{"id":3567,"date":"2006-02-23T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-23T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2006\/02\/23\/dungeonville\/"},"modified":"2006-02-23T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-23T11:00:00","slug":"dungeonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2006\/02\/23\/dungeonville\/","title":{"rendered":"Dungeonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"cover\"\/<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Designer<\/td>\nMike Selinker
\nJames Ernest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Publisher<\/td>\nZ-Man Games<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
released<\/td>\n2005<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Players<\/td>\n2-5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Playing Time<\/td>\n45 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
\n

<\/p>\n<\/form>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Dungeonville<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/p>\n

John Kovalic must be a very busy man. Not only does he draw the successful gamer’s parody comic
\n“Dork Tower”, he also has to practically draw playing cards all the time, as it seems there is a
\nnew game using his designs published every day (think of “Chez Geek” and “Munchkin” and
\ntheir myriad expansion sets). James Ernest is also no idle man, having already countless “cheapass”
\ngames under his hood, as well as more designs for other companies.<\/p>\n

These games cater mainly to the role-player who occasionally dabbles in board and card games and who
\nusually is too impatient to learn the more demanding designs like “Caylus” or “Puerto
\nRico”. The funny graphics are another big selling point, whereas the game play often seems a bit shallow
\nor very luck dominated. Although I am a big fantasy fan and appreciate the humour apparent in many of these
\ngames one would have to work very hard on inventing a torture device that has me playing a game like
\n“Munchkin” again, perhaps one of the most torturous games ever invented…<\/p>\n

Is “Dungeonville” any better?<\/p>\n

Well, it’s much quicker for a start, which is already a huge plus in my book.<\/p>\n

Two to five “evil masterminds” try to have the dungeon with the most adventurer kills. I stress
\nthe word “have” here, as “build” would have been much more interesting, but alas, this is
\nnot possible.<\/p>\n

The game goes through rounds with 5 phases. In the first round you buy adventurers, which are ranked in
\ncost and fighting power and constantly restock. In this phase you have some choices as to the specific skills
\nof your various adventurers. These skills are represented by letters (A=good to E= bad) that will become
\nimportant later in dungeon exploration.<\/p>\n

The second phase has you sending your party of intrepid adventurers to one of the 5 dungeons. Which
\ndungeon “deed” you “own” is decided by a random and secret card drawn at the beginning,
\nso nobody knows which dungeon belongs to whom. Part of the decision is made for you, as the selection of
\nadventurers available has a certain preference for certain dungeons. One adventurer’s “A” skill
\nmight become an “E” skill, depending on which dungeon he enters.<\/p>\n

In the third round there is a possible combat at the dungeon entrance when several parties want to enter
\nthe same dungeon. Here the fighting skill comes in (the higher the fighting skill of the party member the
\nworse are his skills) each player orders his adventurers secretly and matches them off against his opponent.
\nWhoever wins may enter the dungeon. Here, in the fourth phase, cards are drawn from the “dungeon
\npile”, that determine if any adventurers die or if you find treasure. You can continue as long as you
\nwant (or live), but drawing a lettered card forces you to dispose of an adventurer with the same skill level.
\nBut you also might find item cards with special abilities, or gold, which helps you buy more powerful
\nadventurers in the next round. In the fifth and final phase you get the gold collected in the dungeon and can
\npotentially buy an additional dungeon from the unused dungeon deeds, but you won’t know which dungeon it
\nis until you draw it.<\/p>\n

All this ends when someone accumulates 7 player kills in his\/her dungeon, and wins immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Characteristics<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Playing the game:<\/td>\n45 minutes – 1 hour maximum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Explaining the rules:<\/td>\n5 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interaction:<\/td>\nlittle, you can attack other adventuring groups, but even there choice is limited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Designing your dungeon:<\/td>\nGet out your Dungeon Master’s Guide if you want that, here you will not find the slightest
\npossibility to create your “dungeon” in your own fashion. You could mix the draw pile though, if
\nyou really want, but that might be a giveaway to the other players.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Appeal:<\/td>\nlow to Eurogamers, high to beer and pretzel gamers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

And herein lies the biggest problem with the game – as the goal is collecting blood tokens for killed
\nadventurers in a dungeon one might think this is where one can use a strategy to win. But no: neither the
\ndecision which adventurers travel to your dungeon or how many will get killed there is in the least
\ninfluenced by your decisions, not a tiny weeny bit. You might manage your party like a master, accumulate
\ntreasure, travel intrepidly into dungeons by carefully calculating your risks, attack other players who are
\nricher than you, etc., but it will absolutely have no influence in you winning the game or not. Even worse –
\nthere is no bluffing or guessing element involved in what dungeons players own or not. You will avoid your
\nown dungeon, as blood tokens collected there count negatively, but that’s about it about guessing other
\nplayer’s dungeon deeds. Very often the game decides for you which dungeons you have to visit, as the
\nmake-up of adventuring parties leans towards certain dungeons, and the selection of adventurers available is
\nalso largely governed by luck, so no strategy here as well. Creating a victory condition like this that is
\ntotally disconnected with what you actually actively DO in the game is a very weird design decision, to say
\nthe least. But as in “Kill Dr. Lucky” the game is decided by the simple fact that the other players
\nare out of cards preventing your victory this design principle might be something that James Ernest really
\nlikes, who knows…<\/p>\n

This game is also clearly intended to be a light game to be enjoyed by the above mentioned crowd, and in
\nthis it might as well succeed, as the drawings are indeed funny, and the tone is light. So if you like it or
\nnot will depend on what games you play more, role playing games or board games. If you read this review on
\nthe “Westpark-Gamers” or on the Boardgamegeek site you might very probably be one of the latter
\nones, so perhaps you should avoid it even though others might find this game “cool”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Designer Mike Selinker James Ernest Publisher Z-Man Games released 2005 Players 2-5 Playing Time 45 minutes Dungeonville reviewed by Moritz Eggert John Kovalic must be a very busy man. Not only does he draw the successful gamer’s parody comic “Dork Tower”, he also has to practically draw playing cards all the time, as it seems … Dungeonville<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":5,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}