Dungeon Deck: Quests
Dungeon Deck: Quests from Gamers Rule is a random dungeon generator for Dungeons & Dragons-like RPGs. Drawing an array of cards gives you everything from the hook that draws the PCs into the dungeon to the layout to the major treasure. Using the deck can help you generate a quickie dungeon on the fly when your players catch you off guard, a spontaneous game session, or just as an aid to brainstorming.
I love the concept behind Dungeon Deck: Quests, and aspects of this product are spot on. Others feel underdeveloped or even misguided, though. An absolute beginner DM might find this a very useful product if they have problems with getting caught flatfooted. More experienced DMs, however, can probably improvise an adventure of equal quality or better using his instincts and knowledge of the genre’s tropes.
The cards are divided between seven types; when you want to use the deck, draw one card of each type and put the elements together into a short, delve-like dungeon adventure.
* Lure cards provide ways of letting the PCs know the dungeon even exists. They range from strangers on the side of the road to falling through a sinkhole into the dungeon.
* Entrance cards let you know what the dungeon’s “front door” is. Possibilities include stone door, iron gate (portcullis), and a hole in the ground.
* Map cards give a basic layout of 3–7 rooms, with the main entrance marked.
* Atmosphere cards do what the category says: indicate the overall atmosphere of the dungeon. Hallowed (sacred), squalid and surprisingly cheerful are possibilities.
* Setting cards describe the nature of the dungeon, such as tomb, lair, or abandoned dwarf stronghold. Each card also provides basic room descriptions you can use that are tied to the setting type.
* Challenge cards tell you what kind of creatures and traps lurk in the dungeon. Some, like animals, offer a short menu of choices, while others, such as orcs, are self-explanatory, but provide a couple of curveballs you can use to keep things from getting monotonous.
* Reward cards indicate what the main treasure in the dungeon is. Some, like the golden idol, are slightly exotic, valuable items. Others, like the holy relic, do not have a monetary value but they provide the party with a boon instead.
There are also cards that provide instructions on how to use the deck; a quick reference to the types of cards; credits and dedications to Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Robert Hunton (a friend of the publishers). In total, I count 56 cards in my deck, plus the three with instructions and credits.
The different types of cards vary wildly in their helpfulness. The Lure cards are pretty typical story hooks, familiar to every gamer. A couple seem especially uninspired and uninspiring, especially the card that suggests the PCs find the entrance on the side of the road. Because of this, they will be either invaluable or useless, depending on your level of experience. Even for new DMs, a few hooks that are not so clichéd would be nice, though.
Even worse are the Entrance cards, which add almost nothing of substance. While they can combine with the Setting and Atmosphere cards to produce quirky ideas, this will be unusual, and they do not add enough to the content to justify eight cards when it feels like there aren’t enough Challenge or Setting cards.
The Challenge cards are adequate, but could use more creativity as well. It is well and good to say that orcs keep oozes and boars as pets, but it would be more useful to have flavor that distinguishes them from every other orc lair in publication. Just a hint of extra color, preferably a range of possibilities, would have improved these cards a lot.
On the other hand, I thought the Setting, Atmosphere and Map cards were very useful. I especially like how the Setting cards combine with the Atmosphere cards to produce an array of flavors. A squalid tomb feels different than a squalid temple, and feels different again from a primordial tomb. The room descriptions on the Setting cards are also nice. They are only a sentence or two, but that’s enough to distinguish one 30′ by 30′ room from another. I think a good DM could quickly tweak these descriptions based on the other elements of the dungeon, too. Finally, while there is only so much you can do with a handful of rooms, at least the Map cards (mostly) avoid overly linear layouts. I don’t see why you couldn’t link two or more of the map cards together for a larger layout, either.
In fact, the instructions for the deck would be much better if they included a few of these advanced tips. True, adding an instruction sheet, instead of using cards for the instructions, would complicate production. Many people who are new to the hobby won’t grasp how to use this kind of product in different ways until some examples are explained to them, though. I know I am prone to staying inside the box established by instructions and rules.
The cards feature a heavy plastic finish that should be durable, although it may be prone to scratches. It can be a little slippery when shuffling, too, but you’re never shuffling more than 10 cards at a time. While I have been spoiled by the linen-finished cards in Hans im Glück boardgames, which the cards in Dungeon Deck: Quests do not match up to, they are still pretty good quality. If you are familiar with White Wolf’s Rage Trading Card Game from the mid-90s, these are very similar physically.
The print design is a little amateurish, and thanks to desktop publishing it’s not that early-days-of-the-hobby amateurish, either. In particular, the card backgrounds bother me. They use saturated colors to distinguish the different types of cards from each other. Unfortunately, they also compete with the content – printed in subdued black, white and grey – for the user’s attention. They’re not the ugliest RPG product I’ve ever seen, but they aren’t pretty, and they aren’t as content-oriented as they could be, either.
Ultimately, I just can’t argue that Dungeon Deck: Quests is worth the $19.95 MSRP. The concept is admirable and, if it was better developed, this would be a wonderful tool for DMs of all stripes. It draws heavily on well-tread clichés, though, and often without so much as a twist to breathe some life into them. Even the Atmosphere and Setting cards, which are valuable, are still rooted in tropes every DM carries around at the top of his head. Perhaps Gamers Rule will go back to the well and come up with an “advanced” set.
October 8th, 2009 at 05:36
Does designing a dungeon on the fly during play provoke an attack of opportunity?
October 8th, 2009 at 15:26
Boardgamer
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