Daniel (@dungeondive) reviews Corrupted Crypts, a solo card-based dungeon crawl from War Claw Games — designed by Waclaw Trauer of Doom Pilgrim fame, and sent to the channel by The Game Crafter, where it’s sold. The goal: explore a dungeon, gather three runes and a copy of the Necronomicon, then summon and battle the big boss, the Eldest One.
The dungeon is a deck split into three stacks of corridors, crypts and doors. Corridors must be resolved when flipped; doors and crypts you can skip and return to later via a point-of-return pile, paid for in HP. You pick from ten characters (knight, witch, ninja, wizard and more), each with strength/agility/wit stats and HP tracked on a pair of D20s — and an undead flip-side so a death doesn’t end your run. Daniel highlights a clever clue/keyword system, fast simple combat, and an enormous variety of encounters (a headless snake, a playful dragon pup, deadly labyrinths) that keep every card draw a genuine surprise. The collected runes even reshape the final boss fight. His one caveat: English isn’t the designer’s first language, so a few cards need deciphering. Verdict — crunchier and more “game” than the experiential Doom Pilgrim, and a lot of fun, wrapped in Waclaw’s gorgeous black-and-white art.
Corrupted Crypts thrives on not knowing what the next card holds — a headless snake one turn, a boss rune the next. Do you prefer that jack-in-the-box unpredictability in a solo crawl, or the tactical certainty of knowing exactly what you’re up against?