Daniel (@dungeondive) returns to fantasy with Fire of Eidolon, a cooperative 16-bit-styled dungeon game he offers as a perfect example of a theme winning him over. Underneath is a threat-management design in the Forbidden Desert and Pandemic mould, and he compares it to Lords of Waterdeep: a Euro engine dressed in the clothes fantasy players actually want.
The goal is to collect six each of strength, intelligence and dexterity tokens by clearing chamber challenges (a Minotaur is a red strength test, a mimic a blue intelligence one), break the relics guarding the Fire, and carry it back to the vestibule before the cultists finish their ritual. Each character’s star ratings set the action-point cost of each token type, and every card lists turn order and abilities, so you are playing within ten minutes. Ritual cards spawn cultists; two on one tile teleports it, and everything on it, to the void, potentially severing your path home.
Daniel loves the pixel art and standees, the paladin who smites any cultist anywhere for one action, a ladder of difficulty levels up to nightmare, and four scenarios that add void portals and Vorax standees for real replay value in a small box. His one wish is another layer of adventure: something between this and Tiny Epic Dungeons would be, he says, the perfect small-box dungeon crawl. Recommended for Forbidden Desert fans who want a theme this channel would appreciate.
Daniel says a pasted-on theme won him over here. Where is your line between a clever reskin and a genuine dungeon crawl?