Even more madness than before!
Dungeon Mayhem is a bit of a favourite over here at Dungeon Mister so an expansion that’s bigger than the base game is obviously of huge excitement for us. On top of that, you get some of the most iconic monsters from the D&D universe turned into humorous cartoonish versions of themselves. Needless to say, we were expecting something excellent and this expansion absolutely delivers.
If you’re new to Dungeon Mayhem, the basic premise is that each player takes on a D&D character and it’s a battle to be the last one standing. Actions are performed by drawing cards from the relevant characters deck and playing from your hand. For a full outline of the rules of the game, check out our review of the base Dungeon Mayhem game.
What’s in the Box
To start with, the box is considerably bigger than previous versions of the game (admittedly, they were quite small and brilliantly compact). That’s not to say this is a big box, it’s still travel-sized, but it’s no longer pocket-sized (unless your pockets are enormous). This is so that all the parts of the game (including base game and both expansions) can fit comfortably in a single box, which is lovely and convenient. On top of that, there are compartments for each character’s deck that stay neatly in place when boxed and are easy to grab when you play. It wasn’t necessary to do it this way, but it’s a nice quality of life improvement that shows the amount of thought that’s gone into this game.
The expansion comes with 6 new characters (meaning 6 new decks of cards). Each one is beautifully brought to life in the series’ hallmark cartoonish style. In this particular set, WOTC have gone the extra mile in dialing up the humour with each monster becoming much less scary and much more amusing. The mind flayer, for example, is a Freudian psychiatrist while the dragon is a monocle wearing nobleman. It’s enough to put an occassional smile on your face and also keeps things nice and friendly for the kids.
Along with all of this, the box has all the tokens you need (plus spares for previous game versions – another nice touch), a box to keep the tokens in. You get the following new characters in this expansion:
- Delilah Deathray – Beholder
- Hoots McGoots – Owlbear
- Mimi LeChaise – Mimic
- Lord Cinderpuff – Red Dragon
- Blorp – Geltinus Cube
- Dr Tentaculous – Mind Flayer
Gameplay
The monsters in this expansion really turn the mayhem up to 11 with moves that are weirder and more contextual than any before. They’re designed for larger groups with option to play with 6 players now rather than the previous 4. Generally, we found the new characters interesting, balanced and fun to play with. There is one move that can create problems, especially in larger games and that is one called burped up bones which is used by Blorp. It provides Blorp with 3 shields, which when destroyed, causes the destroying character to lose 2 lives. In smaller games, this is powerful but fine, but in larger games, it means that Blorp will get left alone with everyone hoping someone else will sort him out. We tend to find, for this reason, that Blorp wins a little more than other characters. It’s not game-breaking, but it does mean there’s often a fight over who gets to be Blorp!
All in all though, the hilarity and the consummate frustration and revenge tactics are all present and correct. Gameplay continues to be fun and frantic and rivalries are guaranteed to ensue!
Overview
Monster Madness is an easy recommendation to make, it’s an outstanding expansion to an outstanding game. It brings in fresh ways to mix up gameplay with new moves and continues the legacy of the base game as a hugely accessible card game. It has some nice touches like a box to fit all the previous versions and at about £20, it’s a small price for the extra hours of fun to be had. The one draw back is that it does lose a point for a character with a special move that makes it better than the others. It’s not game-breakingly bad, but does slightly tarnish an otherwise wonderful package.
Score
4.5/5
