Oathsworn Into the Deepwood
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Dungeon Crawler vs Boss Battler vs Adventure Game

The Dice Tower recently did three lists, and you can see what the lists are. But each of the lists is going to be different. They talked about if each one were or weren’t different some, but I wanted to talk about all of these as well. And I’ll be doing a list on Top 5 for two of them. Mainly, I need to play more of the newest genre of games on the list, the Boss Battler. But what are the differences or what are the highlight points for these different types of games?

Dungeon Crawler vs Boss Battler vs Adventure Games

Dungeon Crawler

Gloomhaven
Image Source: Cephalofair Games

Let’s start out with the defining features of a dungeon crawler. A dungeon crawler is going to be a game where you are making tactical decisions on a map that are directly involving a location of some sort. Another way to put it is kick open a door on a map, fight the monsters that are inside, and repeat.

This is often done in a campaign style of game. Gloomhaven being a prime example of this, you open up a door, a new group of monsters are there for you to fight. And you repeat that through not just each scenario but every battle that you face off against. While killing all the enemies isn’t always the final goal, the general mechanisms of kicking open a door and dealing with what is inside of there on that more tactical map level is how dungeon crawlers work.

Boss Battler

A Boss Battler is going to be much more about a single fight against a single boss. There might be extra trappings around the game. But if it comes down to a character(s) fighting a boss, that is a boss battler.

This one on the Dice Tower I had the least experience with, but also some potential disagreement with on their list. To me, the larger percentage of the game is going to need to be fighting that one boss. Whereas for some, that was the end goal, but not really the largest element.

An example of a Boss Battler is going to be Primal: The Awakening. I am currently painting that game, so I haven’t played it yet. But Meet Me At The Table has some great game plays of it. I’ll drop the first chapter in below. But Primal also demonstrates that it can be a campaign, but it also doesn’t need to be. In the rules for Primal there are ways to set it up as a one off experience. And the new Awaken Realms game, Grimcoven, is also a boss battler, but a single scenario.

Adventure Game

Finally, we have adventure games. These could overlap a lot into the other two. Especially, I think campaign dungeon crawler games. But an adventure game’s focus is going to be more on the adventure element. That is obvious, but I mean that things like combat are not going to be as important. It is going to be about the adventure and story of the game either told by the game or experienced by playing the game.

My example for this one is going to be Roll Player Adventures. There is combat in it, but it isn’t done on a tactical level. You face off against some more boss like monsters, but that isn’t the focus on it. It is all about the story and adventure that provides that you experience in the game. For me, this is the obvious example as to how that is working, but there are a ton of adventure games out there.

Roll Player Adventure
Image Source: Thunderworks Games

Final Thoughts

We’ll see which ones of them I do a Top 5. I realize that even with my love of campaign games, I haven’t played always a ton of boss battler or dungeon crawler games. More dungeon crawler for sure, but a lot of them are adventure type of games. But all of them are styles of games that I really enjoy. Because they all provide more of that epic experience in the game.

And I think I like all of them as well because with that epic experience comes some journey as well. I play a scenario or I battle a boss and there is some story that comes out of it as well. Even if it is just a one off situation, there is going to be something memorable from it. I remember through all the scenarios of Gloomhaven when someone had an amazing turn and was so powerful. Or when we found creative ways to get through scenarios. Or recently in Frosthaven when we just barely defeated scenarios on the last bit of our life.

That, to me, is the great thing that a dungeon crawler, boss battler, or adventure game can bring to the table. Do you prefer one of the types over the other?

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