Mini Rogue is live (Return of the Mini Rogue)

Update: Mini Rogue is live on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 14 days. You may back just the base game with the KS exclusive Old Gods mini expansion, or choose one of the other available options: Mini Rogue with all its expansions, or Mini Rogue, the expansions, the original 9-card game, a dice tray and an extra set of dice.

Our preview post below was published on June 6.

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Mini Rogue was originally born in 2016 as a 9-card PnP game, and has been praised by the solo gaming community for offering a complete dungeon crawl experience in a compact package. Its creators decided that time has come for it to grow: bigger, and presumably better. The new Mini Rogue is launching on Kickstarter on June 9, along with three expansions and a co-op variant.

Image source: BGG

To win Mini Rogue, you have to go through the dungeon, survive its traps and monsters, and snatch the Og's Blood ruby from the final boss. To begin the game, you first set your stats on the player board depending on the difficulty level you have chosen, e.g.: zero armor, 10 life points, 3 gold, and 4 rations. You can also choose a class for your hero that will grant them a one-time-use ability. The cleric, for example, can make miracles and give you life points. Then, you place a marker on the dungeon track, on the first room of the first floor. You also take one die. More dice will be unlocked when you acquire more experience.

Then, you set up the dungeon. You randomly draw 8 cards from the dungeon deck and place them in a 3x3 grid. The hero will start in the top left. The Og card goes in the last spot, face down, and 3 other boss cards are placed on top of it. You will be facing these monsters at the end of every floor. You reveal the first card on which your hero stands, and resolve it. If you survive, you reveal the two adjacent cards (to the right and beneath it), and decide which one you want to face next. Then continue in this manner until you reach the exit.

Image source: Screenshot from Es-tu Game? gameplay video

If the card you revealed is a monster, you first check its life points. Its strength depends on the floor it is in. To fight it, you roll your unlocked dice together with the black Dungeon die and inflict the result as damage to the monster. If you have suffered afflictions like poison and curse, you have to roll these dice as well. The monster deals the damage written on its card, and the Dungeon die shows if the monster hit successfully or not. If you survive, you gain experience, and when you earn 6 XP, a new die is unlocked. If you find a trap, you will once again roll all your unlocked dice and the black die and apply the consequences of the card depending on your results.

The dungeon also has some resting places where you can choose to get food or heal. You will encounter merchants who will sell you armor, and if you're lucky, you may get an event card that gives you a benefit or treasure. If you complete the first level, you proceed to the next one. You consume one food, then replenish the dungeon with 8 new cards.

JW tried the demo PnP last month, and posted his thoughts on our site.

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