Dice Modifiers

A lot would depend on what the rest of the game is like. The characters are dice. Do you move them around a map like miniatures? Are the monsters dice as well? One obvious flaw is that you have to pick up the piece each time to roll it, unless you roll the die every time that you move into a new area and use only that result for the area.

Personally, I wouldn't be interested in a game if it were essentially Dungeon/Hero/Dragon Quest with dice for minis. I just bought Descent to play with my son precisely because he will enjoy the miniatures so much (and because the game play is easy enough that even the slack-jawed yokels in his class could manage it), even though there are much more affordable options with counters, etc. Minis are part of the genres appeal, although frankly, I have no idea what the appeal of a dice game is (even though I own hundreds of dice).

Also, my experience is that more casual gamers and non-RPG types aren't as interested in dungeon crawl-themed games. For example, I'm a big fan of FFG's Cave Troll, which is a dungeon-themed area control game game. All of the women whom I've played it with were fine with the mechanics, and enjoy other comparable games, but didn't enjoy the game because of its theme. That segment seems generally repelled by anything themed gritty war, my orc eats your fighter fantasy, or big-boobed console game-style teenager bait games, like the best board game of all time, Homoerotic Pimp Lords of the Zombie Apocalypse (Excessive Violence Edition).