Dungeon Hustle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• The Escaped Monster Track
• Turn Order
  • 1. Hustle
  • 2. Wandering Monsters
  • 3. Combat
  • 4. Questing
  • 5. Monster Movement & Spawning
    • Monster Spawning
    • Monster Movement
    • Monster Escape
  • 6. Resting Phase
    • Purchasing Items
    • Recharging Items
    • Multicolored Symbols
    • Charging Helping Powers
    • Discard down to Hand Size
• Character Classes
  • • Leveling Up
    • Helping Powers
    • Using your Reward
• Descending Levels in the Dungeon
• End of Game
• Scoring

Components

• 96 Dungeon Tile cards
• 20 Quest cards
• 28 Item cards
• 4 Character standees
• 4 Monster standees
• 4 Character cards
• 4 Helping Power cards
• 4 Corner pieces
• 25 small gold piece tokens
• 5 large gold piece tokens
• 2 Dungeon Markers for Escaped Monster and Dungeon Level tracks
• 4 Quick Reference cards

Setup

• In a 4 player game, use all the dungeon cards. For a 3 player game, remove the twelve dungeon cards that have 4 in the corner. For a 2 player game, also remove the six dungeon cards that have a 3 in the corner.
• Give each player a character card, the matching Helping card, character standee, and a quick reference card.
• Charge each player's Helping power by placing a dungeon card of the matching type (color doesn't matter) on that player's Helping card. (Search the deck for these dungeon cards, or have players take them as they are revealed while setting up the Dungeon.)
• To set up the Dungeon, place a 7 by 7 grid of dungeon cards at random, but leave the center space empty, and the three dungeon cards on each corner empty. Place the dungeon card deck in the center. Add a corner tile to each corner. (It doesn't matter which corner they're placed on.)
• Place three monster standees on the board on the dungeon cards that are within the three non-Treasure Trove corner tiles. (These cards all have red borders on the setup diagram.)
• Place one quest (chosen at random) of levels 1, 2, and 3 on each quest space, face down, with 1 on top and 3 on the bottom.
• Turn the top quest card up on the two corner tiles that are closest to the Treasure Trove. The remaining quest deck stays face down and is the starting Monster Spawn Location.
• Shuffle the three Item decks and place them face down near the play area.
• Place the round tracker on the top dungeon level space on the corner tile with the image of stairs on it. Place the Escaped monster marker on the Escaped Monster track at the desired difficulty level.
• Choose a starting player.

The Escaped Monster Track

In Dungeon Hustle, the players compete amongst themselves to collect treasures and fulfill quests, but they also must work together to keep monsters from escaping the dungeon. Each time a monster escapes, the Escaped monster marker moves one space on the track. Once it reaches the final point on the track, the game ends and the monsters win.

There are three settings – Easy, Normal, and Hard. In the Easy game, the game ends when the 5th monster escapes. The Normal game ends when the 4th escapes, and the Hard game ends when the 3rd escapes. We recommend using the Easy setting for your first game.

Turn Order

1. Hustle

On your turn, you'll choose a color of dungeon card, and 'hustle' by jumping to adjacent or diagonal dungeon cards of that color. Landing on a character, monster, corner tile, or a dungeon card of a different color ends your Hustle. You pick up all the dungeon cards you jumped on to or off of that match the chosen color (including the card you started on, if it matches). You may never pick up a dungeon card that a character or monster is on (including you).

On the first turn of the game, you start your Hustle by jumping onto any of the twelve dungeon cards on the outer row of the dungeon. On subsequent turns, you'll start your hustle from the dungeon card your character occupies. If you start your hustle on a corner tile, you may move to any dungeon card adjacent (even diagonal) to that tile.

You may only jump onto or off of each dungeon card once during a turn (no backtracking).

2. Wandering Monsters

The player whose turn is next replaces each dungeon card picked up with a card from the deck, and counts each Monster Attack icon out loud. The order can either be random or in the order the dungeon cards were picked up.

For each Monster Attack icon among these dungeon cards, the current player may Defend by discarding a Shield dungeon card from their hand. If they do not, they must discard a dungeon card at random from their hand instead.

3. Combat

If you ended your turn on a Monster figure, you enter combat. To defeat a monster you must have an Attack power equal to or greater than its power. Your Attack power starts at zero, but you can add to it by discarding sword dungeon cards from your hand, using item or class abilities, and by requesting Help from other players.

