The goal of this card game is to explore a dungeon with your team of four adventurers. You are scored based on how much gold you gather before you can escape the dungoen. Each adventurer has 4 points of health; if an adventurer drops to 0 health, they die and are removed from the game; any gold they are carrying is also lost. The order of the characters is important, from left to right. Characters are also either on the front row or the back row. You can re-arrange the order and row of the active characters between events. If all characters are on the same row, it is the front row.
Cards have two halves, the top and bottom. The top half of a card represents an event that is happening (and sometimes a complication), while the bottom half has the actions that the player can take in reaction to the current event.
Each turn:
- Begin each turn by shuffling the deck, then drawing one card; this is the event card. The event card remains in play until it says it is discarded.
- Next, draw 5 cards; this is your hand of action cards; Each action card may also have a complication that takes effect when played.
- Arrange the action cards, 1 for each active character to undertake, and play them from left to right (discard any unused cards).
- Finally, play each card from left to right. If the card makes no sense for the current situation, the complication still takes effect (if possible) but the action does nothing.
When you find gold, you need to decide which character will take it, and how much. You can't move gold that is already being carried.
When you try to draw a card but the deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile into the deck.
Event: A goblin appears! It has 2 health points, and deals 1 point of damage to the left-most character on the front row each turn. When it reaches 0 health points, this card is discarded. Tag: Monster
Action: Fight a Monster. To fight a monster, flip a coin. On heads, deal 1 point of damage, otherwise take 1 point of damage.
Event: You find an empty room. Flip a coin. If heads, you find 10 gold, otherwise you find a trap. If you find a trap, you need to disarm it this turn, or your left-most character will take 1 point of damage, then this card is discarded.
Action: Disarm a trap. To disarm a trap, flip a coin. On heads, you succeed, otherwise you fail (failure has no drawbacks, just try again).
Event: You've found an exit! You can return to town and tally your total gold, or continue playing. Tag: Exit
Complication: If you're fighting a (tag) Monster, they drop an additional 10 gold when defeated.
Action: Artful dodge - this character can't take any damage this turn.
It could be possible to have multiple "levels" of the dungeon - with new cards mixed in as new levels are unlocked/purchased.
Some cards have tags, such as "poison" or "crazy". These don't do anything on their own, but they can intereact with other cards.
Monster Exit Reaction Poison Crazy
Event: Fighting a monster Event: Disarming a trap Event: Empty room Event: Cave in Event: Exit Found! You may leave with your gold. Event: Hidden Trap! The front row takes 1 point of damage
Complication: Monster is crazy = attacks an extra time, but takes double damage Complication: Monster is crazy = left-most character takes double damage Complication: Monster is poisonous = when attacked, character becomes poisoned
Action: Do nothing. Action: Attack the monster (flip a coin - if you win, the monster is defeated. If you lose, lose 1 point of helath) Action: Disarm the trap (flip a coin - if you lose, take 1 point of damage) Action: Search the room (flip a coin - if you win, you find 10 gold) Action: Quick Reflexes (Automatically succeed a reaction event)