Mini Rogue, the Minimalist Dungeon Crawl - Review

Mini Rogue, a solo or co-op two player design by...

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How do you think this compares to Iron Helm? The "pick two choose one" sounds kinda similar (though I suppose IH adds a push your luck element to that choice). The art, at least on the card you show, isn't nearly as atmospheric as IH or say, Escape the Dark Castle, but maybe there is more to the aesthetic with other cards.

@Jason: If you’ve liked Iron Helm, I cannot possibly recommend Desolate enough, especially with the expansions.

These games are all simple and throwaway, and not super memorable as far as “I told someone about something that happened in game a year after it happened” but they are a lot of fun at the moment.

I think I added that one to my tin helm order, but now I don't recall. Will know when a box shows up in a few weeks I suppose

Just played a learning game of this. Got about halfway through the dungeon before I ran out of food and died. I agree with everything Michael wrote in the review. They really accomplished so much with so little here that it's undeniably impressive. A neat thing is that it's perfect information when exploring while still "feeling" like exploring because of the grid. Like there's just enough of a sense of movement even if it's ultimately meaningless because you always start top-left and end bottom-right.

There's a little campaign in the back of the rulebook and a small skill tree you can spend campaign points on. I'll definitely give it a shot hopefully soon. I bought it with the Depths of Damnation expansion as that was the one that interested me the most. It adds a few characters/monsters/rooms that are cool and also Lore cards. They're the kind of thing Michael usually hates where you flip a card and read a situation "You come across the body of a dead adventurer, do you?" and then resolve them. But here's the thing, only 1 room card lets you draw a Lore card. With the expansion that's 1 out of 26 cards where only 8 get dealt each level. Also I think the Witch is my favorite character for her Confusion skill. Once per level she can "Apply the monster's attack to itself." hehe