Epic, intricate dungeon fun
DUNGEON UNIVERSALIS
Designer: Óscar Bribián | Publisher: Ludic Dragon Games
While tabletop gaming has changed a lot in recent years, one element of the hobby has proved refreshingly enduring. Dungeon crawlers are still with us – a hold-over from an era when game night meant chucking dice and slaying orcs in 10 x 10 rooms (with a chest in the corner). If anything, the genre has never been more popular – to the point where it is easy to be overwhelmed by the huge range of options. Enter Dungeon Universalis – a reprinted kickstarted party-crasher that its Spanish publisher, Ludic Dragon, describes as an “infinite dungeon crawler” Can this epic title justify a steep learning curve and the fact that the base game doesn’t include everything needed to play?
The short answer is yes. It is a love letter to classic dungeon crawlers, with detailed character creation tools and a vast range of monsters and scenarios. The longer answer is yes – but the game requires a high tolerance for fiddliness. There’s always that one minor rule you forgot, that buff you neglected to apply, that penalty which slipped your mind. Get your head around the finickiness and it is a wonderful experience – but a straightforward hack-and-slash it is not.