Daniel (@dungeondive) descends into Valpiedra, a compact card-based dungeon crawl from PIF Games that wears its influences openly: Diablo’s cursed cathedral depths crossed with Darkest Dungeon’s punishing atmosphere. The pitch alone merits attention.
The structure is elegantly brutal. Four heroes descend through four dungeon levels, seize a cursed relic, then must escape back to the surface—ascending through whatever horrors remain. An optional unholy relic awaits those who find the standard difficulty insufficiently murderous. Daniel has yet to win. He’s died on the first level. Multiple times. The dice, it seems, are merciless arbiters.
Combat runs on d6 pools: ones, twos, and threes deal damage. Early game survival depends heavily on fortune’s favour, as gear and abilities that mitigate bad luck only accumulate after defeating enemies. Those enemies, when slain, present a genuine resource management dilemma—spend their XP on healing and upgrades, or equip their gear for combat bonuses? Both feel essential. Neither feels sufficient.
The art by Ignacio Garcia Gonzalez earns particular praise, lending the small box genuine visual presence. Four distinct heroes offer varied playstyles across different player counts (true solo uses two heroes; up to four can play cooperatively).
Daniel’s chief criticism: the encounter decks contain only enemies. He yearns for occasional respite—a healing fountain, a captive NPC to rescue, something beyond relentless combat. Even a single non-hostile card per level would transform the reveal from “which monster” to “what awaits?”
Setup proves mercifully quick, which softens the sting of frequent deaths. Expansions exist, though English availability and international distribution remain unclear.
Do you prefer dungeon crawls that offer occasional mercy, or does unrelenting hostility sharpen the satisfaction of survival?
. Having said that, if it was PNP I’d probably pick it up. The descent/ascent idea is neat, feels a bit of an improvement over kinfire delve where the action just finishes at the bottom of a well!