Super Dungeon Explore – Arcade Exposé!
Happy Friday!
Things are coming along at a good pace, and we are nearing full print wrap up. Lets take a look!
Print Production
- Classic Mode Rulebook: Done!
- Arcade Mode Rulebook: Done!
- Explorer’s Handbook: Done!
- Hero Cards: Done!
- Classic Monster Cards: Done!
- Arcade Monster Cards: Done!
- Explore Deck: Done!
- Arcade Command Deck: Done!
- Packaging: Core box done. Remaining packaging in layout.
- Dungeon Tiles: Done!
- Quick Start Rules: Laid out, in editing
- Coloring Book: awaiting layout
- Tile Effect Cards: Done!
- Core Treasure Deck: Done!
- Loot Deck: Done!
- Upgrade and Expansion Treasure: Done!
Key Production Updates
We hope you all enjoy our big informative updates, but they can be long and sometimes things can get missed. Here are few updates that have key production information in them, that you should make sure you read (if you haven’t already).
Our big print completion this week was the Arcade Rulebook. Seems like a perfect time for:
Arcade Exposé!
We gave you a rundown of Arcade some months ago (here and here), but some things have changed since then due to continued testing. Lets take a look at some key Arcade Rules along with their layout.
Monster Attributes: In Arcade monsters use their STR for all offense rolls and use their ARM for all defense rolls. Monster attributes are always represented as stars, so Heroes roll against a static value.
Hero Turn: During the Hero Turn two, yes two Heroes activate. Each Hero must complete their activation before the next Hero may activate. There is only a single Power-Up phase and loot draws are limited to 3 per turn (not per Hero).
This is a big change and is an incredible amount of fun in multiplayer games, ensuring you never have long to wait before your Hero is back in the action.
Consul Turn: The Consul Turn is controlled by the players and follows a strict procedure.
- Determine Disturbed Monsters
- Determine Order of Activation
- Perform Upkeep
- Draw Command Card
- Perform Commands
We’ll go into detail on all of these a little further down, but first—
Wrath: Every time a Hero activates they have the opportunity to incur the Wrath of the dungeon. Monsters will always try to target the Hero with the most Wrath that is in their range. The amount of wrath you use in a game is equal to twice the number of Heroes, minus one. So three Heroes have 5 wrath tokens, five Heroes have 9.
When there are no wrath tokens left, Heroes must remove tokens from other Heroes cards.
How do you earn wrath?
- Destroying an Elite or Minion model. +1 Wrath
- Using the Heal X ability. +1 Wrath
- Successfully using a support action. +1 Wrath
- Drinking a potion. +1 Wrath
- Opening a treasure chest. +2 Wrath
- Destroying a spawning point or mini-boss. +2 Wrath
It is important to note that the wrath chart is cumulative, so a support action that Heals or a potion that Heals incur +2 Wrath.
We even made the wrath chart as a handy reference card and included enough for 5 players to each have their own to reference!
Gangs have not changed much from when we previewed them here, so we won’t spend a lot of time rehashing them here. In a nutshell, weaker models work in gangs. Gangs will always try to move within 2 squares of each other to form a gang.
When they successfully form a gang they use their improved gang attributes and the elite who makes all of the actions gains all of the minions abilities.
If no gang is formed the elite uses its solo attributes, which are much less powerful.
Gangs help keep the game moving quickly, while still having the presence of weaker monster impact the game in a meaningful way.
Monster Activation
1. Determine Disturbed Monsters: Monsters only attack Heroes when they become disturbed. Any tile that a Hero is on is an active tile. Monsters that are on an active tile, or in a tile that shares a doorway with an active tile are disturbed and will activate.
In the example above, the Heroes are all on Tile A, so it is the only active tile. Therefore the monsters on Tile A and Tile B are disturbed, since Tile B shares a doorway with Tile A.
2. Determine Order of Activation: For each command monsters activate in a set order:
- 1. Creeps
- 2. Dungeon Boss
- 3. Mini-Bosses
- 4. Elites
- 5. Minions
3. Perform Upkeep: Monster upkeep is just like Hero upkeep. Any effects from the previous turn(s) are resolved, and abilities like Tough trigger.
4. Draw Command Card: The Command Deck is 36 cards with 12 unique commands in it. Players draw one card to see what the monsters will do. We’ve already previewed a few of them here. Lets look at a couple more!
5. Perform Commands: Using the order of activation. Perform every command on the drawn card in order. Lets look at the most common commands:
Spawn: When a Spawn command is drawn, one disturbed spawning point, that is closest to the Hero with the most wrath, spawns all monsters listed on its card that are available in the spawning pool.
There are a couple important things to keep in mind when spawning.
First, If you have duplicate spawning points, you don’t need to track which monster came from each. If the monster is listed on the spawning point’s card and is available in the spawning pool it spawns! (Up to the maximum listed on the card.)
Second, monsters are always placed so that they are not adjacent to another monster, unless there is no way to place them otherwise. This keeps monsters from clumping up during a spawn and getting immediately wiped out by a Hero’s area effect.
Move: All disturbed monsters (except minions) move towards the Hero with the most wrath by the shortest path possible. Monsters stop once they are in range. Monsters will disengage from other Heroes to get into range of the Hero with the most wrath—they are very angry with that Hero!
Minions move towards the nearest elite they can form a gang with, so they can lend their abilities to the elite.
Unique: All disturbed monsters use their unique actions, in the order listed on their card, targeting the Hero with the most wrath in range. Monster’s unique actions resolve in the same manner as Heroes’. Red actions are offensive and the target makes a defense roll against the monster’s STR or suffers a wound. Blue actions aresupport and no roll is required, or wound caused, unless the action specifies otherwise.
Fight: Like Unique, the rules for the Fight command are very similar to how Heroes perform basic offensive actions.
Using the established order of activation, each monster targets the Hero with the most wrath in range and line of sight. If a gang has been formed the elite will use its gang attributes, otherwise it uses its solo attributes.
If the monster has a signature unique action they will use it before they make any Basic Attacks.
The monster makes one Basic Attack offensive action for each action point they have. Heroes must make a defense roll against the monster’s STR attribute or suffer a wound and any other effects the monster causes.
Once all the commands on the command card have been performed, the players perform the Power-Up phase for the turn and play moves to the Hero Turn.
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Okay that wraps up today’s update. If you’re buried by snow in the Northeast (or anywhere else) stay warm, play some Super Dungeon Explore 1.0, and may you always roll stars—