Dungeon Kart is a new tabletop racing game from the makers of Boss Monster. It’s enough like the Mario Kart experience that, when I didn’t understand a move, Mandi said, “Yeah, that’s like when the turtle shell crashes into a wall.” Oh.
Setup begins with building a race track out of hex tiles. There are tons of different tiles in the box so you can set up an endless number of tracks with different terrains and conditions. We started with the recommended beginner layout. Hazards litter the raceway; each track has tiles to indicate where the hazards go and you choose them at random out of a token bag and place them on the board. You might hit a bomb, a lava puddle, a Smashinator or run over a hero (bad); or you might pass over a Boost (good.)
Each player gets a Racer card plus its matching standee and placement token. Each player also gets a Dashboard with variable powers to represent the special powers of your Kart. Some go faster, some are more maneuverable, some make it easier to bump other Racers off the track.
Since the Racers and Dashboards all have variable powers, they’re intended to be selected at random then chosen in clockwise player order. We just grabbed whatever was handy for our first playthrough since we had no idea what we were doing!
But wait… there’s more!
There are 3 decks of spell cards marked, “A, B” and “C.” Shuffle them and place them within reach of all players. Plus there are Coins, spell markers, Zombies, Bombs, and the Freeze token; place all of those within reach of all players. Decide the first player, set the Placement Track in the middle with the Placement Tokens in clockwise player order. Then place your standees on the starting tile in the same 1-2-3-4 order and off you go!
Movement is determined by the number on your dashboard. You start at the lowest setting–usually 3 movement points–and move your standee along the track. The track is marked with coin and spellbook images; if you pass over those you get the goodie indicated: coins or a spell. On your turn, you can move, turn, drift or bump another Racer out of the way.
Each action generally costs a Movement Point (MP), though some Dashboards give you free actions like turn or drift, and some tiles require you to spend more than one MP to cross them. You’ll generally power up your speed one level on each succeeding turn unless there’s been an incident on the track that forces you to slow down.
Coins buy you the special powers indicated on your Racer card. At the end of each round, once everybody has had a turn, indicate everybody’s placement on the track by moving the Placement Tokens into Racer order. If you’ve collected a spell token you’ll spend it now. Your placement indicates which spell deck you get to choose from: A, B or C. Racers in the lead get better and more powerful spells!
The game continues until the first Racer passes the finish line then everybody else gets one last shot to win in the final round. You may think you know who’s ahead but the winner can surprise you! I was ahead for most of the game and never even made it across the finish line. Chris spent nearly the whole Compulsory Merriment waiting on customers so we played his turn as Imaginary Chris and moved his little standee monster Racer along the track. Then Real Chris came back for the last couple of turns and smoked us!
Dungeon Kart is a game for fans of racing games, or fans of Mario Kart, or both! It’s a fiddly, fiddly game with so many different variables–from track selection to special powers to different actions on grass or dirt or you name it!–that it’s impossible to describe all the things that might happen in any given race. You can play Dungeon Kart with 2 or in the total mayhem of up to 8 players.
30-60 minutes playtime
2-8 players
Ages 8+