Dungeon crawling print and play games are incredibly popular. Maybe it’s not always dungeons, but it’s some location that has a floor and lots of walls conveniently made up of a bunch of squares, as well as lots of objects that are really large and just sitting in plain sight, waiting for you to pick them up. Some of these games allow you to play with multiple people, but most usually work best as solo games.
Dungeon Kings is a new release in this category from print-and-play master NukaZombee, AKA Denis Kurdiukov. For those who haven’t played these games before, let me give you a quick summary of the basic elements. You use dice to move around a map, with the results impacting how you’re able to move. You’re hoping to pick up different treasures along the way to gain points, while avoiding obstacles that might slow you down or prevent you from traveling in particular ways. You have a limited number of turns to complete your exploration (in the case of Dungeon Kings, 40), and when you’ve finished you’ll compare your score to a chart to see how well you’ve done.
Rolling Deep
Now, Dungeon Kings has a few special things going for it to add a bit more flavor. But before I do that, one special note that’s worthy of mention. This game has the best rulebook of any print-and-play game I’ve played. As a rulebook writer and editor, I often am aware of how challenging it can be to clearly articulate all the rules, especially when the game designer is the main person behind it. It’s not an easy task to get every little detail out of your head and onto a document in a way that everyone can understand.
Okay, back to gameplay. One key difference is the addition of special triggers when you roll doubles. The results of these vary from good – like getting to open a locked door – to bad – like making it so that you only get to use one die for movement instead of two. These events add a little bit more chaos to your games, for better or worse.
Each game, you’ll get to choose a special map to explore, with different layouts and challenges to take on. You’ll also get to choose a character, which will have special skills that can be used to help you in various situations. For instance, in my demo, my character’s name was Bitter Bill, and he had the ability to be able to reuse torches, an item that lets you take a free turn using three movement dice. These items can be really helpful, especially in sections where there’s lots of treasure to pick up, and you’d like to avoid the possibility of rolling doubles and getting an unexpected consequence.
Characters also earn points in different ways as they move around the map. So my demo character, Bitter Bill, gets a victory point for every pair of jewelry pieces he finds, but another character, Ferran, gets a coin every now and then for his pairs. There are also different point values associated with the jewels that can be collected. These differences in powers, points, and maps make you change the way that you approach each playthrough. Since you can mix and match your characters and maps, you’ll have quite a bit of replay value if you get those higher tier pledges.
Dungeon Kings has quite a bit in common with another print-and-play title I backed several years ago, Dungeon Pages, and similar games from the same designer. As those games had quite successful campaigns, it’s likely that gamers who are interested in Dungeon Kings already know those titles and want to know why they should pick up this title if they already have the others. I know I did, so I reached out to NukaZombee to find out.
Choose Your Character
I got to have an exclusive look at some of the other characters that will be released, and there are some fun differences in the powers that you’ll get to use as you navigate around the map. Each character also has some enjoyable flavor text related to your result in the game that brings a little more life to the game. The new characters also seem to have more complex approaches to earning points, so you’ll have to be more careful in your approach to the maps as opposed to just picking up everything you see.
While I didn’t get to check out new maps, it sounds like there’s a great faith in the game’s foundational elements, allowing for the opportunity to make several fun scenarios.
Dungeon Kings might not be doing anything brand new, but NukaZombee has a solid track record for print-and-play games. I’m sure that the final product is going to be a well-polished, well-tested experience that gamers can enjoy. I look forward to seeing it all come together after the campaign wraps up in a few months.
You can back the Dungeon Kings campaign now on Kickstarter now through July 13, 2026.
