A completely unfair review of Paper App Dungeon

First of all, confession and disclosure. I played Paper App Dungeon via the play sheet provided by Semi Co-Op. So I have in no way shape or form played the game as it was designed to be played. That said, that is also probably the only way that I would have tried out the game.

Paper App Dungeon is a Roll and Write dungeon crawl. One of the simplest ones I have seen, to be honest. The core mechanic is that you rule one D6. If you rolled even, you have to move orthogonally. If you roll odd, you have to move diagonally. And you move that many spaces. Hit a wall, bounce off that wall (Hi, Ricochet Robots!)

There are encounters spaces. Stop or run into them and they happen. From what I can tell, there isn’t a combat mechanic. Monsters just cost you X number of hit points. (Again, I could be wrong)

One rules discrepancy that I wasn’t sure about was if you had to choose a path that didn’t run into a wall over one that did. Quite frankly, I think, forcing you to choose the path that doesn’t let you ricochet removes a lot of the decision making in the game and then we are back in the first module of Outdoor Survival. And if you don’t know what that means, it isn’t good!

Also from what I can tell, the complete game is an actual campaign with the ability to level up and equip the line you are drawing. So there’s a lot that I haven’t been exposed to.

The interesting quirk in the game is that every sheet is procedurally generated. Which means random but within specific parameters. It’s published as a spiral notebook and every one will be different. And you can also buy a pencil from the publisher that has been marked so you can use it a knuckle bone die, dropping the components down to two.

In some ways, I am the ideal and absolute worst demographic for Paper App Dungeon. I play a lot of Roll and Write games and I have no idea how many of them have been dungeon crawls. I also like portable games I can play anywhere.

At the same time, a big reason I play so many Roll and Writes is because I love Print and Play. And Paper App Dungeon is clearly designed to not be a PnP.

I also have to say that a procedurally generated dungeon really gives me pause. I have played some procedurally generated PnP games and the boards become incredibly swingy. It’s amusing if I’m not being asked to pay for the experience. Under those circumstances, I don’t care if balance is lost. But when every board is effectively a one-shot experience? Then the loss of balance becomes a loss of overall gameplay, particularly if it’s a campaign.

Even setting that to one side, the game seems to come down to drawing a semi random line through a dungeon grid. There isn’t even combat, just lose hit points. I realize that I have not had the full experience of the game, but I feel pretty confident saying that I have played several Roll and Write dungeons that were, better than that and some of them were free. 

I think it is a perfectly valid argument that I have not given Paper App Dungeon a fair shake since I didn’t play the official version. But if you accept that the Semi Co-Op UKGE Dungeon can be viewed a demo, than the demo sank.