DIY dungeon crawler on the tabletop…D&D Lite in a tiny little box

In Fire of Eidolon, you and up to 5 friends will explore a dungeon of little cardboard tiles to find and rescue the eponymous Macguffin and save the world. You and your party will collect tokens, fight monsters, and break curses that are keeping you from reaching your goal.

The game is super lightweight and easy to pick up. There are no dice rolls. You work on an action point system, with each player having a character with a class and custom arrangement of skills. You’ll have to fan out, search the dungeon (lay out new square cardboard tiles), and overcome the challenges using teamwork and smart time (i.e. turn) management. Because you’re on a clock. If you don’t secure the Fire of Eidolon in time, you’ll be sealed inside the void forever (i.e. lose).

The game has a chunky pixel-art style and really evokes the feeling of being in an old NES/SNES era adventure game along the lines of a top-down Zelda or Dragon Warrior game. With the simplified mechanics, you can focus more on the strategic challenge, which is significantly more involved than the difficulty of the gameplay itself would suggest.

Losing this game isn’t a rarity. Much like it’s visual inspirations, Fire of Eidolon is going to make you work to save the world.

Which is a good thing. Because you can have a hard-to-play game that’s rewarding but easy to win or one that’s easy to play but hard to win. You can even go the full Pandemic route and have a game with complex mechanics (OK, Pandemic isn’t that complex…) and is punishingly hard, yet still feels satisfying. But if the game is both a breeze to play and a guaranteed win, you don’t have a lot to look forward to in terms of replayability.

Take your lumps, set it up, and try again.

It’s the whole world. It’s worth saving 😉