While my interest in Gladden Design’s PnP products was primarily on their Paper Apps Golf and Galaxy, I knew I would have to start with Dungeon. Because I also knew I probably wouldn’t try it if I didn’t get it out of the way first.
Paper Dungeon App is a very, very simple dungeon crawl. Each dungeon floor is a 12x12 grid (not counting the framing outer wall) with inner walls, monsters, treasures and traps. You roll a D6. You draw a line to show your path, moving the number of squares you roll. You start off diagonal on odd numbers and orthogonal on even ones. You only change direction if you hit a wall, not unlike Ricochet Robots.
If you pass through or end on an object, you interact with it. Hearts add to your life, with this version of the game having a 25 heart cap. Coins and treasure chests add to your money. Monsters subtract health. Spiderwebs stop you and subtract coins. And there are teleport warps.
There are 45 floors in the dungeon. Periodically, in between floors, there is a shop where you can spend those coins on an increasingly powerful set of one shot items.
Okay, Paper App Dungeon was designed to be carried around as a little spiral notebook. Potentially played while standing in line. And there are elements in the game that are clearly built around that mission statement which get in the way of, well, making the game more deep or interesting.
The biggest example of that is how there are no combat rules. Monsters subtract from your hit points. End of story. To be honest, if this was themed around something like cyberpunk net hacking, I think it would work better. Black Ice eating up processing memory, that sort of thing. A dungeon crawl without combat is just plain awkward.
I don’t have a problem with this but I have to note how the game is also designed for you to do all of the paperwork after you complete a floor. Monsters cannot kill you on the spot. After you finish a floor, you add up all of the hearts you got and subtract the monsters to find out if you’re still alive. Again, that’s clearly part of the goal to make the game as simple and portable as possible. And, unlike the lack of combat, I don’t have a problem with this. I just find it kind of interesting.
From what I can tell, paper app dungeon has had a few rules revisions. At least one version stated that you had to pick a direction that wouldn’t have you hit walls if you could and that you couldn’t backtrack or cross over your path if possible. Which would eliminate most of your decision-making ability. The rule set on the PDF version doesn’t have a rule about avoiding walls and just says not to backtrack on the same move if you can help it.
(Also, the printed version had procedurally generated floors, so each one would be different. Not necessarily balanced. The PDF version seems to be designed with balance in mind.)
To my surprise, the PDF version has improved my opinion of the game compared to the demo I earlier tried. More detailed rules is a big part of that. Smaller rooms with a lot more chances to pinball around also helped. I also decided that, even after a couple floors, playing the game as a campaign (which, to be fair, is what it is designed to be) is the only way to make it interesting. Treating a floor as a stand-alone game just doesn’t give me enough.
Paper App Dungeon is still painfully barebones and simple. I still feel that the lack of combat is a major thematic dissonance. Bad die rolls can make your path a tangled mess. However, seeing the game in its proper context does make me appreciate more what it’s trying to do.
While I will only play it when I’m in a brain fog situation, I can see myself completing the campaign. However, I am enjoying and playing the other two Paper App games more.
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