What are the best dungeon divey games that are card based and therefore portable for taking on a trip?
One Deck Dungeon is a really fun game (imo) that is small. Iāve taken that on a few trips w/o any problems and my kids enjoy rolling the dice for me lol. My newest obsession for tiny games is Judgemint of the Realm Lords. Not a dungeon dive but card based and it fits in a mint tin!
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I own the three Dark Tomb games. These are small dungeon crawlers in a tin box. Not only cards, but very small and portable. But I have not played them so far, so I cannot say if they are any good.
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Kingdom Legacy!
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Quest for the Lost Pixel would like to have a word with you about your ācard-based, therefore portableā inference 
But more seriously, Daniel has a video on a Micro Dungeon Travel Pack he concocted, and which he revisited/updated in another recent video. Those are mostly solo games. Were you aiming for multiplayer games?
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Also, Bugs & Buttons! I donāt know how I forgot Gloomhaven in a tiny package!
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Yes, I was going to say Dark Tomb as well. Also Deck Box Dungeons, though I should probably warn people that are anti-app one is required for that game.
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Thank you. They donāt have to be dungeon crawlers necessarily, just any game relevant to the DD community. Iām aware of or own many of the great games Daniel has reviewed.
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The original (PnP?) Mini Rogue is awesome
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solo or multiplayer? - For solo, The Crows of Coppershell Bay | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
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Iād recommend any mint tin games! Tin Helm/Realm or Dustrunner/s. (Solo)
If you are looking for something more in depth I always bring Rogue Dungeon with me. Can be played solo or with friends!
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The one game I never see get mentioned that I absolutely love (that doesnāt have a dungeon theme) is The Lucky Seven. This is always in my bag when I go away as it creates a interesting random puzzle every time you shuffle the cards and set it all up.
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Coppershell Bay is back available for preorder again too!
Iāll echo Crows of Coppershell Bay. Itās ridiculous how much game is offered in that small tin (thereās two new pnp dungeons for it on the BGG table too for those who have it!). A lot of good suggestions so far. A few Iād add since I travel a lot and always am collecting small games that I can carry with me:
The Duagr. You play a vampire hunter trying to save a Norwegian village circa 19 century. Great theme and art in around 24 cards.
After the Virus. If you play solo, you only need one 54 card deck. A ton of game in this one with 14 scenarios and itās incredibly well designed. Same designer as Kingdom Legacy.
Walking Dead: Surrounded. Button Shy wallet game that I find really addictive. It feels like a lighter version of Sprawlopolis but with stronger theme and can be very puzzly, thinky when playing through the scenario book. 18 cards and 24 total with expansion.
Gamma Guild. A fun tin game with a great theme that plays in 10 min. Sending your guild of adventurers out on quests.
Doom Pilgrim Mint Tin version with the expansions especially the Black Bag. A lot of randomness with the expansions so youāll see very different journeys each time that always weave a fun dark immersive story.
The Solo Game of the Month club has a lot of good games that are contained in VHS cases and are very portable. I love the Hunted games (Mining Colony and Koboyashi tower), which both are basically dungeon crawlers but with a ton of theme. The Quests over Coffee edition is really sweet with a ton of content fitting into the case.
Iād suggest procedural heavy rpg games that basically function as board games as well since they pack a lot in a 6x9 or less slim book: Four against the Great Old Ones, Notorious, Rune, Ker Nethales, Broken Shores (more traditional rpg but still plays similar to a primarily procedural based game).
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For those you might be interested, here is the Dungeon Dive playlist for small boxed games.
Some of them definitely take up more or less space than others, but all of them are in small boxes.
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If youāre okay with apps, Deck Box Dungeons is surprisingly decent for how compact it is. Thereās over 500 different character combinations with 8 Heroes, 8 Weapons, and 8 Classes, and with the app describing the content of each room thereās a fair amount of variety. You wonāt be levelling up or gaining new skills but in return each hero feels competent from the start. My main issue is the combatās a little slow, since you have to roll to both hit your target and then to see if each hit deals damage.
If you donāt like apps, Unbroken is pretty great. The box is a little bigger but it doesnāt require a ton of table space. Itās fairly low randomness with more of a focus on resource management and choices with opportunity costs. For example, one turn might have you choosing between hunting down a boar so you donāt starve, breaking down a rusted cage for metal to craft into a weapon, or resting to regain some of your effort so you can survive the upcoming encounter. You can even scout ahead and avoid fights entirely if youāre clever enough.
If youād prefer something with a multiplayer option AND with no app, Set a Watch is surprisingly compact and plays great at 1, 2, or 4 (and okay at 3). Thereās three ācoreā sets and Iād recommend Forsaken Isles > Swords of the Coin > Original. You can probably fit any two sets of your choice into a single box as well for better portability. Itās less of a dungeon and more of an overland adventure with fights at every location but itās close enough IMO. Thereās also The Cursed Castle which is more explicitly a dungeon crawler but only plays solo.
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Wondering if any are on Amazon
Quest for the Lost Pixel even with 900 cards is for me more portable than any game with a board. So Kilforth is portable, Runebound is not.
Check out the Kinfire Delve series. There are three boxes, each has two different characters and one enemy / challenge deck. You can play any in combo, and the game can be played solo or co-op, up to four if you combine boxes.
One of the strengths of this system is that it is primarily based on a hand of cards, which means lots of game-play decisions every turn (there is a dice element, too).
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