How to Play Rumble in the Dungeon & Review

Rumble in the Dungeon is a bluffing and deduction game.

Title: Rumble in the Dungeon

Year Published: 2012

Designer: Ken Rush

Publisher: Flatlined Games

Players: 3-6

Game Time: ~20 minutes

Set-up Time: ~1 minute

Ages: 8+

Theme: Fantasy Dungeon

Mechanisms: Secret Unit Deployment

How to win: Score the most points after 3 rounds by surviving the dungeon or getting out with the treasure.

Game Description

There are too many monsters and adventurers in this dungeon. The dead king’s treasure is well-guarded, but adventurers are fearless! Try to keep your secret character in the dungeon as long as possible, or to exit the dungeon with the treasure.

How to Play Rumble in the Dungeon

Round-Up

I really like games of this style. Where there are hidden characters on the board, some of them are yours, and you need to keep them alive. But, I can’t think of too many if I’m honest.

Shadow Hunters is one. Not only is your character hidden but your loyalty too. At the beginning of the game, you’re dealing damage seemingly at random to whoever. Then, as the game goes on and you learn more about the other players you get more careful.

In RitD you kill off anyone that isn’t you, manoeuvring your characters into position. Then as the horde thins out you can start to play even more strategically.

Two Actions: Move or Remove. (You can have that :))

Even the actions themselves are simple. Move into an adjacent room or remove someone if they’re in the room with someone else. The only awkward bit is the treasure chest holder who breaks one of these rules.

Components

The components aren’t great but good enough. Standees are not ideal for a game where 6 players are sat around the table. I’d rather see tokens that everyone can see from above. Not minis, it doesn’t need to be an expensive game in a big box 🙂

The art on the dungeon is nice. The tiles are double-sided, not that it matters but there are tiny details in each room to look at.

The art of the characters on the standees and tokens is fun too. They’re really easy to make out from one another too, assuming the standee is facing your way. 🙂

Actually, I’m being harsh, it’s not as bad as that. It only needs to partially be facing you and you can make out which character is which.

It’s a good fun game and well worth a go.

Rating: I give it 6/10

Rumble in the Dungeon First Impressions December 2018

Jesta ThaRogue