Welcome to the Dungeon Review – Going Into a Pit of Horrors with Four Monsters and No Shirt

The unfortunate side effect of listening to too much Guns N’ Roses is that I can no longer say Welcome to the Dungeon without following with ‘we got fun and games.’ Thankfully, in this context, it still works!

Welcome to the Dungeon is a game of boastful bluffing, dungeon diving, and strip teasing. Where everyone is in control of the one helpless adventurer forced to go into the dungeon. However, only one player can take this hapless chap.

To figure out who that is, the players engage in a game of boasts. Where play looks like one player saying: I’ll go into the dungeon with four monsters. Followed, by the next player saying: I’ll go into the dungeon with four monsters and no shirt!

This tit-for-tat continues until everyone passes, leaving the bravest – or most idiotic- player to follow through with their boast.

How to play

Welcome to the Dungeon begins with the selection of one of four adventurers straight from the D&D Players Handbook, including Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Barbarian. Each adventurer has a unique set of equipment, making up their total health, and abilities they can use.

Then each player takes a turn consisting of two choices:

1. To draw a monster card, or pass.
2. If they draw, then they can either:
   • Add the monster to the dungeon deck – which starts empty.
   • Or remove a piece of equipment from the adventurer, while also removing the monster card from the game.

So the round begins with a fully equipped adventurer entering an empty dungeon. It shortly becomes a monster-filled dungeon and an ill-equipped adventurer.

Soon enough players no longer feel confident in the adventurer’s abilities and begin to pass. The last person to pass then takes the remaining equipment and faces all monsters within the dungeon.

Players enter the dungeon by drawing monster cards one at a time. Then check if the adventurer’s equipment beats the monster. If it doesn’t, then the monster does damage to the adventurer.

This continues until no monsters remain in the dungeon.

If the adventurer makes it to the end of the dungeon deck with at least one health, they’ve successfully defeated the dungeon. Then, if this is the second dungeon they’ve defeated, they win Welcome to the Dungeon. Otherwise, they’ve fallen victim to the dungeon. And if this is the second time a player’s been defeated, then they’re eliminated from the game.

Elimination that takes you to the edge

Eeeeeeek! Welcome to the Dungeon has player elimination. One of the worst mechanics in all of board gaming. Except, here it’s incredibly well done. Not because of the mechanic itself but how the game revolves around the threat of it happening.

Being eliminated from the game gives players something to risk and care about throughout the game. Stopping players from doing naked dungeon runs, and other crazy boasts, while also raising the stakes.

Then in Welcome to the Dungeon, you’re not eliminated willy-nilly. It’s never a random chance, or bad luck when you’re removed from the game. The only way you’re eliminated is if you make a bad call. This takes the sting out of being left out because you’re always in control of whether it happens or not.

Well, that’s not entirely true because Welcome to the Dungeon isn’t a game of perfect information. You know what monsters you put into the dungeon, you know what equipment is available, and you know how many monsters are in the dungeon. The only thing you don’t know is what monsters other players have added.

This lack of information leads to speculation, calculated risks, and bravado. It’s also what makes Welcome to the Dungeon such a fantastic game of bluff and bluster. As it consistently takes you to the edge. That high-stakes moment in Poker when you don’t know whether to call, raise or fold.

When you start to doubt your sanity it all comes down to the simplest of decisions: do I pass, or draw a monster card?

Bluff your shirt off

When you’re not on the edge, you’re busy creating it for someone else. While there aren’t many mechanics in Welcome to the Dungeon, there’s enough to play devastating mind games with the rest of the table.

Like in Poker, you can play your easy monsters slow, and your scary monsters fast to throw off your opponents. But then you can get more tricky, by removing the dragon spear – when you’ve already placed the dragon (the strongest monster) in the deck. Welcome to the Dungeon is so exciting to play because it gives you so much information to play around with.

It’s also a game that changes up from round to round, not just in the adventurer going into the dungeon. However, that changes the game drastically. But with the equipment removed, the number of monsters in the dungeon, and the players pushing it to the limit all radically change how you play each round.

On a deeper level, there’s information you know, and then there’s the quality of information you know that affects your play. For example, if you know where the dragon card is, then you’re more likely to safely play around it. This swing in information from round to round, keeps Welcome to the Dungeon infinitely fresh, as it changes how everyone approaches the game.

The more the merrier

Welcome to the Dungeon is an IELLO game, meaning like Diamant, its component quality is out of this world. The card art is fantastic, the tokens are thick chunky cardboard, it’s everything you could ask for from a board game publisher.

This is brilliant, because Welcome to the Dungeon and its sequel Welcome Back to the Dungeon, might just be my favourite couple of small box games.

They’re already my favourite bluffing games – and that includes Skull. As both these board games combine the two things I love about the hobby: interacting with other players through shared systems, and tough decision-making that requires deep thought.

The only issue with Welcome to the Dungeon is it only works with three or four players. Any less, and you miss the stress of being eliminated.