Paper App Dungeon. Pandemonium in the Pocket or Despair in the Denim?

I am partial to and well versed in dungeon crawlers, especially those of a fantasy theme. My shelves run deep with boxes bursting with plastic goblins, equipment cards, and expansion set dungeon tiles splattered in dried blood and crawling with webs. Despite the wonder contained within, these mega chests of adventure can also start to get a little intimidating when you realise a good 30% of your time with them is spent packing and unpacking them, and 20% relearning the rules. That’s a hard sell when your friends have an immediate need to bonk a Kobald with a +2 frying pan till it bursts like a pinata full of gold and impressive hats. That said, when I saw the opportunity to review Paper App Dungeon, a name which I feel sacrificed a little too much for the sake of the acronym, I lept for it pretty hard. This game bills itself as the only dungeon-crawling game that fits in your pocket and I am all about that.

What is Paper App Dungeon?

Paper app dungeon is an attempt to distil a light jaunt through a multileveled dungeon into a single notepad and pencil, with each page of the notepad being a different (and entirely unique to other notebooks) floor of the dungeon to work through. The elevator pitch really appeals to me here so we are off to a strong start.

Note: Paper App Dungeon is a solo (1 player) game. That said, I played a fair chunk of it with my partner as we alternated rolling and discussed options together thus making it 2 player. Not sure what I expect you to do with this info but at least now when I say “we” you don’t think I am going full Golum on you.

Components

The box simply contains the notebook and a pencil. Ignoring the pages within for but a moment, the notebook itself is fine. Bearing in mind this game has no replayability it doesn’t need to last forever so its card on front and back should do the job alright but the pencil…..

So something to note, Paper App Dungeon is hitting the market after a tremendously successful Kickstarter which saw over $100,000 dollars pledged against its $1000 dollar goal. Fair play Mr. Tom Brinton, that is quite an achievement. That said, the version which is reaching retailers is not that same product. Somewhere along the line the dice and tiny pencil have fused in some unspeakable carnal act and become one in the same. The little pencil has 1 to 6 across its sides to act AS the dice.

On the one hand swapping dice for a pencil is practical, sustainable, and keeps the game affordable, on the other hand this is horrible and I hate it. Rolling a pencil doesn’t have quite the same impact as a dice for me, and I don’t feel this is a vast enhancement in space saving terms either. I still managed to roll the pencil off the table plenty of times as it’s an awkward thing to roll. Also, given the short lifespan of the game and lack of replayability, A dice would have been a nice memento to last beyond the dungeon’s final floor. Your mileage may vary here but I’ve said my piece. I quickly moved over to using a dice as I was playing my dining room table and had some nearby but my partner stuck with the pencil and reminded me I was being a bit daft. She welcomed the innovation and pointed out, quite rightly, we do not need more dice in the house.

Learning the rules

The first couple pages of the notebook deliver the ruleset which is joyfully brief but a little scant on detail here and there. In short, you roll a dice/pencil and move that many spaces in a straight line (if rolled an even) or diagonal (if rolled an odd) squares from the starting point. If you cross a coin you get cash, if you cross a monster you lose HP, and if you land on a teleporter your teleport. Even with this incredibly simple ruleset some clarifications are missing, such as how a direction is chosen when encountering a wall mid movement, or what happens when moving diagonally into a corner, but nothing we were not able to make our own judgements about when the came up. Interestingly the front page has a QR code to scan for “detailed rules” which just leads to the publisher’s webstore for some unhelpful reason … but really the game plays so simply that you can jump right in and figure the rest out as you go.

How does it look?

