Sleep deprived ramblings about Morning Coffee Dungeon

 It took a month as hectic and exhausting as this September has been for me to decide that it was time to try out Alexander Shen’s Morning Coffee Dungeon series. While much of Shen’s work is fluffy little activities that have some little twist to make them interesting, the Morning Coffee Dungeons are just light little nothings without much twist.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, there are three games in the series. Each one is one page, rules, and all. They all involve moving around a grid and using a 12-sided die. And no, I don’t consider using what has to be in the running for least commonly used die a twist.

One element that I did like was movement. You can move anywhere you want as long as it isn’t blocked by a monster. It just simplifies everything.

The first two games involve fighting monsters and opening treasure chests. Fighting is just subtract the monster’s level from your level and take that much damage. Treasure is the one random element. Roll that twelve sided die and check a table. Sometimes you will get damage instead of treasure so there is always a risk.

The third game involves hunting a teleporting monster with a time limit. Which actually makes it the most interesting game.

All of the games are efficiency puzzles with a push-your-luck game attached. The efficiency puzzles are so simple there really isn’t any puzzle. And a d12 has enough range that you can’t play the odds. Just roll and hope.

In short, the choices aren’t interesting and don’t affect the die roll, which determines what actually happens. 

(To be fair, the third game has you roll against your range from the monster to see if you hit it so your choices do matter. Monster movement still makes it very random)

I do like the art. At least half of my enjoyment came from the art.

And I knew the Morning Coffee Dungeon games would be weak. However, time has been limited and brain fog has been strong so I decided it was a good time to look at them.

Alexander Shen has designed much better puzzles and games that brain fog friendly. Blankout and Spooky Forest are particular favorites of mine.

But the game I find myself comparing Morning Coffee Dungeon to is Dice Fishing D6, one of my go to games when I’m exhausted. The decisions in it are simple and the dice ultimately decide the game. However, your decisions directly impact the outcome and the gameplay is so brief it never outstays its welcome.

Morning Coffee Dungeon offered some diversion but there are much bettter alternatives.