Boss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game

To set up, separate the Room, Spell, Boss, Hero, and Epic Hero decks. Depending on the number of players (2, 3, or 4), remove specific Hero and Epic Hero cards as indicated by the player count symbols on the cards. Shuffle the Boss cards and deal one to each player (or two if playing the 'I Choose You' variant, picking one and discarding the other). Each player flips their chosen Boss card face-up to the far right of their play area. Place the Hero and Epic Hero decks in the middle of the table, leaving space for revealed heroes. Shuffle the Spell cards and deal two to each player. Shuffle the Room cards and deal five to each player for their starting hand. If playing Classic Mode, discard two cards from your starting hand, leaving five. If you draw four or more Advanced Rooms or four or more of the same symbol, you may mulligan your hand by shuffling it back into the deck and drawing a new one. Finally, each player chooses an ordinary Room card from their hand and places it face-down to the left of their Boss card to build their first room.

The objective of Boss Monster is to be the first player to collect 10 souls from defeated heroes, or to be the last Boss Monster standing if all other players are eliminated. Players must strategically build their dungeons to attract and defeat heroes while avoiding taking too many wounds.

Each round begins by revealing Hero cards equal to the number of players, regardless of heroes still out from previous rounds. Then, each player draws one Room card. Next is the Build Phase: in order of highest to lowest XP (determined by Boss cards), each player simultaneously chooses a single Room card to build and places it face-down in their dungeon. Rooms can be placed to the left of an existing room (up to a maximum of five rooms) or on top of an already existing room. Ordinary rooms can be placed on any room, but advanced rooms must be placed on an ordinary room with a matching treasure icon. During this phase, Spell cards with a build icon can be played. After all players have placed their rooms and played any build phase spells, all face-down rooms are simultaneously flipped face-up. The game then moves to the Bait Phase, where players with the highest number of matching treasure icons to the heroes in play will lure those heroes to their dungeon entrance. If tied, the hero stays in town. Finally, the Adventure Phase begins: each hero enters their lured dungeon alone, in XP order. Heroes attempt to make it through the dungeon, taking damage from rooms. During this phase, adventure spells can be played.

When a hero enters a room, they take damage equal to the room's damage value. If a hero's health drops to zero or below, they are defeated, and the player collects their soul. Ordinary heroes are worth one soul, while epic heroes are worth two. If a hero successfully navigates all rooms in a dungeon and reaches the Boss Monster, the player receives wounds. Ordinary heroes inflict one wound, and epic heroes inflict two. Wounds are tracked by placing the hero card face-up to the right of the Boss Monster, displaying the wound icon.

The game typically ends when a player collects 10 souls, immediately winning the game. Alternatively, if a player accumulates 5 wounds, they are eliminated from the game. If all other players are eliminated, the last remaining Boss Monster wins. If playing the 'Unlimited Lives' variant, players are not eliminated by wounds; instead, at the end of the game (after all heroes are played), each player subtracts their total wounds from their total souls, and the player with the highest net score wins.