Daniel (@dungeondive) announces his 2025 awards across multiple categories — and introduces the first-ever Dungeon Dive Golden Torch Award.
The awards:
- Most Disappointing: Talisman 5th Edition co-op expansion (Alliances). Wrong decisions at every turn — stripped content, lackluster campaign, no real character progression
- Best Solo RPG: Grimcar (runner-up: Down Crawl with oracle cards). A hex-crawl with board-game structure, village quests, and excellent card-based bestiary
- Best RPG Supplement: Dungeon Designers Deck by Loke Battlemats. Simple, fun, great variety for lazy GMs and solo players
- Best RPG Box Set: Land of ÊM (runner-up: Cairn 2e). Whimsical, gorgeous hand-drawn hex map, one of the most interesting fully-developed worlds Daniel’s encountered
- Best Expansion: Deeper Caverns for Stellagbite. A perfect expansion — adds variety without rules bloat
- Best Small Box Game: Die in a Dungeon: Done (runner-up: Judgement of the Realm Lords). Incredible depth for its size; class-building deck construction and village upgrades
- Best Hidden Gem: Gathering Gloom. Co-op deck-building threat management where you play a family of monsters terrorising villagers. Fiddly but memorable
- Best Preview: Restless (runner-up: Exodus). Effortlessly easy adventure game with quick setup, modular encounters, and solid character progression
- Favourite Discovery: The Witcher Adventure Game house rules by Dragon Phoenix Games. Transforms a competitive misfire into the co-op/solo experience it should have been
Game of the Year — and first Golden Torch Award:
Vantage by Stonemaier Games
Daniel was shocked to give his top award to a Stonemaier title, but Vantage earned it. Five-minute setup, endless variety, true open-world sandbox exploration, and the rare quality of being effortlessly easy. Rules never get in the way of fun. The journey and discovery matter more than winning — and no game delivers that illusion of infinite possibility better.
What were your 2025 game-of-the-year picks? What’s on your radar for 2026?
