least a goofy over the top version. But then, when isn’t an RPG session goofy and over the top?

Expansions- TBD

In a game based on D&D of course there are expansions. As of now, there are two expansions available. One, “Battle for Baldur’s Gate,” adds two more heroes you can play. The other, “Monster Madness,” adds six monsters you can play. I have not tried any of these but would imagine you could pit heroes verse monsters if you wanted to in a modified game, assuming there aren’t rules for that already. The nicest looking thing about the Monster expansion is it appears to expand the game to six players and gives you a big box that sounds like it has enough room to accommodate the other games in it as well.

Conclusion- A

There is a strong degree of luck involved in this game as you can only do what cards you have. But it’s not the kind of game where that’s a detriment. You play it to have a quick adventure, not as a grand strategy game. Sometimes that means the Rogue plays a dozen cards in a row and wins on turn one. Sometimes that means the wizard kills everyone, including himself, with a fireball. That’s part of the charm though.

Definitely worth a couple plays. Especially for the price.