Here is the obligatory looks are subjective and everyone has their own tastes comment which I feel is necessary here as I wonder if they missed a little trick. The art style leans heavily into the retro era and it certainly achieves that, but I would have liked to see maps drawn in a more sketch like style, like the sort of thing a dungeon master would have thrashed out half an hour before their players arrived to bust out the dice and Dorritos. Hash lines, wonky kobolds, and uneven flagstones a plenty. Instead what we have is more evocative of early PC RPGs from the 80s. This it certainly achieves but it just doesn’t twang my personal nostalgia chord like it may others. If you fondly remember the days when you started up your off white PC with a series of cranks and counterweights instead of an on button then this may be right up your street! With that said, it is also optimally placed for thematic reskins. Its design elements are simple and clean enough that if the game proves popular I suspect we will see versions in space, inside haunted Cthulhu mansion, on a German mediaeval l farm, etc.

Is it fun?

Here we are with another highly subjective question to which I can only answer: Kinda yeah. Firstly, all things in context. Paper App Dungeon is not squaring up to Descent 2 or Journeys into Middle Earth. This is your 10 minute down time game. Picture yourself on a long commute on a train, held against your will yet comfortable and free to manage your own time, trapped in a gelatinous cube, unable to leave this bush lest you be spotted by the ringwraiths circling above the marshes, etc. These are the moments when you will be happy you pocketed Paper App Dungeon that morning.

The gameplay is breezy, if eventually repetitive, but makes for a zen experience. Nothing is too complicated but you still have meaningful choices. The game centres around dice/pencil based movement so that’s your random element but I found often enough choices made were impactful on my runs. I found several times that choosing to move towards a monster had a direct correlation with if I was about to die. Even then, the game sticks with a light and accessible approach to game play and you just bounce right back to life on the next floor, like a zombie after a supportive pep talk from their necromancer.

The simplicity of the ruleset also makes the game incredibly pick up and play. Whether delving for the first time, or having forgotten which jacket you left Paper App Dungeon in only to rediscover it 6 months later, you won’t need to spend more than 45 seconds reviewing/rereviewing the rules. Same goes for playing it as a team or passing it off to friends for a few pages if you’ve had your fill or just want to share that chill out dodge-the-goblin experience.

In balance, I did find feel like there were one or two floors where the gods of chance were ghosting me. I quickly rolled myself in a knot and ended up charging down the oesophagus of some gribbly. Looking back at the path that led me there I realised more than once that my death was unavoidable due to the numbers I rolled. It certainly felt like an unlikely occurrence but it did happen.

Also, there certainly isn’t much depth on offer, and the gameplay doesn’t do much to evolve or ramp up the difficulty as you advance through the pages. Despite the Dark Souls-esque cover art the game is quite happy in it’s cosey and accessible space and is not striving for the tactical nuance of something like Giai Project - the most strategic game of all time according to the first result on Google. Questionable but moving swiftly on. Look, you don’t order McDonald’s chickie nuggies as 2am and get upset when they lack a symphony of flavours. The game knows what it’s about and that’s fine. Just know if you are looking for a rich multilayered tapestry of rich narrative and difficult to master mechanics, this aint that.

Speaking of narrative - there is only the briefest whiff. There is no set up beyond the cover art but then [MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD I GUESS??] at the end of the dungeon is The Treasure Room containing The Stone of Odelonigal accompanied by what looks like Exercise F from a geometry textbook. I paused at this point a bit baffled and considered whether I might have missed something to set this up. Nope. I think this is just a little bit of fun and a nod of respect for making it all the way through but it did draw my attention to what was missing rather than what was present. I would have appreciated a little blurb at the start. Maybe 1 floor per 10 has a special item to collect and if you get them all you are permitted to read the secret ending. I don’t need Shakespear but a little something something would have been a nice bonus.

Oooo, minor point here but definitely made me and my partner chuckle - you get a cute little character outline to make your own. I present to you… LogenHosen. These are the cute little touches that for me take a game into the “memorable” category. Could have done with a little more of this flavour if i’m honest but i am glad of what’s there.

And if you are on the fence still then this game costs… wait for it…. About 10 of your finest English pounds. Doesn’t that make it a little peerless paramore! Suddenly, this game starts to feel like remarkable value and goes a long way to forgiving any shortgivings, particularly in it’s design elements and components. For most this is well situated at the “eh, I’ll give it a punt” point so some serious bonus points here.