Dungeon!
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Dungeon! is a 1975 adventure board game designed by David R. Megarry, Gary Gygax, Michael Gray, Steve Winter and S. Schwab, published by TSR, Inc. Dungeon! simulates some aspects of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game which was released the year before, although Dungeon! was already in development when D&D was released.
Dungeon! features a map of a simple six-level dungeon with hallways, rooms and chambers. Players move around the board seeking to defeat monsters and claim treasure. Greater treasures are on lower levels, as are tougher monsters. Players choose different character classes with different abilities. The object of the game is to be the first to return to the beginning chamber with a set value of treasure.
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[edit] Original edition
[edit] Artwork and game pieces
The original edition of the game featured the rulebook, a folding vinyl cloth gameboard, four colors of Parcheesi-style playing pieces (white, blue, red, and green), a pair of six-sided dice, and an assortment of color-coded monster and treasure cards for the six levels of the dungeon. The artwork on the face of the cards was in black and white, while the backs were colored by level: gold for first, orange for second, red for third, magenta for fourth, green for fifth, and blue for the sixth level. The original four character classes were the Elf, Hero, Superhero, and Wizard. These were ordinarily represented by the green, red, blue, and white pieces respectively. As there were multiple playing pieces, custom game variations could be setup with more than one of a given character class (using an arbitrarily-colored piece), but ordinarily a game involved players selecting different classes.
[edit] Gameplay
In the original edition, the monster and treasure cards were quite small, approximately 1.375 inches by 1 inch. At the start of the game, these would be randomized and placed face down to fill all the dungeon rooms, treasures being placed first, then monsters overtop. Additional monster cards were then placed in chambers, which were larger rooms at key intersections throughout the board. These monsters were placed three to a chamber, with only the top monster in the stack encountered when attempting to pass through a chamber.
Monster cards listed the minimum number totaled from two dice that had to be rolled in order to defeat the monster. If a player's roll to defeat a monster was lower than the required number, a second roll was made to see what happened to the player. The result of a player losing a battle could be any of the following:
- The battle might end in a standoff, with the player staying in the room unhurt.
- The player might be forced to retreat, losing one or two treasures in the process.
- The player might be forced to retreat and lose a turn.
- The player might lose all treasure and be placed back at the starting space (if seriously wounded).
- In dire cases, the player could be killed, losing all treasure.
Death was a 1 in 36 chance, and occurred only if the player failing to defeat a monster had rolled a 2. If a player died, he or she could start a new character at the starting space on the next turn. If, after a battle, a player remained alive but was unsuccessful in defeating the monster, he or she could return to attempt to defeat the same monster, usually on the next turn if not seriously wounded.
Once a monster was defeated, any treasure card under the monster card became the possession of the victorious player. Treasure cards listed a gold piece value, and ranged from a 100 gold piece value Bag of Gold in the first level to the 10,000 gold piece value Huge Diamond deep in the sixth level. Some treasures, such as magic swords and crystal balls, altered gameplay; swords added to a player's hand-to-hand combat rolls, while crystal balls permitted players to forego a turn of movement and spend the turn looking at monster and treasure cards in a room without entering the room.
[edit] Dungeon levels
The six levels of the dungeon offered a range of difficulty in monsters corresponding with the range of value in treasure. First level monsters were generally the weakest, while sixth level monsters were generally the most powerful. A small number of monster cards were not monsters, but traps that either plunged the character encountering them into a chamber one level deeper, or held the character until the player rolled the correct number to escape.
[edit] Character classes
Each class had particular advantages
- The Hero was the basic "average" class. To win the game, the Hero would need to collect only 10,000 gold pieces (GP).
- The Elf had twice the probability of others to pass through secret doors, marked by dotted outlines in the dungeon (1 through 4 on a roll of one six-sided die, whereas all others required rolling a 1 or 2.) To win the game, the Elf would need to collect only 10,000 gold pieces (GP).
- The Superhero was the toughest hand-to-hand fighter in the dungeon. Superheroes had to acquire 20,000 GP.
- The Wizard had magic spells, permitting the launch of fireball or lightning bolt attacks into rooms without entering hand-to-hand combat, and teleport spells to move quickly through the dungeon from one chamber to another. Wizards had to acquire 30,000 GP.
The amount of treasure required to win the game varied by character class- theoretically, this evened out the odds of winning the game, and allowed the less powerful characters to stick to the upper levels of the dungeon.
Although the Hero arguably had no advantages, given the weighted treasure requisites to win the game, the Hero packed the most punch for a character class requiring the least amount of treasure to win, being slightly tougher against most monsters than the Elf.
[edit] House rules
Several house rules became common among 1st edition Dungeon! players. The 1st edition rules stated that each player could move his character as many as five spaces every turn, and players ordinarily cut this short only to enter a room. To make travel through the dungeon less predictable, many players would change this rule and substitute a single random die roll each turn to determine movement. In some cases, a die roll plus 2 was used as a basis for randomizing dungeon progress, speeding up the game while allowing a chance element in movement. To prevent bullying, many players agreed to disregard the option to allow characters to attack other characters, especially because it was far easier for Wizards and Superheroes to defeat Heroes and Elves making their way back to the starting point with their 10,000 gold quota. Still other Dungeon! players simply ended the game when a player could verify that he had enough treasure, although sometimes the footrace back to the starting point between two characters with enough treasure decided the game's outcome. Other house variations of the game included "clearing the dungeon," a marathon version of the game that could be played to see who ended up with the largest proportionate share of treasure, using the winning requisites to determine the ratio. A solo player could also play "clear the dungeon," and the task could be daunting; with about a hundred monsters to fight, the odds of losing a battle somewhere and rolling snake eyes wasn't so remote. Because the Wizard faced significantly less danger to life and limb casting spells, the solo version of "clear the dungeon" ordinarily did not allow the Wizard to renew spells at the starting point.
[edit] Later editions
Numerous revised editions of Dungeon! have been published. The original game had the versatility of a playing surface that could roll as well as fold and the advantage that the small monster and treasure cards could be easily laid out within the rooms depicted on the board. The constant throughout all the editions of Dungeon! was a quick simplified essence of the more complex Dungeons & Dragons environment.
Editions were also published in other countries including versions by Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten-Fabriken playing card company in Germany and Jedko Games in Australia. The Jedko Games version closely resembled the original US edition but with a light cardboard map playing board instead of the cloth-vinyl one.
