Dungeon Hero - An easy print and play Solo RPG
Xrax the Barbarian turned the corner and came face to face with two giants guarding the entrance to their chief’s cave. Bellowing the rageful warcry of his people, Xrax charged at the two fierce warriors and landed a fury of blows. Xrax smote them and continued deeper into the Frost Giant’s lair…
Dungeon Hero is an easy-to-learn Solo RPG zine where you can go on three volumes of different adventures with your custom-made characters. Made by clever game designer, Lone Spelunker, Dungeon Hero games are designed as zines. The core rules can be printed on one page (single-sided) and folded in a way that makes it into a tiny little book. Each adventure also prints onto one page and can be folded into a zine. It’s a pretty clever way of making this solo RPG accessible and easy to travel with.
 |
| Dungeon Hero zines. Image credit: Lone Spelunker |
Once you're done reading this review, be sure to check out the game on Itch!.
What do you need to play?
To play Dungeon Hero you’ll need to be able to print a few pages single-sided. Alternatively, standard formatted PDF files for the game are available, so you could play off your computer or tablet.
I also recommend you have four sets (yes four) of polyhedral dice, best if they are two sets of dark dice and two sets of light dice. That’s because when you roll, often you’ll be rolling several of the same dice, up to four at a time.
Because of this use of dice, unfortunately, it’s not the best game to play in cramped conditions like an airplane. I also found it hard to play using a digital dice roller because you are often rerolling only specific dice and need to keep track of which dice are associated with which skill.
Design and Feel
Each adventure comes with a line drawing on the front that gives you the feel for the adventure but most space on the inside of the book is given up to the actual adventure. The real cleverness of the design is that they can be folded into those little booklets, easy to store and flip through, all while being light on your printer.
I also appreciate that the core rule booklet has an example of play that makes understanding the game easy.
Character Creation
Each adventure starts with you creating your adventurer. You get 30 Resolve (your health), 15 Stamina (for rerolling your dice), and assign nine traits to an array of dice sizes. Your best trait will be assigned to a D12, and your weakness to a D6. Traits are different attributes, items, or skills your character may have. I found it useful to go with a theme. So if you want to be an Elf Ranger, your highest trait will be Archery Master (D12), Stealthy may be another strong skill (D10), and maybe you also have some rope (D6). Aim for things that will be useful in a fantasy adventure.
Once your nine traits are assigned, you are ready to start your adventure!
How it Plays
Dungeon Hero has lots of dice rolling, so pull up a chair and get those dice warmed up. If you love rolling dice, this is your bag. The game revolves around challenges and their dice level. As you advance through the adventure you’ll encounter challenges and roll your dice to defeat them.
You’ll always face off against two challenge traits, it might be a Smokey Room (d6) and a Spike Trap (D8). You’ll then pick two of your traits, say Acrobatic (D8) and Swift (D6) to attempt to overcome it. Roll the four dice and see which is the highest. If you have the highest, you’ve come out on top! If the challenge trait has the highest, you lose resolve. If you run out of resolve, you’ve lost.
Combat also comes into play, but it’s basically the same as challenges, enemies have HP you deduce by rolling higher than their dice.
 |
| Image credit: Lone Spelunker |
How it Ends
All Dungeon Hero adventures have defined endpoints. Adventures progress each time you defeat a challenge or enemy. You roll a D6 and move forward that amount of times. You are often forced to stop at certain points to be introduced to more story points or move to a different part of whatever dungeon you are exploring.
Your character also receives treasure for defeating certain challenges or enemies. Treasure has no effect in the game but can be looked at as a high score of sorts.
To complete the adventure your character simply has to make it to the final challenge or enemy and defeat them with some resolve left over. If you run out of resolve at any point, you’ve failed and have to start from the beginning.
I’d say you can sit down and play through an adventure in about 30 minutes, which includes character creation.
 |
| Image Credit: Lone Spelunker |
Should You Buy this Game, and Who is it for?
Now, there are hundreds of solo games out there, so why should you spend your time playing Dungeon Hero?
Do you want a simple game you can pick up, learn, and play in a short period of time? Dungeon Hero is for you! It can be learned in five minutes and you can get through an adventure in 30!
Do you like rolling lots and lots of dice? This is the game for you! The primary mechanic is all about dice rolling. Lots and lots of dice rolling.
Is your bookshelf overflowing with huge tomes and you just can’t fit another game in there? Dungeon Hero printing is super small but still a fun physical product. Alternatively, you can play with the PDF files.
Do you need something light and fun to play between Solo campaigns or to introduce you to Solo RPGs? Dungeon Hero is great for a bit of fun and is low commitment.
Do you want a game you can take and place on a train or bus? Unfortunately, the amount of dice and dice rolling will make it hard to place Dungeon Hero on the go.
Do you want a Solo RPG where you can control the course of the adventure and story? Dungeon Hero isn’t for you. The game is pretty linear, with only two possible outcomes (success or defeat).
Do you want a game with deep tactical choices and options? Dungeon Hero is pretty simple in its main mechanic, leaving little tactical choice beyond which trait to pick.
Overall Dungeon Hero is a great game with some well developed Adventures. Volume I, II, and III are available on Itch for Pay What You Want, but please consider throwing some money to the creator and/or telling people about this fun little solo RPG.
---
Thank you for reading. If you know of any Solo RPGs that are really cool let me know!
---
Support the Blog
Are you on Threads? Follow me at @croaker_rpgs. I talk about the blog, chat with other TTRPG creators, and have interesting conversations.
Or subscribe to my monthly Newsletter here. I post highlights from the blog, talk about other solo games and just interesting RPG stuff I've come across in the last month.
Check out Queenless today - Bee the hero you always were meant to be.
Comments
Post a Comment