Dungeon Shopkeeper: a funny fantasy board game about selling to adventurers
The one nobody writes a ballad about
There are a great many songs about the hero who kills the dragon. There are none about the person who sold him the sword, the shield, the rope, the lantern and the “emergency” healing potion at a price that would make a gelatinous cube blush. Dungeon Shopkeeper is that person’s origin story.
You are a crafty trader. Your job is to outwit adventurers, acquire legendary items and build a merchant empire by selling the best, and most magical, gear to people who are very much in need of it. They are going into a dungeon. Their chances are, charitably, mixed. Your margins are not.
How a round works
[CONFIRM: a plain summary of a round from the rulebook: what you do on your turn, how a sale happens, how you win.]
The shop
The board is a medieval shop interior, because every great fortune starts with a counter, some shelves and a sign that says “No refunds”. [CONFIRM: how the board is used, in one or two sentences.] Read more on The shop (page to come).
The adventurers
Your customers come as adventurer cards with special abilities, and the character cards bring unique adventurer types. Anyone who has run a party knows the difference between the fighter who wants a bigger sword and the wizard who wants anything that isn’t a sword. [CONFIRM: what the abilities do to a sale.] Read more on Adventurers (page to come).
The stock
Magical items and weapons make up the cards you’re selling, and some of them are cursed. [CONFIRM: how many items there are, and how the curses work.] See the cursed items, with new ones revealed every week until launch.
Meet the monsters
Every dungeon has residents, and they all need something from the shop. We’re introducing ten new monsters every week until launch. Meet the monsters.
Who it’s for
This one is for experienced board gamers and for tables that have spent a long evening on THAC0, encumbrance or whether a bag of holding counts as a weapon. It’s funny on purpose, and it assumes you’ve spent enough time around the hobby to enjoy a joke about a rust monster at the till.
The facts
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Players | [CONFIRM] |
| Play time | [CONFIRM] |
| Recommended age | [CONFIRM] |
| Complexity | [CONFIRM] |
| Publisher | Last Stand Games LTD |
| Release | [CONFIRM: say “March 2027” publicly?] |
| Price | [CONFIRM] |
Play it, back it, or wait for it
We plan to take the prototype to TTRPG events before launch, so see where you can play it [CONFIRM: confirmed events only]. The Kickstarter is where the game launches [CONFIRM: URL, linked here once it exists], and the waitlist gets you the news first.
[CONFIRM: Kickstarter URL.]
Keep reading
- TTRPGs explained: shop ideas for your own table, whatever system you play.
- Board games for TTRPG players: what else belongs on the shelf next to this one.