(whimsical music)
- We're rollin' and writin', castin' and fightin'.
That's right, it's "Dungeon Academy" from The OP.
(upbeat music)
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- This dungeon-delving adventure game
pits one to six heroes against one another
in a contest to navigate four dungeons
to become the most glorious academic of all time.
But really it's a personal quest for knowledge
is why we study any sort of academic pursuit, right?
Setup begins with the construction of the dungeon.
Take the base and fold the outer edges inward.
Then do the same with the box figure
and slide the box through the base.
Now take the roof board and slide in the walls.
Put 'em together and you got yourself a dungeon.
Place it on the center of the table.
Shuffle the loot cards and place them in a deck nearby
along with the teacher figure and all 16 room dice.
Take the exit cards and order them sequentially
with the six on bottom and the one on top.
Then create a supply of energy tokens.
The blue side equals mana
while the red side represents health.
Each player now draws a hero card at random
and places the number of energy tokens
corresponding with their card on their respective spaces.
Each player also receives an adventure sheet
and needs something to write with,
so get a pen or a pencil.
Game play occurs over four rounds or levels,
during which players proceed through the following steps.
First up, set the difficultly of the level,
either one minute for easy, 45 seconds for moderate,
or 30 seconds for hard.
Next, prepare the dungeon by taking the roof,
flipping it upside down,
and rolling the 16 room dice inside.
Arrange the dice into a flat four-by-four grid,
then cover the roof with the base.
Holding it tightly, flip the dungeon over,
but don't lift the roof yet.
This dungeon is now ready to explore.
When everyone is ready, reveal the dungeon
and start the timer.
At this point, everyone now draws a path
on their adventure sheet for the current level.
Before we get to navigation,
let's look at the dungeon floor.
The dice form the 16 rooms in this level of the dungeon.
In each room, you will find either a monster,
which you fight with health or mana,
or a potion, which restores health or mana.
Blobs and ghosts take one health or mana respectively.
The Colossus and the Reaper
take two health or mana respectively, and the potions
provide one of their energy type to the adventurer.
When drawing their path, the adventurer has to follow
a few golden rules.
The path's start and finish must both come
from an outer room of the dungeon level.
Rooms are connected orthogonally.
Diagonal moves are illegal.
A path cannot move through the same room twice.
As soon as a player has finished their path,
they take the top exit card from the exit pile.
When all players have an exit card or the timer runs out,
the adventuring ends and it's time to score.
Starting with the player with the first exit card,
each adventurer resolves their pathway.
The player to their left takes the teacher figure
and moves through the dungeon,
calculating the outcome of each room.
When fighting a small monster, place one energy token
of that type into the monster space on the adventure sheet.
When fighting a large monster, place one energy token
on that monster's space and the other energy token
back in the pool.
When drinking a potion, add one energy token of that type
from the pool to the hero.
In order to gain points, the player
must have completed the level, moved legally,
and they cannot drop below zero health or mana.
It is possible to finish with zero health or mana.
However, if they manage to pull it off,
score those points, one point for each monster fought,
any bonus points from hero or loot cards,
and one reward of the player's choice
from the four available quests at the bottom of their sheet.
Add up the points for the round and only reset
a hero's health and mana if they fail the level.
Before moving on, each player that navigated
through the level successfully gets a chance
to take a loot card.
Draw and reveal one loot card per player.
In numerical exit order, each player takes one.
Discard any leftovers.
Reset the dungeon for the next level
and discard energy tokens off the adventurer sheet.
Repeat this process for the next three levels
with a small variation.
In round two, one room die is replaced with a labyrinth die,
and in round four, one room die
is replaced with a boss die.
These dice have some more potent dungeon hazards.
Play continues for four rounds,
after which the scores are totaled
and the player with the most glory points wins the game.
And that's "Dungeon Academy."
I'm Becca Scott, and with all the hours
I put into this show, I've at least earned
an honorary dungeoneering degree or something, right?
Anyway, you can watch me and my friends play this game
and other awesome games on "Game the Game,"
right here on Geek and Sundry.
We'll see you there.
(cheerful music)
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