Dungeon Lair is a fast and easy-to-learn board game for 2-6 player. It uses dungeon floor tiles from the game Dungeonquest, a dungeon game by Games Workshop. Gaming time is about 30 to 60 minutes.
See appendix for rules how to create Dungeon Lair game components.
This is a design version of the rules. Some playtesting has been done with 2 to 5 players, using basic rules. Catacomb rules have not been tested. See general license page for license details. In this stage of the development, all game rules are subject to change without any warning.
(14.9.2003) No initial tile anymore. One spare tile. New, hopefully clarified rules.
(16.9.2003) Last tile used. Added one tile to set to make it odd numbers. Removed cave-in tiles from the game.
(20.9.2003) In 2 player game, one extra small monster (only if no catacombs)
In Dungeon Lair, there exist 85 dungeon tiles (30 removed from the original Dungeonquest set). If the optional Catacomb extra rules are used, the total count is increased to 103 with 2 new tile types.
Normal room (white, purple or blue arrow, 69/75 tiles). Normal room can have doors or portucullis. A monster can enter this tile but cannot move through doors or portucullis.
Corridor (yellow arrow, 14/16 tiles). When a corridor is placed and if there are any open exits on it, a new tile can be placed but only to exit of the just placed corridor. A monster cannot be placed to corridor nor stop on it; if a monster is moved to a corridor tile, it makes immediately a new move.
Chasm (blue arrow, 2/2 tiles). Tile is counted as two normal rooms, one in either side. Thus 2 monsters can be on it, on either side, and both sides are worth one point in scoring. No monster can cross the chasm.
Bridge (blue arrow, 0/4 tiles). Catacombs only. As a chasm tile, but small monsters can cross the chasm as one move. This possibility is ignored during the scoring.
Catacomb entry (black arrow, 0/6 tiles). Catacombs only. As a normal room tile, except that monsters can move from one catacomb entry to another one as one move. This possibility is ignored during the scoring.
Arrow direction in tile is insigficant in Dungeon Lair.
Each player has 5, 6 or 7 monsters, to be placed to the dungeon during the gameplay and moved around. Monsters are kep 'in hand' before that and can later on returned to the hand. Monsters cannot attack each other.
Each player picks a color and 3 small monsters, 1 big and 1 huge monster of that color. If there are 3 or 4 players, or Catacomb extra rules are used, each players gets an extra big monster. If there is 2 players, or 3 or 4 players and Catacombs extra rules, each player get an extra big and small monster for a total of 7 monsters.
Shuffle dungeon tiles. Unless beginner rule is used, deal one tile to each player, face-down. The player can freely investigate that tile. A random player starts the game and the game proceeds clockwise until tiles run out.
On player's turn, she first draws a new tile, without revealing it to other players. Then she puts either that tile or the one already in her hand to the table, so that it touches one or more tiles already placed and so that no dungeon features are broken. So, if a tile edge has a doorway (with or without a door) then if it touches any tile edge, that edge must have a doorway (with or without a door). The arrow direction can be any. If the placed tile was a corridor with free exit(s), the player can draw a new tile and then put that tile (or the other kept) to any free exit of the just placed corridor. If that new tile is again a corridor, the player can again draw and place a new tile next to that new corridor tile and so on.
If the player selects a tile that cannot be placed, that tile is removed from the game and no replacement is drawn. This usually can only happen when a corridor is continued.
If there are no tiles to draw, the player simply plays with tiles she has. When a player ends her turn and all tiles have been placed or removed from the game, the game ends and proceed to scoring.
Beginner rule: in a beginner game, players do not have an extra tile in their hand, they just draw a tile and put it, if able. This way not all players need to know various types of the tiles.
After the tile(s) are placed, the player can do one monster action:
The game ends when a player cannot draw a new tile anymore. Monster in the dungeon then score points to the player. Monsters at hand have no effect.
Each room controlled by a player's monster is worth one point, including the tile in which the monster is. Only rooms are worth points. Corridors never give any points, but monster control areas are checked through them.
Monster controls all rooms it could reach with normal move, providing no other monster move. Thus, all connected rooms are in the same zone, unless there is a blocking door or a portcullis on the way. If Catacomb extra rules are used, move across bridge or through catacombs is not counted when checking the monster control area.
Any room that falls to control zone of more than one monster is checked so that all monsters of each player that could reach the room are counted. Each small monster is worth 1 power, bigs are 2 and huge monster is worth 3 power. The player with most monster power to control the tile gets points from it. If the highest power is tied, no player gets points from that room.
Example: between a small monster of player A and a big monster of player B there is one room. Player B gets the point from that one as she got the big monster able to control that room while player A has only a small monster.
One easy way to count the points is by giving all tiles controlled by a player to front of them and then count the tiles. Remember not to count any corridors. Note that chasms and bridge tiles have two rooms on them, one on each side. There are maximum of 73 (or 93) points to be divided, so the total of all player scores can never exceed that. However, it can be lower if there are uncontrolled rooms.
The player with most points is the winner.
As stated earlier, this game uses dungeon tiles from Dungeonquest board game. However, for playability reasons, some of the tiles from the original 115 set are not used, and thus you have to remove the following tiles:
If you have the Catacombs expansion to the Dungeonquest, also remove following 2 tiles:
Then, either play with Catacomb extended rules or remove following 18 tiles:
You need up to 6 monster sets, each of different color. Each set needs up to 4 small, 2 big and one huge monster. You can use colored dice, wooden or plastic pieces, or even small figurines (like from Warmaster)