Episode 237: Clank Catacombs

Clank! Catacombs is designed by: Paul Dennon and Published by Dire Wolf.

Clank! Catacombs is a 2-4 player game that plays in about 45-90 minutes depending on how much clank! you make and how quickly you snag an artifact and make it out of the Dungeon before the skeletal dragon Umbrok Vessna awakes and kills you!

Clank Catacombs begins with everyone starting on ONE start tile. That’s right there is no game board and the dungeon will unveil itself through gameplay as players explore off of the starting tile. When a player moves they will choose a direction to go in, draw a tile off the deck and decide how they want it oriented to the tile they are currently on. Tiles have all kinds of rooms on them. There are markets which allow you to purchase items, some provide artifacts that players are wanting to collect before running for the exit, there are crystal caverns that will slow a players movement, Wayshrine that players will place their token on and receive points for the different number of Wayshrines they have visited, Monkey shrines that provide points, portals that will teleport you to different tiles and ghost tiles that will place white cubes into the Clank bag and when they are drawn out ALL players will receive damage. The object of the game is to collect as many coin, and items as possible, find ONE juicy artifact and make a run for the exit before dying.

Players will all begin with similar 10 card starting decks that have: burgle, stumbles, sidestep and scramble cards which provide resources such as boots, skill, and swords that will allow players to purchase new cards, move around the dungeon, and fight monsters. Players are also given 3 lockpick tiles that will allow you to unlock treasure chests, release prisoners and move through locked tunnels. Players draw 5 cards from their deck into their hand and the exploration begins. You play cards out of your hand in any order of your choosing and resolve them. You might purchase new cards from the dungeon row to add to your deck, you can move to explore the dungeon, or fight monsters which will gain you coin. Any time a player makes noise or CLANK! which is depicted on some of the cards, they will add one of their cubes to the Clank! Area. These cubes will be utilized when a dragon attack is triggered.

Once a player finishes resolving their played cards, if any cards have been purchased from the dungeon row, it will be refilled. If one of the newly placed cards has a dragon attack symbol on it, all of the clank (noise) that was made by players will be placed into the dragon bag and cubes will be drawn depending on the level of the dragon marker on the rage track. For every cube that is drawn from the dragon bag, that corresponding player will receive a damage. If you deplete your health from attacks and damage you DIE. But wait! You can still earn the points from your exploration if you make it out of the DEPTHS. If a player makes it out of the dungeon alive on their subsequent turns they will activate a dragon attack and pull cubes from the bag per number of players. Once all players have escaped the dungeon or have died, everyone tallies up their points from cards, artifacts, items, monkey shrines, prisoners and coins. Whomever has the most points wins the game. Did the pegs successfully crawl through the dungeon without awakening the skeletal dragon or did they turn into ghosts! Let’s head back to the studio to find out.