Dungeon Draw (micro PYL card game)

Something that came up in a few playtester feedback forms was how "unfair" the Shield could be when someone drew 4+ coins, drew a Shield, and was able to further "press their luck" with minimal risk.

While I do really like the current Shield's power, it does somewhat counteract the premise of the genre.

The first idea was to change the Shield to "Any adjacent treasure is scored even if you're defeated." but it was a wasted card when neither adjacent card was treasure.

The Lucky Coin and 1 health didn't quite fit anyway. So, we moved the +1 health to the Shield which made sense thematically and gave the Lucky Coin an individual version of the old Shield's power, which is a little more fair.

I am still testing the Shield to see if it should be bumped up to +2 health or given an additional power such as "This reduces the attack of any adjacent monster by 1."

I am trying to make the wording as simple and straight forward as possible. I was hoping that "Has +1 attack for every other monster in the dungeon" implied it was an ongoing effect that was affecting by all monsters before and after it.

But I do like an aura monster with "All other monsters in the dungeon have +1 attack."

A monster that applies to ALL players and isn't shuffled into the deck until the end of a round may work if the deck is a lot larger than 21 cards.

The potions would just be cards not tokens. They would be played next to the hero health card so the bookkeeping on that end should be very easy. The problem with sliding up the health markers is that it also tracks the current round so there could be confusion when sliding that up and down and then trying to recall what is and isn't the current round.

True that winning players could steal if there is 4+ players and all potions are in hand but that means that there would have to be a lot of busted players all on the same round or players that are hoarding potions. The idea was to add more player interaction but that may or may not be a good thing.

For now, I will keep the game as is with the Shield and no potions and go from there.

The original purpose of allowing players to take potions from others (only IF there are none in middle) was to discourage players from "hoarding" potions and to reward the most recent players that were defeated. This really only becomes a factor in games with 4+ players with everyone busting at the same time.

But, I agree that it doesn't exactly fit with the theme.

Anyway, do you like the Lich who gets the self attack buff or this Floating Eye that buffs all other monsters? They essentially do the same thing. Its an ongoing effect so it buffs previous and future monsters while the Eye itself has no attack. I feel like the aura is easier to track than the self buff.

Yes, you can use the Sword on it. The cards have been updated in the OP.

I use Photoshop to create cards.

Each PnP card is 2.5x3.5 inches @ 300 dpi.
Each PnP page is 8.5x11 inches @ 300 dpi. I use the software's guidelines to quickly align the cards into a 3x3 grid.

I save each page as a png (lostless format) and then combine them into a single pdf.

I am considering submitting this for the Ion Award (Jan 1 deadline) just to gain the experience and feedback from the judging process of an official contest.

That means I really need to improve the rules and solidify the card powers over the next 2 weeks.

I'm currently on the road so please excuse any errors or mistakes due to talk to text. Thank you for the great feedback.

Regarding the bad juju, that is unfortunate that it can be a dead card for the first few players of the first round but I'm not sure how to better word it as a "use" item. Im not sure adding a rule to put it on the bottom of the deck really changes its effect for that first player since it can just be discarded.

You bring up a good point about the floating eye. It could either have zero attack listed on it so the trap doesnt double its effect or it keeps its plus symbol and it's clearly stated in the rules that a trap doubles it's effect. The second option is less obvious without referencing the rules.

About the blob, I do like the idea of a choice of discarding an item but then wouldn't players always choose the trap or used bad juju when it's in play? That may be a good thing since it won't always happen. Another interesting option would be that the opponent(s) get to choose a coin or item in the dungeon to discard.

For the key and all use items, they are discarded after use so it's assumed that the key is discarded when used to discard the trap, but further clarifying that cards are discarded after use (unless stated otherwise) on all the use items may be worthwhile.

Originally on the chest I had whenever this is unlocked, all coins are scored twice so there was no confusion, it just sounded better that the treasure was worth double. I can see how that could be confusing with the cursed coin's wound so we may go back to just coins are scored twice wording.

How did you feel about the torch? originally we had the idea that it allowed you to look at the next two cards on the top of the deck but then you must discard one and draw one. Either could be bad (two monsters) or could be a very obvious choice if one's a monster and one's a coin or tough choice if two are useful items that you have to decide between.

It definitely is a more interesting card with this implementation but it's also more confusing card, if for example both cards being monster still cause you to be defeated then the players feel cheated or are confused whether they have to draw one or not. I personally preferred this implementation for more decision making but it does make the game easier and a little more confusing than the current effect.

Again, I appreciate all of your guys help and support and am interested to hear your feedback on these new ideas.

So people do not like idea that your opponent would pick an item to discard with the Blob? Too menacing? I thought perhaps it would add more player interaction especially during another players turn to keep people invested.

My worry about changing an unused Torch to being worth a coin is that 1) it would be inconsistent with every other item and 2) it would rarely get played.

How do you know that a Trap has been disabled or Chest opened then? Rotate them 180 degrees?

When the monster's ongoing passive power was "Has attack equal to the number of other monsters in the dungeon." (the old Lich), it was more clear that the Trap would double its attack. Now, its less clear with the Floating Eye and the plus symbol.

Personally, I would rather have it double its effect instead of give it 0 attack which isn't doubled, but I am not sure how else to make this clear on the card without going back to the old Lich wording. Otherwise, it will rely on the clarification in the rules.

The power keywords are now Encounter (when a card is drawn) and Use (flip an item over anytime to use).

Wording/Power Changes:

Blob - Encounter: Your opponent can pick a card to shuffle back into the deck.

Does this monster still fit with the power or should I change this to something else?

Chest - Encounter: Flip this card face down. If this is face up, coins are worth double points.

Key - Use: Flip the Chest face up or the Trap face down.

It took me a long time to figure out how to make the Key work in the same way for both the Chest and Trap. Finally, by having the encountered Chest turned face down (locked) until its turned back face up (unlocked), the Key applies the same effect for both cards but with different outcomes.

Also, it makes more sense that the cards be bridge size instead of poker size since they are placed side by side. While I started to redesign the cards, I wanted to update the art as well but haven't found an artist yet.

Here is the new sleeker/simpler bridge design (with examples of real art). Monsters in red, items in grey, and treasure in gold.