Super Dungeon Explore - an Overview

Vampifan prepares to open SDE for the first time. What's inside?

Late last year my good friend, Stephen Gilbert, persuaded me to buy a board-game that was played with 28mm scale miniatures. It was a game I had heard of but knew very little about. It was, of course, Super Dungeon Explore, produced by Cool Mini Or Not and Soda Pop games. The first thing I noticed about the game was that although the figures were indeed 28mm scale, they were not realistically sculpted. Instead they were based on the Japanese Chibi form of artwork. Chibi originally meant "short person" or "small child" but is now used by fans of Anime and Manga to mean a person depicted with an over-sized head. Chibi characters often have large eyes and small mouths. This style of art will definitely put some of you off, in which case, you really won't like this game. Personally, I have no problem with how Chibi characters are drawn. Generally speaking, with the figures in this set, their heads make up half the size of the figures. This has the big advantage of meaning you can apply a lot more detail to the painting of faces. For me, this was a big plus.
GAME CONTENTS

The Dungeon Tiles and Adventure Tracker

First up are the game boards, which are shown to the right of here. There are five double-sided Dungeon Tiles to choose from to create your dungeon. The sixth tile, shown in the centre of the bottom row is called the Adventure Tracker. It is a dashboard that keeps track of the entire progress of the game. The Power Gauge (surrounding three sides of the board) levels up monsters and determines when the Dungeon Boss enters play. The Loot-O-Meter (the yellow squares just inside the Power Gauge) provides powerful loot cards for the Heroes as they destroy monsters. It also provides a location for the Loot Deck, Treasure Deck and Adventure Effect cards.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

The two sheets of counters included in the box are made up of 2 double-sided Power Markers, 1 Loot Marker, 8 Skull Tokens, 12 Potion Counters, 32 Wound Counters, 144 Status Effect Counters and 10 double-sided Hero/Consul Effect Counters. The Consul is the person who controls the bad guys. Although the game does come with a lot of counters, not many are used during a typical game. I bought a plastic storage box to keep mine in. These counters are made of very thick card and are extremely robust.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

The large deck of cards is made up of 9 Hero Cards, 19 Monster Cards, 48 Loot Cards and 24 Treasure Cards. The Hero and Monster cards show their stats that tells a player everything it can do in a game. The Loot Cards are made up of 16 Armour Cards, 16 Item Cards and 16 Weapon Cards that Heroes may discover in the dungeon. The Treasure Cards consist of 16 Relic Cards, 6 Dragon Relic Cards and 2 Boo-Booty! Cards. These are powerful treasures, but beware the Boo-Booty - that is a monster disguised as a treasure chest. I have put all of my cards in clear plastic protective sleeves, not provided with the game.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

The 16 dice are made up of 8 Blue Dice, 6 Red Dice and 2 Green Dice. Stars on the dice represent successes - the more you roll the better. Blank faces are failures. Hearts are used to remove Wound Counters and Status effects. Potions allow your Heroes to gain powerful magic potions. Note that only Heroes may gain Hearts and Potions. If the Consul rolls a Heart or Potion it is classed as a failure. Blue Dice are not as good as Red Dice and Green Dice are the best of all. These are nice chunky dice with rounded corners and I like them a lot.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

For most people, myself included, the big draw for this game are the figures. The 50 figures included in the game consist of 9 Heroes, 5 Spawning Point Models, 5 Treasure Chests and 31 Monster figures comprising 1 Dragon, 2 Kobold Ogres, 4 Kobold Flingers, 4 Kobold Ironscales, 6 Kobold Gougers, 6 Kobold Knuckleheads, 4 Dragon Hatchlings (2 per base), 2 Dragon Whelps, 2 Dragon Wyrmlings and 2 Boo-Bootys. The Heroes are sculpted in hard light grey plastic whilst everything else is sculpted in red plastic. Apart from the  Treasure Chests the rest of the figures are multi-part castings that need to be assembled.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

Fortunately, the game comes with a very helpful assembly guide, shown to the left, that shows you how to put the figures together. The guide recommends using superglue to use on the figures and this is what I did. It takes time and patience to make them all, but I found the process a very enjoyable experience. Newbie modellers may disagree and wish they came pre-assembled. I guess enough people complained about this aspect of the game that in all future expansion sets the figures come pre-assembled.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

To the right of here is a photo of the Ember Mage prior to assembly, shown next to her assembly instructions. This figure comes in five parts - head, body and arms, staff and hands, legs and slottabase (shown below). Most of the figures went together very well, although I would recommend giving everything a dry run first before applying glue. If you enjoy model making (I certainly do) then you will enjoy making the figures. If you don't then this process will be a lengthy chore, but it has to be done.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

All of the slottabases feature a textured dungeon floor pattern, which I really like a lot. The majority of the bases are 24mm in diameter but a few are double the size at 48mm in diameter. I only had an issue with some of the Kobolds not fitting too well in the slottabases. But it was a simple enough job to file their slottatabs down a tad to make them fit. I decided to paint the bases of all of the Heroes in light grey and the Monsters' bases in dark grey to easily identify the two forces. Quite often when the figure is glued to their base you'll notice unsightly gaps at one or both sides. I always fill these in with Milliput modelling putty.

Photo copyright of Stephen Gilbert. Used with permission.

Here we see the Ember Mage fully assembled. Now she just needs painting. How I painted my SDE figures will be covered in great detail in my upcoming posts. I have painted all of the figures from the basic boxed set and am currently working on the figures from the Von Drakk Manor expansion set. The figures are exceptionally well sculpted and absolutely full of character. Painting them was a real labour of love.

Something has caught Vampifan's attention in the rulebook.

