Recommend me a dungeon crawler that won't take a day to play!

[Legionnaire]

The taglines "immersive" and "campaign" are my kryptonite. Finally, I've come to the realisation, I don't have unlimited hobby time. Time and time again I've bought lovely games, but in all honesty, when it takes me an hour or more to set it all up and several hours to play one game, that "immersive campaign" becomes "once a year"   .

I'm looking for recommendations that will be reasonably quick to set up (half hour rather than an hour) and reasonably quick to play (1-2 rather than 4). These three are the ones I've seen/ heard about, now I'd like the community's input. If there's a solo mode, bonus.

Descent
Heroquest
Mantic games Dungeon Saga

[fred]

Dungeon Saga - I've got all of the expansions for this but only played a handful of games. The scenarios are OK, sometimes feel a bit more like a puzzle game to get to the outcome in the time limit rather than an old school dungeon adventure. The bit that put me off the most, was that at the end of each scenario you don't get much loot. But at the start of the next scenario your adventurers suddenly have more gear. Which I know is the same effect, but if feels very disjointed.

I'll through another option in the mix - 4 Against Darkness - it is a much smaller, fun and integrated game. It doesn't need figures, but I've found it great fun with figures and dungeon modules. Nice and quick to play, and huge numbers of extra modules (that are really cheap). But I've found the base game has loads of replayability to it.

[Legionnaire]

Dungeon Saga - I've got all of the expansions for this but only played a handful of games. The scenarios are OK, sometimes feel a bit more like a puzzle game to get to the outcome in the time limit rather than an old school dungeon adventure. The bit that put me off the most, was that at the end of each scenario you don't get much loot. But at the start of the next scenario your adventurers suddenly have more gear. Which I know is the same effect, but if feels very disjointed.

I'll through another option in the mix - 4 Against Darkness - it is a much smaller, fun and integrated game. It doesn't need figures, but I've found it great fun with figures and dungeon modules. Nice and quick to play, and huge numbers of extra modules (that are really cheap). But I've found the base game has loads of replayability to it.

Thank you very much for your input sir.

4 Against Darkness looks quite appealing I must say!

I obviously would like something with miniatures but even so, if it is fun and enjoyable, I really don't mind.

Regards,

Legionnaire.

[warwell]

4A.gainst Darkness is a great game. Worth trying it out.

[Kikuchiyo]

I've looked at 4AD too but I need something with a set out dungeon I'm thinking about trying the blades and heroes dungeon rules unless the sellswords and spellslingers version gets released soon

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Nothing wrong with Heroquest.

I hear good things about Dungeon Saga.

4 Against Darkness is great; quite different though. I'd love to see a Sellswords and Spellslingers dungeons version.


For a much simpler experience, more fitting for kids really, I played a fair bit of Karak since last christmas. Swift, simple dungeon crawler for the younger ones.

[NickNascati]

Shadowdark and Solodark.

[Inkpaduta]

Highly recommend four against the Dark.

[Tomsche]

The Rusty Dagger

[Kikuchiyo]

The Rusty Dagger

That's a new one on me

Off I go looking...

[Muddlingthrough]

I bought Dungeon Saga Origins, which is kind of the newer edition of Dungeon Saga, for my eight-year-old for Christmas. And we've been playing consistently since Christmas Day. We played through the original box campaign and have bought the expansion Chapter 2. They are OBSESSED.

I bought it because I'm trying to get my child into gaming. This game is simple enough for a mature (aloof?) eight-year-old, has nice miniatures to paint, and doesn't take forever. I don't know if it's the ultimate dungeon-crawler, but it's easy to setup and each adventure feels unique. I find the combat can get tedious at times, but overall it's pretty good.

My child is currently designing their own campaign. Spoiler Alert: Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus are the bosses.

[Hobgoblin]

One thing to consider with a dungeon crawler is whether you want a 'fighting' game with a series of preplanned combat encounters in a fixed set-up (e.g. Descent) or an 'exploring' game with a dynamic and changing environment (e.g. Four Against Darkness).

For my money, the latter sort is much more interesting and exciting. But such games are also much rarer. The best I've found has to be Advanced Heroquest; it's got a really 'tight' dungeon generator that can work with preset final locations too. And its character generation, advancement and combat are based on solid mechanisms.

Obviously, it's long out of print. But there seem to be plenty of copies around out there. I picked up a complete one on eBay a couple of years ago for much the same as I'd have paid for Descent new.

[ChaosChild]

I have to say that I'm really not a fan of Descent. Just never clicked at all for me or the rest of my regular gaming group. Mind you, that Adwas back with 1st edition, I've no experience with anything more recent (that's how little we liked it) so it may have improved in the meantime.

Advanced Heroquest is excellent but may be overly involved given your original post. If you can find a copy though, I thoroughly recommend the original Warhammer Quest. It hits that sweet spot between the two Heroquests; more involved than the original but less complex than Advanced.

[Legionnaire]

Thanks to all for your input!

I have gone "the Mantic route", and bought a copy of Star Saga and Dungeon Saga Origins for very reasonable money on eBay. After painting them up I shall give them a test drive.

I am very much also considering buying a hard copy of Four Againsf Darkness (I really dislike to have to look at a digital text, don't get on with it) and the expanded rules (official supplement) where you can have other classes.

Regards

Legionnaire.

[Freddy]

I play longer dungeons in parts, always setting only a few rooms and removing those which were already searched (you can have an overall map for reference, you just do not have to build the whole thing in 28mm at once). This way you can easily "save the game" between sessions and play dungeons of any size. Enemy groups in each room shall be about 1/3 of the party strength (with some +/- to avoid it being repetitive), with an extra strong one in every 3rd room. Every enemy leaves random loot (the minibosses more), about 33% of the loot is not actual loot but grant extra activations. You can use this system with any type of skirmish rules, randomizing room and enemy groups help a lot, also the system shall have random activations (this way the extra activations in the loot add an extra tactical layer)

I use my own rules, actually multiple rules (my own for 1/35 games, modified 40k for scifi), there are many more details, but these are the key points.