Welcome to the first Super Dungeon: Explore! rules preview. Today we are going to walk through the Hero cards. This is a basic overview. Each preview will dive deeper into a new aspect of the rules over the course of the Kickstarter campaign.

Name: This is the name of the model. Just like in a video game you can use multiples of the same model. We like to paint them different colors!

Type: Every model has a type. There are nine primary types of models: Hero, Pet, Boss, Mini-Boss, Minion, Denizen, Creep, Trap, and Shapeshift. Type is used to determine what abilities affect the model.

Speed: During their turn every model can move a number of squares equal to their Speed. Models can break up their movement between actions.

Action Points: Every model has a number of action points that they can spend to perform actions. All models can perform basic actions from the rulebook, which we will preview later.

Attributes: Every model has four attributes: Strength (STR), Armor (ARM), Willpower (WILL), and Dexterity (DEX). Every attribute is represented by a color and number of dice that the model rolls anytime they perform an action using that attribute.

Hearts: This is the number of wounds a model can take before they are destroyed. Every time a model takes a wound, place a wound token on the card.

Potion Quantity: This is the number of potions a model can carry, represented by placing potion tokens on the model’s card.

Abilities: Many models have abilities that make them unique. Rules for common abilities are found in the rulebook. Unique abilities are on the back of the model’s card.

Affinity: All models have a crystal affinity. Some models have a dual affinity. Like Type, a model’s Affinity can determine abilities that affect the model. In the future Legends campaign expansion affinity will determine the advancement paths that are available to the model.

Actions: The actions listed here are unique actions that only the model can use. To use an action the model spends the number of action points listed for the action.

There are two types of actions:

• Offensive Actions (Red): Offensive actions may only target enemy models and will inflict a single wound if successful.
• Support Actions (Blue): Support actions do not inflict wounds. Instead, they cause special effects to occur such as inflicting status effects on enemies or helping friendly models.

Potion Type: Potions are powerful single-use actions. To drink a potion a Hero spends the number of potion tokens listed.

There are three types of potions:

• Offensive (Red): An offensive potion grants the model that drank the potion a single-use offensive action.
• Support (Blue): A support potion grants the model that drank the potion a single-use support action.
• Emergency (Green): An emergency potion grants the model that drank the potion a single-use support action that may be used during the Consul’s turn.

Combat Icons are an all new feature to Super Dungeon: Explore! and are designed to make it so you can easily identify your model’s combat attributes at a glance.

Offense Icons: A model may use an attribute with an offense icon to make an offensive action against any enemy model. If a number is listed, the offensive action may target an enemy within that number of squares. If the icon has no number, the offensive action may only target an enemy in an adjacent square.

• Melee Attack: A model with the Melee icon may make an offensive action using its Strength (STR) attribute.
• Missile Attack: A model with the Missile icon may make an offensive action using its Dexterity (DEX) attribute.
• Magic Attack: A model with the Magic icon may make an offensive action using its Willpower (WILL) attribute.

Defense Icon: When a model is attacked they can attempt a defense roll to avoid taking damage. A model may use an attribute with a defense icon to make their defense roll. Most models will use their Armor (ARM) to make their defense roll. However, some models have abilities such as Dodge or Shield that allow them to use their DEX or WILL as well.

Model Walkthrough

At the end of every rules preview we will highlight a single model, walking through it’s entire card and highlighting how it performs in the game.

Princess Emerald has two different offense icons: Melee and Missile 8. This means she can make a melee attack using her STR against adjacent enemies by rolling 2 blue dice, or a missile attack against enemies up to 8 squares away using her DEX by rolling 2 blue dice and 1 red die. Her only defense attribute is her Armor.

Not surprisingly, her crystal affinity is Emerald, which is associated with DEX.

The support action Scope costs 1 action point to use, and can target an enemy 8 squares away. The “DEX vs DEX” indicates that both she and her target use their DEX attributes to make their offense and defense rolls for the action. Since it is a support action it inflicts no wounds. Instead, if Princess Emerald wins the roll the target suffers Fragile which is a status effect that forces the model to discard their highest dice when making rolls using their ARM.

Her Subduing Shot costs 2 action points. Since it is a red offensive action she may use either of her attributes with an offense icon when using the action. Since Subduing Shot grants her a bonus red dice to DEX she will want to use that attribute to make the roll in most circumstances. Using her DEX also means she can target a model from 8 squares away! If Princess Emerald wins the roll the target not only suffers a single wound it also suffers the status effect Pacify which prevents it from using its unique offensive actions.

The Hunter’s Rations potion is a support potion, meaning a Hero may only drink it during their own turn. When they do it will Heal 2 wounds and grant them the ability Surefootwhich allows them to move through difficult terrain unhindered.

Princess Emerald is an excellent ranged Hero who specializes in weakening tough monsters. Her high base DEX and Missile 8 makes it so she can do her damage while staying out harm’s way. Both of her unique actions are potent against monsters with multiple hearts, allowing her to weaken them to be easily picked off by other Heroes. Her potion is nice for its Healing effect, but since it is a blue support potion you need to plan ahead–it can’t “rescue” a Hero during the Consul’s turn like a green emergency potion.

We hope you enjoyed our first rules preview. We have many more to come!

Goro Poll

We forgot to mention in our last update that the final result of the Goro Poll saw Grinning Goro win by a hefty 76% – 24%. So the Goro that will go to manufacturing will be the smiling version. We’d like to thanks everyone for participating in the poll!

Emerald Valley Approaches

We’re closing in on an all new warband being available. If you know you’re planning on picking up this all new warband you can increase your pledge now and help unlock it for everyone!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1257458293/super-dungeon-explore-forgotten-king/posts/792628