The final component of the game is, of course, the rulebook. This is a glossy 32 page booklet printed in full colour. It is well laid out and well produced. The rules themselves are fairly simple but there is a lot to take in on first reading. There are three levels of play. First up is the 8-Bit, played with 2 Heroes on 2 Dungeon Tiles. This is a very basic game that is mainly designed to introduce you to how the game plays. The players fight against a Mini-Boss and his Denizens and Minions. It should last about 30 minutes. The 16-Bit game is designed for 3 Heroes and is played on 3 Dungeon Tiles. It introduces the Dungeon Boss alongside his Mini-Boss, assorted Minions and Denizens, making it a much harder challenge. Game length is about 1 to 1.5 hours. Finally, is the Super! game, played with 5 Heroes on 5 Dungeon Tiles. They battle against 1 Dungeon Boss, 2 Mini-Bosses and lots more Denizens and Minions. Game length can run from 2 to 3 hours. This works best if you know you have the time to complete it in one session.
GAME CONCEPT

The world of Crystalia, the setting of SDE. The basic game takes place in and around the big volcano at the top left.

Super Dungeon Explore hearkens back to the good old days of dungeon bashing. There is nothing complex about this game. It is basically about a bunch of good guys exploring a dungeon to find treasure and defeat the bad guys. That's it! So simple! Well, no, not really. Tactics do come into play. Choosing the right Heroes to take part is important. To quote from the rulebook "when choosing Heroes, it is important to consider how they will work as a party. A group of all melee fighters with no healing, ranged or area affect abilities is sure to have a harder time than one that is well balanced." Good advice! Also, knowing which Monsters to fight first and whether to go after them or a Spawning Point or a Treasure Chest are all decisions that must be made.
The Monsters are controlled by the Consul. It is his job to decide which models will be the Boss and Mini-Boss(es). With the basic set your choices are severely limited but with the addition of expansion sets, the Consul will have far greater choice. Monsters enter the board via Spawning Points (one Spawning Point per Dungeon Tile) and they are key to winning the game. The more Spawning Points the Heroes can destroy the easier it will be for them to win the game. Different Spawning Points spawn different Monsters. Mini-Bosses and the Dungeon Boss appear when the Adventure Tracker reaches a certain point. This varies depending on which level of game you play.
The Heroes can gain Magic Items by searching Treasure Chests. There will be one Treasure Chest on each Dungeon Tile. Once a Treasure Chest has been searched it is removed from the game. Alternatively, as the Heroes kill Monsters, the Loot-O-Meter increases and at certain points it also grants the Heroes Loot Items. Heroes are free to swap Magic Items irrespective of where they are on the board. Magic Items are colour coded (blue, green, red and yellow) and individual Heroes are limited to just one of each colour.
GAME VERDICT
I LOVE this game! I have always had an interest in fantasy gaming. I started my gaming career by playing the original Dungeons and Dragons before progressing to AD&D and Warhammer. I fell out of love with the genre in the late 1990's. I'd grown bored with AD&D and Warhammer just pissed me off with its countless new rulebooks coming out every four years and their figures constantly rising in price. In all honesty, I never expected to get back into fantasy gaming. But thanks to Steve I did. His enthusiasm for the game won me over. I may well have let the game pass me by but when I saw the expansion sets for the game and one in particular - Von Drakk Manor - I was hooked. This one expansion is the main reason this fantasy game deserves its place on my blog. Von Drakk Manor introduces the undead to SDE. Rock on!
What is so refreshing about this game is that it is extremely family friendly. If you are a parent with sons and/or daughters, they will love playing this game. I'd recommend that dad plays the Consul and his kids play the Heroes. Invite your wife or girlfriend to play it. Who knows, you might just persuade them that gaming is fun. That, more than anything is the big selling point of this game for me. It is FUN! The figures make me smile. This is not a game to take too seriously. Each game is a stand alone adventure. At present there are no rules for campaign play. That may change in the future. I don't know. What this means is that if a Hero is killed in one game there is nothing preventing him or her appearing in future games.
The game is meant to be played with 2 - 6 players but I have played it solo with no difficulty. I can quite easily play a game where I have to wear two hats - good guy and bad guy, playing both sides impartially and without favour. Not everyone can do this but if you can and you're a solo gamer then there is no reason for you to not enjoy playing SDE on your own.
So far I have waxed lyrical about the game but are there any cons to the pros? Yes, there are. First up, if you hate Japanese Anime and/or Manga, you won't like this game. The Chibi miniatures certainly won't be to everyone's taste. Secondly, if you are not a keen modeller, then you'll find making most of the figures a real bind. Thirdly, if playing with multiple players who only control one Hero each, the game will quickly lose its appeal if their character dies early on. It can happen if the dice are particularly unkind. Fourthly, with just 10 Dungeon Tiles to choose from, your games can end up looking a bit samey after a while. However, new Dungeon Tiles are in the pipeline for a future release soon.
I'm not sure if this is a pro or a con but if, like me, you get wholly sucked in to the whole concept of the game, its characters, world setting and background, then you are going to want to buy every expansion set that you can. I have spent a lot of money on this game but I have no regrets. There is a big expansion set called The Forgotten King due out later this year. I am so looking forward to its release. To me, SDE was like a breath of fresh air. It has made me look at gaming in a totally new light. It has rekindled my interest in fantasy gaming but in a way I could never have imagined. Everything about this game makes me happy and for that reason alone I unreservedly rate it 10 out of 10.
The RRP of SDE is £74.99 but if you look around you'll find it going for much cheaper than that. For example, Amazon UK are selling it for £59.80. On e-Bay it is currently going for just £56.59. It'll pay you to shop around for the best deal.