Review of Den of the Wererats

In previous posts, I've deconstructed the Dungeoneer set Den of the Wererats to analyse its setting and characters. In this blog post, I review it for its gameplay.

As with Haunted Woods of Malthorin, Wererats is a small set, being about half the size of a standard Dungeoneer game. But also like Haunted Woods, this one manages to pack a lot of game into its 55 cards.

Urban adventure

Notably, Den of the Wererats is the only urban Dungeoneer adventure. As proven by an outdoor set like Dragons of the Forsaken Desert, basically anything can be a "dungeon", especially in a tile-based game. Of course there are also traps and locked doors in a dungeon, and monsters, and rooms with weird effects. But a good urban setting "feels" like a dungeon because it's got similar aesthetics (stone floors, stone "walls.") There's a feeling of claustrophobia, for the buildings and cramped side streets and darkened alleys. That's exactly the kind of environment Den of the Wererats delivers, incidentally, and of all the outdoor sets I do absolutely feel that this one feels the most like an actual dungeon, rather than just a "dungeon crawl."

Dens and lairs

This deck is small, so every map location counts, and I find it interesting that most of the "rooms" (I mean tiles hat aren't corridor-like streets) are inaccessible from several directions. I haven't actually done the comparison to prove it, but more than any other set this feels like it's a deck filled with dead ends, and specifically the kind that you turn down on a dark night in an unfamiliar city and get a little worried that you've wandered into somebody else's "territory."

It's not just about valid exits, either. Many rooms have effects that are either harmful to you or, should you take advantage of them, to your other players. Other sets must have similar abilities on some locations, but for whatever reason I notice them in this set more than others. This set feels like you're weaponised against other players in more ways than just the usual Dungeon Lord phase. This set makes it easy, and even tempts you, to make life miserable for other players roaming the mean streets of the city.

It might be worth noting that this deck features what feels, for me at least, like the most inviting and friendly Entrance location of any deck. I tend to feel affection for any outdoor set's Entrance card, because that's always the one location that feels civilised. But in Wererats, the Entrance is a tavern. It's an iconic location as it is, but there's also a Quest card to find a missing waitress (Lily) and bring her back (literally so she can continue serving the patrons their grog.) It's not unususal to have a Quest to rescue a named character, but in other sets it's some named character from somewhere in a village. In this one, it's Lily, the serving girl from your local pub. It feels cozy, which is in stark contrast to the rough-and-tumble streets outside.

Persistent effects and power play

There are several cards in this set that have persistent effects in ways that are rare in Dungeoneer (or maybe even unique to this set, I haven't done a thorough audit to find out.) For example, the Evil Vortex card drains Glory from a player each turn to power up more Peril for the Dungeon Lord. Vermin Rage grants all Vermin a boost to melee for as lon as it's in your Pack. And Bite of the Wererat turns another player into a wererat.

Even character abilities feel like they produce always-on effects. Sela Shadowblade basically has a hand limit of 6 instead of 5, as long as she's on an Urban location (and most tiles are Urban in this urban set.) Bel Brewspirit's special ability lets her rummage through the discard pile for a potion, and add it to her hand (there's only one potion in the set, so it's only a good ability if the potion's been discarded, but from then on she always has a potion of life.)

This all feels like a unique way to play Dungeoneer, sort of like playing an artifact deck in Magic the Gathering. Most Dungeoneer sets limit power-ups to what you can keep in your inventory, but this one grants power to the tiles you're in and to what you've got in your Pack.

Vermin and wererats

The vermin in Den of the Wererats are a whole strategy unto themselves. You can play a whole game and hardly notice that the monsters attacking you are Vermin, only to be turned intoa wererat the next game, or clobbered by Vermin boosted with ever-increasing attacks the next next game. Other sets definitely put the emrhasis on a specific class of monster, but in some sets it's more a theme for hte lore of the deck than necessarily something you could build a strategy around. In this set, given the right setup (which, to be fair, depends on the right hand, the right Pack, and the right Inventory) you can overrun your de-buffed opponents with empowered Vermin.

Player vs. player (PvP) is part of Dungeoneer, regardless of how much I insist that the Dungeon Lord is the aggressor. It's written on the Entrance card of every deck: You cannot attack another hero at the Entrance, which is a gentle reminder than everywhere else you can try to kill your fellow player characters. It's my least favourite part of the game, partly because I don't understand why these heroes would want to attack one another, but also partly because to me a dungeon crawl is a cooperative endeavour. But even I have to confess that this is the Dungeoneer set that actually makes me want to, if not attack then work against, other player characters. Mechanically, it's because there are just too many ways to do that to ignore, but in-world I like to think that the oppression of the city environment engenders that kind of dog-eat-dog mentality.