What is it?
Boss Monster is a card driven dungeon crawler with a twist. You don’t play as an adventuring do-gooder but a dungeon architect enticing Heros for the kill whilst being careful they don’t stick your head on a pike instead!
What do you do in it?
Build your dungeon and cast spells to collect souls from Heros whilst avoiding them overwhelming you. You win when you’ve collected 10 souls and lose when you take 5 wounds. The challenge is collecting the 10 souls before your opponent, especially as they will be casting spells to disrupt your plans but of course you can do the same. This is where the player interaction kicks in and each game can vary depending on your strategy and the spell cards that you draw. Heros are randomly drawn, as are all the cards in the game, so making the best of what you have and building your dungeon to suit the circumstances is really good fun. Boss Monster is turn based and more reliant on skill than luck.
How long does a game last?
No more than an hour usually, closer to 30 minutes for experienced players.
Do I need any other kit?
No, but a Dungeon Mat helps tidy your setup and remind you what’s where. There are several expansions available but these are not required to play the base game which includes 155 cards.
How long is the rulebook?
12 pages. Also comes with a quick-start guide. The rules are set out well and come in bitesize chunks as opposed to long-winded paragraphs. There’s also loads of walkthrough videos on YouTube should you prefer to learn that way.
Can it be played solo?
Officially, no, however fan-made variants are available online for solitaire play, but you will lose the player interaction aspect of the game.
Summary
A light, short, nostalgic card game for 2-4 players with 1980/90s style artwork reminiscent of video game dungeon crawlers.
