Jonas, I've been looking for several years (not very actively all the time, mind) and I still haven't found that perfect dungeon crawl solution.
My requirements are as follows:
- Preferably heroes vs system with random dungeon (think Warhammer Quest coop campaign play)
- A proper adventure game, not an abstracted skirmish game rich on mechanics but low on flavour
- Fun and simplistic but with low granularity and high variation in encounters, treasures etc.
- Open-ended to allow for my existing collection of minis to be used.
- Good combat system with tactical positioning and dynamic fights.
- Attrition and resource managment should be key elements, so that the danger of dungeon delving isn't that you might run into a large monster who might eat you. It's rather the danger of running out of food, potions or water while running into small and medium sized critters slowly chipping away at your hit poitns and equipment so that in the end you might end up as food for the rats and grubs infesting any and all dungeon.
I've tried a few, ruled out others on a conecpt level and here are my opinions on them:
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Hero Quest: Good fun with the right friends, but it's a board game - not an adventure game. Too simple.
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Warhammer Quest: One of the best fits but unfortunately the combat is really, really dull. When the heroes enter a room, monsters pop out of thin air into adjacency with the heroes. After that it's a bash-fest. I've been playing at a LOT on my iPad recently though and I think it might be salvageable. HUGE endeavour to do it up DIY though. I posted about it briefly here on BGG:
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/29103 ... item983011
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RPG System of choice: Depending on the system used, your mileage may vary - but I used D&D3.5 in combination with Dungeon Bash (a framework for randomizing dungeons, encounters and so on). It had the best combat (unsurprisingly) and great potential for character development and granularity - but bloody hell it was a LOT of fudging about with notes taking and looking up tables and crap. Wouldn't recommend it to a man in the prime of his life, such as yourself. RPGs are for basement dwellers or the young'uns.
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Descent: Not actually played - but it's not really a dungeon crawl. It's a dungeon skinned race game where the heroes must always hurry towards the final goal of the scenario lest the Overlord disintegrates the whole bloody dungeon. Thus, loot has to be left behind and enemies abandoned. Not my idea of a fun dungeon crawl, but I'm 100% certain it's a GREAT game that might scratch the itch for most people.
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Song of blades and heroes + Song of gold and darkness: Played a lot of SBH and considered using SGD (a dungeon add-on) for dungeon crawling but I'm fairly certain I'll never do it. SBH isn't granular enough for the fine balance of dungeon crawling. There's no room for small boosts without adding a lot of special abilities and rules that you'll forget anyways.
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Cavern Crawl: By Funghy_Fipps on this very forum. A great game, actually. Still in development, but has huge potential. The vibe I've got is RPG light, which is exactly what Gareth is aiming for. Give it a try. Available for free. I've only tried it one time and it left us wanting for more. A few of the mechanics didn't work perfectly back then, and it's mostly a problem with dungeon crawling as a whole. Some things (relating to doors and movement between combat) becomes a bit of a chore. What works well in a computer dungeon crawl sometimes doesn't work well at all on the table.
I haven't tried
Advanced Heroquest. I think it would be a pretty good fit actually, but can't vouch for it. I know a lot of folks swear by it, but I also know a lot of folks who do haven't really played it in the last 20 years or so.
Hope you find what you're looking for. I still haven't, but I'm betting on Cavern Crawl right now. Here's a link to Gareth's blog:
http://drumsdeep.blogspot.de/
You'll find a download link in the sidebar.
thanks. I'll get it then.