Paper App Dungeon Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Paper App Dungeon, a solo dungeon crawler that can be played just about anywhere. Using only a notebook and a pencil, you must try and traverse this procedurally generated dungeon.

There are a few genres of board games that if you throw it down on the table, I’ll play it. Near the top of the list for me are dungeon crawlers. Perhaps it’s from my decades of playing Dungeons and Dragons, or HeroQuest being my first introduction to the genre as a teenager. In either case, I’ve got a soft spot for this type of game. So when Lucky Duck Games sent over a copy of Paper App Dungeons, you better believe I busted it out right away. It’s a solo dungeon crawler that is played with a small notebook and one 6-sided die (or included D-Pencil).

You start each level at the entrance to a dungeon and you need to make your way to the exit. How do you do this? You roll a six-sided die (or the included pencil that has a number on each side), and pick a direction to move. If you roll an odd number, you can move diagonal the number of spaces rolled. If you roll even? You guessed it, you move orthogonally.

Littered across the dungeon are a variety of symbols, and running over one will either have you gain/lose coins, gain/lose hit points, or maybe teleport you around the dungeon. You start the game with ten hit points and zero money. Once you reach the exit stairs, you check how many hit points and money you gained/lost. Those sums carry over to the next level. If you hit zero Hit points, you die, lose all your money, and start the next level back at ten hit points.

Occasionally, instead of a dungeon level, you’ll reach a shop that will let you spend your gold on upgrades. This gives you a bit more edge on survival, assuming you have the coin to spend.

All told, there are 44 levels of this procedurally generated dungeon. Once you’ve travestied each level, the book is done. If you want to play again, you can buy a new book with another unique dungeon setup.

On paper, Paper App