Combat sequence:

1. Determine monster's base power: The monster's base power is equal to your level.
2. Request Help from other players (See the Helping Powers for more information).
3. Discard dungeon cards from the top of the deck as indicated by the round marker (Round 1: 2 cards, Round 2: 3 cards, and Round 3: 4 cards). For each Monster Attack icon or Sword on the revealed dungeon cards, increase the monster's power by one.
4. Choose to Attack or Defend.
   • Attack: Discard swords, use items and add swords gained from any helping player's powers. If you equal or surpass the monster's power, you defeat the monster.
   • Defend: Discard a shield to make the monster "reflip" (i.e. reduce the monster to its base power and return to step three.) You may only Defend once per Combat.

In this example, You are a level 2 Cleric and it is Round 2 of the game. You are at power zero and the monster at power 2. You ask for help and the Fighter agrees, helping you with his Cleave, giving you a power of 1. The monster draws 3 dungeon cards (see graphic) and gets 2 swords. This puts the monster at a power of 4. You discard 3 swords from your hand equaling the monster's power and therefore defeating it.

(The printed example shows the monster's three-card draw and the player's hand with the three swords discarded, as illustrated graphics.)

If you defeat the monster, remove its standee from the board, and take gold equal to the reward shown on the Dungeon Level track. If you cannot defeat the monster, discard a dungeon card from your hand at random and move to an empty adjacent (even diagonal) space.

Certain items and class powers give you the ability to battle monsters from a distance. You may only battle one monster per turn. You may not battle a monster from a corner tile.

4. Questing

If you ended your Hustle on one of the corner spaces with an active (face up) quest, you may complete the quest by discarding the items shown on the Quest card.

(The printed example is the quest card "Arrest the Corrupt Mayor", which has a red ribbon scoring value of 3, a Gold reward of 1, and requires a Potion and two Swords or equivalent item icons shown on the card.)

When completing a quest, any dungeon cards of the same type must be different colors. For instance, if the quest requires three Potions and a Sword, the Potions must be different colors from each other, but the Sword may be any color, including the same color as one of the Potions. Each quest has a Gold reward that you gain instantly, and an end of game scoring bonus (the number in the red ribbon). In addition, some quests have a special effect. These happen after you gain any rewards.

When you complete a quest, take the Quest card and keep it in front of you. Turn the Quest card at the current Monster Spawn Location face up. The next Quest card at your current location stays face down and this becomes the new Monster Spawn Location.

5. Monster Movement & Spawning

After Questing, the player whose turn is next will reveal the top dungeon card of the deck to determine if and where a new monster will spawn, and how monsters already in the dungeon will move. (This allows the current player to complete their turn while this is happening.) NOTE: Max. 4 monsters on the board at one time.

Monster Spawning

If there are already four monsters in the dungeon, skip to Monster Movement. If there are less than four monsters in the dungeon, check to see if and where a new monster will spawn. In clockwise order from the Monster Spawn Location, check to see if one of the twelve dungeon cards in the outer row matches the color of the revealed dungeon card and does not already have a Monster on it. Place a monster on the first one that meets the requirements. If there are no matches, no monsters are placed. Now move on to Monster Movement, but note that newly spawned monsters do not move.

Monster Movement

Any monster that did not spawn this turn and that is on a dungeon card that matches the same color or symbol of the revealed dungeon card will move towards the center of the board (the exit). Monsters only move orthogonally, never diagonally.

Monsters try to move to an adjacent, empty space (one that does not contain a character or monster) that is closer to the center. If two empty spaces are equal in distance from the center, they will move clockwise. Monsters closer to the exit move first, then monsters farthest away. Each monster may only move once per turn.

Monster Escape

If a monster moves onto the central deck, they escape from the dungeon. Advance the Escaped Monster counter by one. If the counter reaches the final space on the Escaped Monster track, all players lose.

(The printed example shows a card drawn from the top of the deck for monster spawning, a new monster spawning on the outer row, and a monster on a white key card moving clockwise towards the center deck. The Monster spawn location is marked on the board.)

6. Resting Phase

During the Resting Phase, you may purchase one new item and recharge items and helping powers.

Purchasing Items

You may purchase one item on your turn. Items are divided into three different decks, each with a different cost: Trinkets, Treasures and Artifacts. You may purchase the top item by discarding Keys equal to the number of keyholes shown on the card. To purchase an item that costs more than one, the Keys you discard must be of different colors.

(The printed item card example is a Potion of Herbalism, a level 1 Victory Point item with a Recharge cost of one Potion and one Potion-type icon shown in its box, and an Action arrow. Trinket decks cost 1 Key, Treasure decks cost 2 Keys, and Artifact decks cost 3 Keys. The card is shown charged and discharged.)

If you are on the Treasure Trove when you gain an item, you may draw the top three cards of the appropriate item deck, keep one, and put the others on the bottom of the deck.

