Pyramid Review
Dungeoneer: Vault of the Fiends
Published by Atlas Games
Designed by Thomas Denmark with Morgan Gray
Illustrated by Thomas Denmark with Ben Van Dyken
110 full-color cards, 9½ by 10-inch 4-page rules sheet; $19.95
Last year's Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord was one of the nicest entries into the dungeon crawl genre of board games. Certainly, its rules contained one of the cleverest mechanics seen in the genre for quite a while. As players explored the dungeon with their heroes, they accumulated Glory and Peril Points. A player could then use his Glory Points to give his hero Boon and Treasure cards, and to activate his special ability, while the other players could in turn spend their Peril Points to slap Bane and Encounter cards on that hero during their turn. In this way players take on the roles of both heroes and the Dungeonlord during their turns. Sequels to the game were promised, but these failed to appear after its publisher, Citizen Games, went into dissolution. Thankfully, Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord did not go with it, and the game remained in the hands of its creator and designer, the artist, Thomas Denmark. Even better, Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord found a second home in the arms of Atlas Games, who have not only re-published the original game in a second edition, but also released the first of several planned sequels.
The background for Dungeoneer: Vault of the Fiends explains that a twisted mage has been banished for his pursuit of heinous experiments. . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: March 19, 2004
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