Dungeon Petz

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GAMEPLAY

In Dungeon Petz you are going to care for you pets in your dungeon. You are going to take care of them, make them grow-up, show them in exhibitions and eventually sell them to dungeon lords. In the game you collect points and the person with the most points wins the game.

How to play?

The game is played over several rounds, depending on the number of players. Each round consists out of six phases.

Each player has it’s own playerboard, a petshop, where you keep your imps, gold and food. Each player also has a dungeon to place your pets in.

In the middle of the table you place the main bord, and the progress board. On the progress board are the tiles for the exhibitions of the pets and the tiles of the dungeon lords that you are going to sell your pets to. There are also distant relatives, that can be called into the game.

When you have done the set-up (that is quite a lot 😉) the first round of the game begins.

🐇  In the first phase (1) you are going to reset the settings on the board, and you reveal the upcoming exhibition and dungeon lord on the progress board, so you know what the requirements are and you can prepare yourself for that. In this phase you also collect your income.

🐇 In the second phase (2) you put the screen of your playerboard up, and you are going to divide your imps and gold into groups. Each shop has six exits, where you can place imps and gold. Each exit you are going to use, must contain at least one imp, so not only gold. The goal of creating these groups is to determine the order of the turns in this round. The player with the largest group starts, followed by the other groups with less imps (or gold). You need gold to buy a new pet. If you need to buy a new dungeon you need a group of at least two imps, because the dungeon is to heavy for one imp.

Creating the groups is behind a screen. When everybody is finished, you lower the screen and the turnorder is determined.

Nex, you place the imps in order on the main board. There are lots of different actions, like buying a new pet or dungeon, buying food for you pets, getting the relatives over (meaning: have an extra imp the next rounds), etcetera. In short; there are a lot of different actions that you can choose.

🐇 In the third phase (3), you arrange your dungeon(s) with the purchases of the second round. The pets needs to be placed in a dungeon and they all have needs, like hunger for food, need to play, health and poop, that must me met. Each pet indicates what their needs are. These needs are represented by four different colour cards. And each card has the shows the need that you need to fulfil. When you chose your cards, you lay them phase down on the table.

🐇  In the fourth phase (4) you reveal the need cards and fulfil the needs you can. If you are not able to fulfil all the needs your pet gets a penalty. The penalty differs per need. After this, you choose your pet(s) that are going to the exhibition and you score points if your pet(s) meet the criteria of the exhibition.

🐇 In the fifth phase (5) you can sell your pet to the dungeon lord, and also score points.

🐇 In the sixth, and final phase (6), your pets age and their needs change for the next round.

In the game you play over several rounds, depending on the number of players. The player with the most points wins the game.

💡 Our opinion

Dungeon Petz is a very nice game! The rules seem very complex (even in this review it was difficult to keep it simple!), and there are a lot of different elements and steps in the game. The rules are extended and the first rounds you play feel complex.

But… after a round or two it all makes sense and the game plays smoothly. The theme is unique and fun and the artwork is amazing. Taking care of a dungeon pet, going to an exhibition and eventually selling to a dungeon lord.

In our opinion Dungeon Petz is a real expert game. There are so many options and this to look after. It is a big challenge to let your pets grow up healthy. The game is very nice and well balanced with two players and we recommend this game if you are looking for an thematic expert game, with a nice worker placement mechanism and unique theme.

⭐8,5 / 10