Polyhedral Predicaments: Dungeon Demise

Polyhedral Predicaments - This is a series within a series!  These are small, 18-card games that share similar mechanics as you go on adventures and survive disasters.  These are part of the larger Polyhedral Series.

Polyhedral Predicaments - Dungeon Demise - This is the first game in the Polyhedral Predicaments series and the third in the Polyhedral Series.  You are a hero delving deep into a dungeon in search of treasures.  You'll encounter a maze of rooms, each with a powerful enemy, weapons and tools that will help you on your journey, as well as coins and gems.  Collect what you can, survive if you are able, and defeat the dungeon boss at the end to earn a trove of valuables!

See below for Clarifications (the included rules are pretty tiny) and FAQs!


UPDATE

After playing the game some more I've made a couple of small adjustments.  If you purchased a copy after June 1, 2023, these changes are included.  If you purchased a copy before June 2023 these changes aren't listed in the rules, but you can still use the old version with these minor updates.
  • Re-rolls - You are allowed 1 re-roll per Level that you are on.  So one re-roll on Level 1, two on Level 2, etc.  Dungeon Bosses allow five re-rolls.
  • Boss - Dragon - The Dragon originally had you ignore the highest rolled die.  That made the Dragon nearly impossible to beat, especially with only the required three dice.  The new Dragon rule is to use half the value of the highest roll.  

Options

A little too difficult?  Try a couple of these minor adjustments:
  • If you succeed by 3+, recover an injured die.
  • If you fail at one room in a level but would have succeeded at the other room, you may allow switching rooms.

Variants

Exploration Variant
Try playing with more exploring!  Use cubes or other small tokens to mark which rooms you've visited and explore more of the dungeon.  You can go backward, forward, and sideways in the dungeon, but can only visit each room once.  The game ends when you either perish or defeat the Dungeon Boss.

Stew's Variant - Thanks to Stew Bucher for the idea for this variant.
Assign yourself 3 Health Points (use cubes or tokens to keep track).  When you are injured (use more dice than allowed Strikes), spend a Health Point to recover a die.  If you spend all three Health Points you cannot exceed the allowed Strikes, even by injuring a die.  Health Points cannot be recovered when earning Recover a Die rewards.  Health Points do not earn you any additional points toward your score and cannot be used to recover dice used as extra Strikes against a Dungeon Boss before final scoring.

E.g. On Level 1 you are fighting the Spectre (8/1), but it takes you two dice to defeat it.  So, instead of leaving one die behind as injured, you discard a Health Point token.  On Level 3 you are fighting the Minotaur (28/3) and it takes you four dice so you remove another Health Point token.  When fighting the Troll Dungeon Boss you are able to use five dice since you still have one Health Point, but you'll injure two that will not count for points in final scoring.  (If you had spent your last Health Point on Level 4 you would only be able to use three dice against the Troll.)

To increase the difficulty, start with only 2 (or even 1) Health Points.  To make the game easier start with 4 (or more) Health Points.

Clarifications

Hands - You may use one or two Daggers, one or two Maces, or a Dagger and Mace because they each require one hand.  The Axe (also Broadsword and Crossbow) requires two hands so you may not use it with any other weapons.  If you collect more than two hands of Weapons (e.g. a Mace and Axe) you must decide which two hands of Weapons to use (so either the Mace or the Axe in this example).

The Dagger/Axe - The Dagger and Axe increase your total Hits.  They do not adjust any die values.  

The Hauberk - The Hauberk lets you adjust each of your dice by increasing them by 1 or 2 hits.  This is useful for avoiding monster effects that affect even or odd dice or specific values.  The Hauberk can be applied before using weapons, so you may combine the Hauberk with the Broadsword to give you doubles. The Hauberk does NOT let you increase a die beyond its maximum value (e.g. the D12 cannot become a 13).

Level 1 - Spinosaurus - Any rolled die with a value of 4 is treated as a 0.  Any other number is safe.

Level 2 - Bats and Dino - If a die is injured it must be the lowest (bats) or highest (dino) valued dice.  If you succeed without injuring any dice then they are all safe!

Level 2 - Hydra - Any rolled die with a value of 8 is treated as a 0.  Any other number is safe.

Level 2 - Scorpion - Whatever you roll on the D8 gets flipped.  This is AFTER applying any tools you have earned.  So if you have the Shield, reroll until you have a 4 or higher.  Then flip the D8.  If you have the Mace you may flip the D8 first, then the Scorpion will flip it back!

Level 2 - Spider - Any die with an Odd value must be re-rolled.  This is AFTER applying any tools you have earned.  So if you roll a 5 on the D10 you must reroll it.  If you then get a 3 you must reroll again.  If you then get a 2 you must keep the value (unless you have the Shield, in which case you would reroll until you get an even value of 4 or more).

Level 3 - Raptor - Any die that is less than 4 is a 0.  If you have a Shield you are protected from the Raptor because you'll reroll any dice less than 4!

Level 3 - Centaur - Any die with an Odd value must be re-rolled.  This is AFTER applying any tools you have earned.  See Level 2 - Scorpion for an example.

Level 3 - Centipede Viper - The lowest rolled die is ignored.  This means you essentially have to defeat the Centipede Viper with two dice, so chances are you are going to get something injured!  (Fortunately, the reward lets you recover an injured die.)  This does affect you AFTER you have applied any earned tools.  If you roll values of 9, 7, and 6 you've only scored 16 hits.  If you roll a 1 on your 4th die you'll ignore that (instead of the 6) and have 23 hits (but have an injured die).

Level 4 - Darkness - If you roll the D20 when battling Darkness its strength will be 26 instead of 24.

Level 4 - Goblin - Your total number of hits must be an even number.  This is AFTER applying any tools you have earned.  This means you must actually reach 30 (or an even number higher) total hits.

Level 4 - Medusa - If you roll the D% when battling Medusa her strength will be 34 instead of 32.

Level 4 - RoboMech - You must roll 2 dice at a time if possible!  So if you don't succeed with your first two dice, you will get some injuries!  If you only have one die remaining you may roll it individually.

Level 4 - The Twin - Your total number of hits must be an odd number.  This is ATER applying any tools you have earned.

Boss - Dragon - The highest die is divided by two.  This is AFTER applying any tools, so be careful that you don't increase something too high.  You will most likely injure some dice when battling the Dragon!  If you roll 18, 11, and 8 you have only scored 28 hits.  You'd better hope you have some good equipment to battle the Dragon!

Boss - Skeletons - Every even die that you have gets reduced by 2.  This is AFTER applying any tools you have earned (so use the Hauberk to increase those dice by 1).  Dice will only be reduced by 2 once per battle.

Boss - Troll - Every Odd die that you have gets reduced by 3.  This is AFTER applying any tools you have earned (so use the Hauberk to increase those dice by 1).

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