Dungeon Saga: Origins Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Dungeon Saga: Origins, a dungeon crawler board game published by Mantic Games. In Dungeon Saga: Origins, players are questing through a series of dungeons on a campaign.

A few months ago I reviewed the nostalgia-filled dungeon crawler HeroQuest. This was a reprint of a long out-of-print game, however, the rules were not updated for the modern age. In short, it’s solid as a game system, but many of its flaws from when it was originally released are pretty glaring by today’s standards.

Enter Dungeon Saga: Origins. Published by Mantic Games, this light dungeon crawler will have you taking a team of four iconic heroes questing through a dungeon filled with undead monsters. Does this game take the heart of HeroQuest and update it to the modern age? Let’s find out.

Dungeon Saga: Origins is a scenario-based game where up to 4 players will control a team of 4 heroes (Barbarian, Wizard, Elf Ranger, Dwarf Fighter) and one other player will control the monsters as the overlord. If players would rather play cooperatively, there are rules for an automated overlord using a few extra rules and cards.

Whether playing with an overlord player or cooperatively, the rules are pretty much the same. The game starts with the hero players taking a turn. On a player’s turn they can move their hero up to their speed value, and then take an action. The main actions are attacking, searching a room, or casting a spell.

To attack, the hero/monster rolls dice equal to their combat value. They then compare the results to the target’s armor value. Any numbers equal to or lower than the armor value of the target are immediately discarded. Then the defender rolls dice equal to their combat value and the dice are matched up in opposing pairs: highest number to highest number. Any of the attacker’s dice that are higher than the defender’s (or unmatched) are hits. If a monster takes hits equal to their wound total, they are defeated. If a hero takes any hits, they lose one health (no matter