Dungeoneer : Call of the Lich Lord

A card game with a difference. Though the game is stepped very much in the "hack-and-slash, running round dungeons/wastelands looking for damsel/gem/baddie" genre it seems to play differently to everything I have seen before in this field.

The cards themselves are well made and pretty, with suitable illustrations. They also have the obligatory "flavour" text to try and bring the game to life. You have to cut out the player counters, which is a bit of a pain. I used "proper" models to represent players, but this the card counters suffice.

Everything is based on cards and initially seems very straightforward. The missions are randomly dealt out, the map is a series of cards you put down and the sword, amulets and spells are likewise. The idea is move round the board, completing quests and tooling yourself up. So far, so D&D.

Where is gets clever is the fact that as you move round you pick up glory (money to spend on kit, effectively) and peril. This peril is then used by other players to play monsters on you. So the more movement you do, the more peril you get and so the more interesting your life becomes.

This is a great game concept. It obviates the need for a GM and brings into play the idea that if you go out scouring the area for trouble, you might get more than you bargained for. People who do that end up either very powerful, or (far more likely) very dead.

The game does have drawbacks - the random nature fo the cards and quests can mean either a very easy game for you, or near impossible. The game is not that rapid either as you have to digest what your oppenents are doing (so you can throw that dragon at them) as well as run your own guy. More than four players and the game can seriously grind.

But overall, the system works well and there is near unlimited playability as every game is very different.