Place the item you gain face up in your tableau. Items have two states, charged and discharged. When you gain an item, it enters your tableau charged. In later turns, when you want to use an item, declare that you are using it, and turn it sideways to show that it is discharged. Each player may only have three items in their tableau at a time. When a player gains an item in excess of three, they must choose and discard one of their items.

Recharging Items

The symbols shown in the box in the top corner of an item card show what dungeon cards must be discarded to recharge it. You may recharge as many items as you can afford to discard dungeon cards for, but you may only recharge each item once per turn.

There are three types of recharge costs:

• Light grey symbols may be recharged by discarding any color of the matching symbol.
• Symbols of specific colors require dungeon cards of that color to be discarded. (For instance, the Enchanted Longbow requires a Purple Scroll and a Blue Scroll to recharge.)
• Symbols that are different shades of gray indicate that the dungeon cards discarded may be any colors, but must be of different colors.

Multicolored Symbols

Some items and Helping power rewards show a gray symbol being transformed to a multicolored symbol. This indicates that during your hustle, you may change the color of one dungeon card's symbol to the color of your choice in order to extend your run.

Charging Helping Powers

Each player has a Helping card specific to their class. The scroll at the bottom of the card specifies the type of dungeon card that can be used to charge it. You may charge your helping power by placing a dungeon card from your hand over the symbol. (See Helping powers, below).

Discard down to Hand Size

At the end of the Resting phase, you must discard down to your hand size, as indicated by the hand icon shown on your character card.

Advanced Play: If all players agree, the next player may start their Hustle while a player finishes their Resting phase. This will keep the game moving at a nice clip. In this case, player finishing their turn should decide whether or not to Charge their Helping power first, so the next player will know whether it is available to use.

Character Classes

(The printed class cards show each class's level-by-level powers in illustrated form. The Cleric card, for example, lists the Cleric Power as Protect and Divination.)

Leveling Up

If at any time, during any player's turn, you have Gold equal to or greater than the number indicated on the current level of your character card, you must level up, by returning the required gold, and then either rotating your card 180 degrees (when you gain levels 2 and 4), or by flipping the card over (when you gain level 3). Each character gains a new power when they gain a level, in addition to keeping any powers they have from previous levels. A player may gain more than one level per turn. Players are required to gain as many levels as they are able.

Helping Powers

The current player may request Help from another player during their turn, if that player has a charged Helping power (see Resting Phase for information on charging Helping powers). That player may then choose whether or not they want to help.

If they choose to help, the current player gets to use one of their two powers, and then the Helping player discards the dungeon card used to charge their helping power, and flips over the Helping card to the Reward side. The current player may be helped by any number of players during their turn. Players are encouraged to remind the current player when their Helping power is charged, and to coax, cajole and persuade the current player to make use of it.

Using your Reward

When another player uses your Helping power, you flip it to the Reward side. There are two rewards for helping; an immediate reward of a single gold and a power that you may use on your turn. Take the immediate reward. If the immediate reward gives you enough Gold to level up, you immediately do so.

On your turn you may choose to flip the card back over to use your Reward power. The Cleric, Mage and Fighter may change the color of one dungeon card on the board to a color of their choice, allowing them to extend their Hustle and pick up dungeon cards of different colors. The Thief may jump over any one space on the board (including the deck in the center, but not the corner tiles).

Editor's note: the printed text above names the "Thief" in the Reward power sentence; the four classes in this game are the Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Mage, and the Rogue is the class described there. Transcribed as printed.

Descending Levels in the Dungeon

When the deck has been exhausted, shuffle it, and place it back in the center of the board. At the end of any turn in which the deck was exhausted, advance the round marker to the next lower level of the dungeon.

Note: When the party advances to a lower level in the dungeon, the monsters become more difficult and also give greater rewards (See combat). However, since the round marker advances at the end of the turn, a combat that happens on the same turn the deck is exhausted will occur before the dungeon level advances.

End of Game

The end of the game is triggered when the party reaches the fourth level of the dungeon (deck has been exhausted three times) or the Escaped Monster counter reaches the end of the track.

Monsters Win End: As soon as the Escaped Monster counter reaches the end of the track, the game ends and the Monsters win. Skip scoring.

Normal End: After the deck is exhausted for the third time, shuffle it once more. Players continue taking turns until each player has taken the same amount of turns.

Scoring

• Levels: Each player scores 5 points per character level.
• Gold: Each player scores 1 point per Gold.
• Items: For each item (charged or uncharged), players score the amount in the red ribbon.
• Quests: Each quest scores the amount in the red ribbon.