IELLO: Welcome to The Dungeon, Push-Your-Luck Elements, Disappearing Equipment, Strategy Board Game, 30 Minute Game Play, 2 to 4 Players, Ages 10 and Up

This game arrived late last night just in time for me and my friends to play it.The first thing I noticed is how gorgeous it is. The artwork is bright, it's vibrant, it's stunning. The style is cartoonish but with such detail that it elevates it. Every time I drew a monster card I had to take a moment to just appreciate the artwork on the cards.The second thing I noticed was the quality. The card stock is solid, just heavy enough that I'm not concerned the cards will show premature signs of use such as bending or wearing. (I can be a little OCD about that, I get sleeves for most of my board game cards). The punchboard pieces are exceptional. Nothing bothers me more than punchboard tokens that come out with some tearing or fraying. When tokens just pop out with the slightest touch it's wonderful. A bit messy when you lift it and a few tumble out, but that's a sign of good quality! And the artwork on the equipment and character tokens is beautiful. Like the box the images are glossy on top of a less glossy background, making them really pop out. It's just a delight.But the beauty of the cards and the quality of the tokens is less important that the actual quality of the game itself. I have fallen in love with these "pocket games" and I often have one with me wherever I go for impromptu gaming. This one will displace Tiny Epic Galaxies for a little bit because it's really fun and quick to learn. The rules are simple, and once you know them (it takes less than 5 minutes to explain the rules to a new player) you never have to check the manual again. The monster cards show what equipment defeats them, and the equipment token say what they do on them, making it very intuitive and easy to pick up.The game is also quick, so if you have more than the max of 4 players it isn't a big problem for a couple people to sit out for a game, then jump in on the next.The only issue I had was with one problem that arose. During one round we ran out of monster cards, and still had 2 people willing to go into the dungeon, so when it was time for the next player to draw a card, there wasn't one to draw. The manual says only "if there are no cards to draw, you must pass" which left me scratching my head a bit. How then is it decided who goes into the dungeon? Because if Player 1 draws a card and there are none left, Player 2 can't draw a card and must pass, it skips player 3 who passed a couple rounds ago, Player 4 has no cards to draw so must pass, goes back to Player 1 who now has no cards to draw and must pass...does it just pass into infinity?The answer that I had to google to discover (and now seems idiotically obvious) is that the rules say when one person is left they go into the Dungeon. So in the above scenario, Player 1 draws the last card and puts it in the dungeon. Player 2 has to pass, Player 3 already passed before, Player 4 has to pass, and once Player 4 passes it means Player 1 is the only remaining player and he goes into the dungeon.For clarity's sake I would have preferred that rules say "if the monster card deck runs out, whoever drew the last card goes into the dungeon."I can't really decide if that one rules issue was my own stupidity or lack of clarity on the game's design. Regardless, once that question was answered there were no more problems and we played for a couple of hours. I didn't win, but that is my curse, to never win games I own.

This is a very quick little game, about as quick as Love Letter, if you happen to know that game. The only real drawback I can think of is that thematically it is a bit too geared toward young male audience, if you happen to be looking for a "cosmopolitan" family game; but instead, if you are looking for a little role-playing themed game, this game might be one of the most appealing little game you've seen in a while. What I truly like about this game is the variant rules you can end up creating for your own customized-house ruled-games (e.g. exchanging class items between characters) which will expand options and replayability. Another thing I really like about this game is how refined the game is; there are lots of games out there that feels "not-quite-finished," but this is not one of them; if you are a perfectionist like me, you will appreciate every little detail of this game, but not to say that this game is perfect as Go, but from a game designing perspective, it's a pretty good one. If there is any complain I'd be forced to say about this game, then I'll nitpick a bit: like Love Letter, it gets old pretty quickly, but unlike other short games the extra room it allows for various customized house rules will keep this game in your head for a bit longer than most other good short games and that is a big win in my book.

Welcome to the Dungeon is a press your luck style card game, with a dungeon adventure theme. Players basically take turns trying to decide if a hero can survive a dungeon by either adding an enemy to the dungeon, or take away equipment in order to spare the hero from facing an enemy. As players take turns doing this one of two things happens. Either a player will no longer believe the hero can win, so they pass (like folding in poker)...or you run out of cards. In either situation, the last remaining player becomes that hero and goes into the dungeon.Going into the dungeon is basically flipping through all the enemy cards and comparing them to the hero's remaining equipment to see if he/she survives. You win by being the surviving hero a couple times, or by everyone else being a failing hero a couple times.As far as the components go, they are really nice. Great artwork on the cards and tokens. Both are of fine quality.Gameplay can be quite short... depending in part on who you are playing with. Similarly, difficulty also seems to be tied to who you're playing with as well... and I don't mean in terms of opponent skill. 😉 What I mean is, with fewer players it becomes quite easy to get through the dungeon. I feel like the game needed just a few more monster cards to bring up difficulty a hair more.Overall I really like this as a quick and easy little game. I like the concept, the art, and how easy to learn it is.

This is a great quick little game for novice and serious gamers alike. Each round a player gets to pick one of four characters who will eventually enter a dungeon created by the alive players in the game. On your turn you must chose one of thee abilities: draw a dungeon card and add it to the dungeon, draw a dungeon card not adding it to the dungeon while picking one of the character's abilities to remove, or pass. Once a player passes they are no longer contributing to the dungeon building/character nerfing and they will not go into the dungeon as the character. The last player remaining each round who did not pass must go into the dungeon as the character with all remaining abilities. The dungeon is dealt with starting with the top card and going through the cards until either the character dies (hits 0 life with no way to resurrect) or the character successfully defeats all monsters in the dungeon. Beat the dungeon twice and you win. Die twice and you lose.