Into the Campaign Finale with Dice Throne Adventures
Follow the Barbarian through portal crawls and boss battles to the conclusion of the campaign in Dice Throne Adventures.
As I forged forward with the Dice Throne Adventures campaign, it brought out a sheer sense of fun that isn’t easy to find with solo games. So awesome! A game doesn’t have to end up being one of my favorites to deliver. It doesn’t come from the analysis or post-play writeup: That rare sense of joy and excitement only happens in the moment!
Game Overview
Game Name: Dice Throne Adventures
Publication Year: 2020
Designers: G. Brown, N. Chatellier, and M. Trembley
Artists: G. Brown, D. Mammoliti, and M. Trembley
Publisher: Roxley
Solo Mode: Included in Dice Throne Adventures
Between portal crawl and boss battle scenarios, the short campaign allows a deck to level up with loot and new cards. There is a general sense of exploration, yet the focus is on understanding the best ways to utilize a single character. Roll those dice and hope for the ultimate ability!
First Play
January 14, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
January 22, 2022
Expansions
5
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
9
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
29
Game Area
36" x 26"
Low Score
-10
Into the Wild West
I kept moving forward at a pretty solid pace, with the portal crawl taking about the same amount of time. Not much to report in that sense: Mostly more of the same!
The Fallen Gunslinger was my next boss, and he was a tough customer. All of the status effects were enough to make me wonder how I would get through them!
But that was one of the things I enjoyed the most. I got to learn how to play as the Barbarian in many ways.
Some upgrades turned into cards to discard for combat points. I felt like I knew what I was doing most of the time!
The Ultimate Ability!
Every character has a set of abilities that are typically triggered by different icons on the dice. Some dice sets have 3 symbols, while others might feature 4 symbols.
The absolute best roll in almost every case is to roll all 6s, thereby triggering the ultimate ability. And after lots and lots of rolls, I finally did it with the help of a card!
I dealt 15 undefendable damage and stunned the minion, granting me another offensive roll phase. So awesome!
These sorts of rolls are rather rare, yet I had a way to trigger a mini-version of this with only four 6s. Fun!
Looting the Looter
All of the minions kept on showing up during the portal crawl, of course. I enjoyed these mini-battles since they each had their own challenge, like this Loot Goblin!
But I will say that the act of moving through tiles felt a little superfluous. It would have been easier to just deal out a stack of minions and fight them in a random order.
Still, I had plenty of surprises in store. My only regret was not picking up a card to re-roll the loot die. Bad rolls!
Many of the lower-level minions acted as ways to stall and get out more upgrades, or even heal. Indeed, I had a plan.
Solving the Bosses
While the portal crawls gave me the chance to understand the intricacies of the Barbarian, the boss battles flipped that thinking a little bit. I had to figure out the boss!
The Fallen Monk was next up and I kept expecting to lose. However, I had an awesome card that helped me get out an upgrade almost immediately. Take that!
It was the stun ability that really made the difference. When I pulled it off, I basically did damage twice in a row.
This battle had the Barbarian down to almost no health again, yet I pulled it off with more undefendable damage!
Finale with the King
Before I knew it, the last scenario was out in play and I had to face the hardest boss of all… The Mad King!
He started out with a lot of health and some very nice upgrades. Still, there were some weak spots and I knew just what I had to do to pull ahead for a chance to win.
Up until the finale, I won each scenario by a small margin. That might have seemed easy, but I knew my cards better than ever. Plus, this was the lowest difficulty level.
There were rounds when I had to endure about 15-20 damage. Ouch! The Mad King didn’t know me, though…
A Shiny Amulet
Long, long ago near the start of this campaign, I picked up my only legendary card. Never rolled high on the loot table again, unfortunately! But this was my secret.
It came out early on and provided a 33% chance of negating any opponent’s roll following my own attack. Blinded by the light, indeed! Ooo… So shiny with that foil.
As I hoped, it worked wonders! It wasn’t perfect, of course, but many attacks were avoided with no effort.
With a mere handful of health left, the Barbarian made another attack and suddenly, I realized that I had won!
