Dungeon-crawl

Created by Iikka Keranen and Rich Carlson of Digital Eel) (developers of, among others, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, Plasmaworm and Dr. Blob's Organism -- all computer games), Goblin Slayer is an asymmetric boardgame in which one player controls a dwarf entering a cavern infested with goblins to retrieve an artifact.

The board consists of seven large hexes printed with smaller hexes, and is laid out semi-randomly prior to play. The dwarf player controls only a single dwarf, while the goblin player controls 12 goblins (or, optionally, 10 goblins and an ogre -- my advice is, take the ogre). The dwarf and ogre move two spaces a turn (though the dwarf can't attack if he moves more than one), and the goblins move one space a turn. Prior to play, the goblin places the artifact and two "hero's stones" on the map, in any hex or hexes; the dwarf player begins in possession of one stone.

Each large hex contains a "tunnel" hex; goblins may enter a tunnel and go into the goblin player's pool. Killed goblins also go to the pool. The goblin player can enter goblins from his pool into tunnel hexes, one per such hex.

After both sides have moved, the dwarf may kill 1D3 adjoining goblins (the ogre takes two "hits" to kill); the goblin player then rolls 1D6 and, if he rolls less than or equal to the number of goblins adjoining the dwarf (the ogre counting as 2 goblins), the dwarf dies.

Thus, the dwarf moves to the treasure, picks it up (and may optionally seek out the other hero's stones), then moves out, while goblins try to surround and kill him. Stones can be expended to: a) allow one extra hex of movement, b) add one to the number of adjoining monsters killed, or c) as a "saving throw" to prevent the dwarf from dying (which is probably how you'll use them).

It's playable in about 15 minutes, and not a bad little game to play while waiting for other people to take their turns in a more intense game, or while waiting for another game to start; it is, however, largely a die-rolling exercise. Yes, there's a little bit of strategy in terms of move planning by the goblins, and deciding when to use the hero's stones, but not all that much, and the winner is likely to be determined by luck rather than cleverness.

Still and all, it's free.

Almost 30 years ago, I was bored one evening and decided that what I really wanted was a D&D-like game I could play by myself. So I slapped together a little boardgame called DeathMaze that SPI published a year or two later. Since then, there have been probably hundreds of similar games published -- indeed, even from the inception of digital games, with titles like Wizardry. At present, my favorite game of the genre is FastCrawl, which is a nicely polished version; but "free" is a nice price to pay, and Monster's Den isn't bad either.

DROD is a game that autistic people might enjoy while on methamphetamine. Its a turn-based, dungeon crawling puzzle-game. The way that works is: you can move in one of eight directions, you can wait, and you can turn your sword clockwise and counter-clockwise, and every time you execute one of those verbs, a turn passes. Every turn, other things in the tile-gridded room you're in will move, and every x amount of turns spawn units will create things that move. Thats pretty much DROD, "invented" (because it is so primally iconic a game design) by Eric Hermansen back in the 90s. Since then, it has expounded on that simplicity with so much manic variation that thousands of people have subscribed to Caravel Net and flooded its message boards with help requests, new content ("Holds" as it were) and all kinds of crystallized culture only possible in a hardcore gaming super-niche like the DROD series.

FastCrawl is what the name suggests: a quick-playing dungeon crawler, perfect for a way to kill your lunch hour. One of the parameters you set at game-start, in fact, is whether you want a short, medium, or long game; short ones last about 30 minutes, while long ones last perhaps an hour.

From Niels Bauer, creator of the well-regarded Smugglers 3 comes this hybrid turn-based fantasy and dungeon-crawl game.

Above ground, you raise armies and try to conquer the world--but your leader is a "hero," and has to delve into dungeons to gain loot and reputation in order to succeed above ground.

Caravel Games describes the DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) series as "dungeon crawls for thinkers," and that's what they are--an oddly compelling combination of puzzle solving and the dungeon experience.

The Best Puzzle Game of All Time

Or so says the Mathematics Association of America, and who are we to disagree?

To call it a puzzle game is inadequate, however; the DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) games are sui generis, and about the only quick way to describe them is as "Gauntlet meets Sokoban."