Dungeon Roll - Tips & Strategies

“Do I have to pay 5 XP to level up my character?”

This question comes up everytime I’ve played with someone new to the game. Many games require payment for advancement, but Dungeon Roll is not one of them.

You do NOT have to discard 5 XP to level up your character. As long as you have 5 XP, your character automatically levels up to its more powerful side.

Also note:

-You have to have collected the XP. Just being on level 5 of the dungeon does not mean you have 5 XP, you have to successfully leave the dungeon to collect the XP, then if you have enough you can level up.

-Beating a dragon gives you the 1 XP immediately, if this brings you up to 5 collected XP, you can immediately level up.

-Treasure does not count as XP for leveling (this includes the portal that shows a value of 2 points)

Do you want the player who rolls the black dice to have a role that’s a little more meaningful? Allow them to re-roll any one black die on every dungeon level. This makes the game significantly harder for adventurers, but introduces some interactivity.

(Credit for the house rule goes to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1020669/active-dungeon-lord-buffed-scrolls-thematic-potion)

If you would like to order the playmat that Tasty Minstrel Games was using at Gencon for this game, you can get it through this website: http://www.inkedplaymats.com/products/dungeon-roll

(I posted this as part of my review but felt it made more sense here).

TIP/HACK FOR GAMEPLAY:
The game’s downfall is that the player rolling for the dungeon doesn’t have any strategy – they’re just a dice rolling machine. The complicated fix would be to give each adventurer card a DM skill, so when you’re rolling as DM you could have an ability you could choose to play.

The easy way is for the DM to roll a D6 when the character rolls his party. Let’s say the die lands on 4. At any point after rolling for the dungeon, the DM could choose to re-roll up to 4 die before the character gets a chance to resolve. So if as the DM I rolled 2 treasure chests in level 2, I could reroll them, and turn my reroll die from 4 to 2 indicating the amount of rerolls I have left. It’s not huge, but it goes a long way towards keeping the DM roll interesting as opposed to mechanical. Give it a try.