Calling all D&Ders: It’s time to revamp your next game night!
Wizards of the Coast introduces its latest expansion to its Dungeon Mayhem game with Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness. It’s all about the monsters in this Dungeons & Dragons-adjacent, family-friendly card game. Based on the existing Dungeon Mayhem card games and expansions, this monster-sized version brings six new heroes (err, monsters) into the fold. This pack can be played either individually or combined with other sets, so gear up for intense battles ahead!
To get started, each player will select a different monster to play as, grab their accompanying deck, and begin dealing out attacks and defenses. With six new characters, you have the opportunity to meet new D&D–themed monsters with their own unique abilities and powers. Swords and shields ready? It’s go time! During each turn, players ages 8 and up will perform three actions before passing the turn to the next person: draw a card, play a card, and discard any used cards. Each card, named humorously to reflect different offensive and defensive actions, has its own ability to either protect your character or harm your opponents’ standings. The final goal is to knock your opponents’ point totals down to zero (aka the broken heart) while defending your points bank from attack.
When choosing cards to attack, players will reveal one card from their hand and direct the actions at one of their opponents. Based on the act, you’ll need to defend your standing or go on the offense. Any players who do get attacked will need to defend their home turf before adding a new action. Also, each card offers a fun name for its ability, so players will have fun spouting out these amusing battle card titles. (TBH, the sinister–looking finger wag is terrifying!)
The last player standing wins the game, so think strategically. The games are relatively quick, depending on the number of players, because each card has different abilities that could knock you down even faster. And this expansion adds more rules for even more players, with a zone of influence or vengeful ghosts to attack multiple players at once.
It’s a great introduction to the D&D universe for both kids and adult fans alike. While this game can be played on its own, the instructions can be confusing if you are unfamiliar with previous expansions. The gameplay is the same: Choose an action card from your hand and an opponent to inflict it. Each card indicates different actions, including blocking an offensive maneuver, drawing a card, inflicting damage, playing an extra card, and recovering a hit point. In addition, each character has their own repertoire of mighty powers of special skills that can be used to assert power over others. Once you’ve got the game instructions down, it’s fun trying to choose different actions that’ll beat your opponents.
Check out the quick intro below!
It’s a relatively quick game that the whole fam will have fun playing together. While the total length of gameplay likely will not exceed 20 minutes, it may take new players longer to assimilate to the game’s rules and processes. The game does move quickly regardless as you keep playing new cards to attack your opponents. All in all, it’s a quick and fun game, and any D&Der will appreciate its connection to the board game through the monsters, yet it can still stand on its own as the perfect way to hype the whole crew up for game night.
Once you’ve taken down all of your opponents and won the game, everything fits back into the box, and nice dividers in the bottom of the box make it easy to showcase all of your Dungeon Mayhem expansion decks by character, like an organized D&D Filofax. Then, a handy paper box folds up and can hold all the character tokens. Organization goals, right here.
Photos: Wizards of the Coast
