Review of Call of the Lich Lord

In previous posts, I looked at the characters and setting of the Dungeoneer set Call of the Lich Lord. In this post, I review the set from a gameplay perspective.

As its name suggests, Call of the Lich Lord is the return of the Lich from the Tomb of the Lich Lord set. This set is an "Epic" set, which meas characters start at level 4 (where they left off in whatever set, if any, they originated in.) To reflect their epic heroism, every character in this deck has twice the health points as in a normal set, and along with that comes tougher monsters and higher threats and I think many more traps and general dungeon trickery. It's more upkeep than a normal set, but not by much.

The dungeon of the Arch Lich Lord

It's not clear whether this set's location is a completely new dungeon, or just an upgraded form of the original tomb. I suspect the latter, because there are some locations appearing in both sets, and some cheeky references to the old lesser versions (for example, the Greater Troll Bridge compared to the Great Troll Bridge of the original.) The dungeon feels just a little more dangerous than the first, partly because of the higher numbers, but also the inconveniences it's willing to put you through. The Great Troll Bridge requires a pretty hefty Move test to even enter the tile, which ate up an entire 4 moves for Roderik in my most recent game. Undead can't be wounded in the Cryptorium, and demons can't be wounded in the Conjuring Chamber. The dungeon is an appropriately threatening presence in the game.

Unknown Lich

Unlike Cholizar or Nakari or Ramalith (so Omnissus, for that matter), the Lich Lord doesn't have much of a presence in either of his sets. There's a global mechanic in this one that has players add tokens to a stash that powers-up the undead in the set, or choose to take an undead from the discard pile instead, and althought it may look a little like the Winter Spell from Realm of the Ice Witch, it somehow doesn't feel like the Lich Lord is to blame. I know he is mean to be, but I find it to be an over-complex mechanic that feels very much like board maintenance rather than fulfilling the will of the dungeon's villain.

The strongest connection to the Lich Lord, I think, comes from the all the Undead in the set, and the Throne of Despair. There are cards that give you control of Undead, so the dungeonlord can use the Lich Lord's army against you (I guess the dungeonlord IS the Lich Lord, in this context, but I've always viewed the dungeonlord as the hand of fate, rather than the villain.) If you manage to use take control of the Undead, or you just end up getting a lot of Undead in your hand, I think you do start to sense the hand of the Lich Lord at work in the plot.

The Throne of Despair, I just find evocative. The art makes it look lonely, and the Disarm Quest always looked eerie and tragic to me, featuring a warrior in the nude like a Greek statue, which I assume must have been the Lich Lord in life, with his nakedness symbolising his physical weakness? Or, who knows, maybe it's meant to be Roderik after he's discarded 2 treasure cards. Whatever it's supposed to mean, I've always assumed it's the Lich Lord's throne, and notably there's a way for you to control it, which allows you to target another hero and potentially drain Glory or impose a wound. Once again, it's a weird way of representing the Lich Lord through an act of someone else that's not the Lich Lord and it makes me wonder if the intent was that the Lich Lord possesses the player characters. Probably not, because no card uses the word "possess" in this entire deck, and anyway player vs. player is a core meechanic of Dungeoneer. It's a game without a game master, so somebody's got to be the baddie.

Survival and quests

The Lich Lord himself might not have the charisma of some of the other villains in the set, his dungeon definitely does. As with his original tomb, the dungeon in Call fo the Lich Lord is a classic collection of undead, demons, and vermin. The monsters and threats may be "classic" but they're also deadly, and creative. Most (or all?) deal more than just the 1 damage you're used to from normal sets, and most have additional penalties (like losing a boon or Glory.)

Like the original set, if you're just in the mood for a classicfeeling dungeon crawl, then this is a great set to play. You don't need to develop a personal relationship with the Lich Lord. You don't need to know his life story. You're here to loot and kill monsters, and he's got plenty of both.