Upgraded Cards
I did it! There was a sense of excitement, although I felt like the ending was a bit anti-climactic. It simply ended and my only task was to reset the Barbarian’s deck.
Some loot cards were directly added, but I had a chance to look through the cards I upgraded along the way.
I saved lots of combat points in this way and earned extra bonuses along the way. How far the Barbarian had come!
Resetting the game gave me a chance to think through all of the additional content, though, particularly whether I used it all enough. Not like the base boxes are lacking!
What Makes for a Full Dice Throne Experience?
I’m fortunate enough to have a husband who loves this system and ended up picking up everything for it! However, as I played through the campaign, there were some accessories and expansions that seemed like extra. I may be known as the Breaker of Wallets, but there’s some part of me that tries to help save them in some way. Sometimes. Ha ha!
A lot of this is personal preference, of course, yet the need to pick up additional boxes already makes this somewhat pricey. Is it overproduced? Maybe in some ways, but I feel like the value is there in the variety and quality. Just wait to see what happens when Marvel Dice Throne comes out in the near future. Even more content to have fun with!
- Characters – Offer Asymmetry and Different Ways to Battle Even with a 2-Pack
- Sleeves – Provide Protection and Track the Maximum Cards Allowed in a Deck
- Promo Cards – Add Variety and New Abilities for More Gameplay Options
- Dice Tray – Enormous and Nicely Crafted but Not Absolutely Necessary for Play
- Miniatures – Help Track Portal Crawl Progress but the Included Standees Work Well
- Playmat – Features Artwork with No Gameplay Reminders nor Component Outlines
Fantastic Storage
Many times throughout this campaign, I paused to just look at the storage solutions. The tokens had their places and it never took more than a few seconds to find any.
Perhaps most important of all, though, was the card storage. This tray came right out of the box to be used!
There was no need to keep a bunch of card decks off to the side. Loot? Simple to find the right type based on the dividers. Oh, those dividers! Incredibly useful.
We all have our preferences for setup and cleanup, yet this system might be one of my favorites of all of my games!
Session Overview
Play Number: 4-9
Main Expansion: Dice Throne: Season One Rerolled
Other Expansions: Many
Solo Mode: Included in Dice Throne Adventures
Play Details: Scenarios 3-8 at the Normal Difficulty Level
Outcome: 25, 21, 26, 20, 29, and 20 (6 Wins)
I did it! Not to spoil too much, but the legacy packs turned out to be a slight letdown. There are still plenty of reasons to play through the campaign with another character… I guess I was hoping for more than what was included. Still, this was a wonderful experience and I had a lot of fun!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
3
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
8
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
8
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the component storage is excellent and functional during gameplay, cutting down on time and table space.
- There is a great sense of fun that comes from finding combinations between the cards, dice, and abilities.
- Collecting loot doesn’t result in a lot of cards, yet adding a legendary card to a deck is an amazing experience.
- Portal crawls provide a way to learn a character better, while the boss battles allow that knowledge to be utilized.
- Play time flows well with few decisions that have to be made on the part of the different minions and bosses.
- Despite there being a lack of story, the artwork brings the world to life and creates a very colorful play area.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There are no branching paths in the campaign, so playing through it multiple times will be somewhat repetitive.
- Success is often heavily tied to how early certain cards come out, which can feel a little too luck-dependent.
- Although the foil cards are amazing, many of them are prone to warping and bending that doesn’t get better.
- Certain parts of the portal crawl feel a little superfluous since the scenarios boil down to many single battles.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Scenario
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete the campaign as the Barbarian.
Complete the campaign at the normal difficulty level.
Score at least 150 points for the total campaign score.
Continue the Conversation
Did you play through the Dice Throne Adventures campaign? What do you think of the system in general? I will say that while I played this solo, it gave my husband and I a chance to play the standard head-to-head matchups almost daily! The combination of card and dice mechanics is excellent and not heavy. I’ll definitely play through the campaign again!
Thank you for reviewing the game. This is the best and most thorough explanation of what is in the game and how it’s played that I’ve found. Great job!
You’re very welcome, and thanks for the kind words! I’ve been looking at this box every now and then… Feels almost time to start a new campaign after all this time. I still remember parts of this experience and how much fun it was!