If I were to make the perfect dungeon board game, I would...

[Schmidt]

....take the best elements from exciting games:

I like the combat system from HQ
the XP system from DnD (among others)
the random map layout from WHQ

.... I would sell the base game with four heroes and one monster faction, for example greenskin and make another faction available already when the game is released. Each expansion faction should come with 5 regular monsters and 1 mini boss (maybe 5 beast men and 1 Minotaur). A maxi boss should also be available. All expansion boxes should contain all the stats (so they can be used as a LV1 to LV10 monster) and possible magic spell cards that each monster could use. New heroes should also be sold, and there should be evil counterparts of all/some/most heroes to fight against. These expansion packs should be made available every 3-6 months.

How would you do it? What games would you steal from be inspired by?

[torilen]

Personally, while I do like the XP idea found in D&D, I find it very un-life like. I like the idea of actually
training to learn to do things. Example - the old computer game Quest for Glory - you could actually
exercise and practice various activities to get your skills and physical attributes higher.

I really dislike the idea of selling a base game with limited heroes and monsters. I understand your goal
behind splitting monsters up into expansions, but I think players would get really tired of it really quick,
unless you made the easily available and fairly cheap for each expansion.

That was one of the biggest things I found unlikable about D&D 4th ed. The initial set of books included only
one type of character. They released at least one other book, two even, maybe, that players would have to
buy in order to have the full compliment of character types accessible for play. That is just ridiculous.

Now...if you were going to release extra rules (optional, ideally) or background info in the same book as
the new monsters, I could go for that. Perhaps the new set of monsters is found only in certain terrain
types, so you release a book that would include the following: info on the terrain type, new monsters,
new hazards, perhaps new spells associated with that terrain type, some locals that gaming groups can
use, and maybe some very special NPC's that would be found in that terrain type.

[Anderas]

Having much less monsters, instead much more multi-BP-Monsters who would survive one or two rounds of fighting

Then inventing stuff that is connecting AT and DE to each other, like, a feint (lowers your DE, and in turn, raises your next AT), an AT-Series (You just do AT no DE, drive your enemy one field backwards each AT, but if you fail you have some kind of big risk) and so on and so forth. For each kind of character two or three of these.

Plus, the new game certainly has to be in the campaign mode by default, like Hero Quest; in order to generate some feeling by storytelling.

[Schmidt]

Personally, while I do like the XP idea found in D&D, I find it very un-life like.

Think chess. I have yet to win my first "official " game, but last time I played, I was doing very well, but lost because I was to eager to win. If I had more chess XP I would have secured my back rank before going on the attack. And I can solve a Rubik's cube much faster now than 3 years ago, because I have much more cube XP. I think orcs a taught to fight in a certain way (they must have some basic training ), so the more times you have seen an Orc fight, the less you fall for simple traps and recognize the moves he makes = real life RPG/BG XP.

[Anderas]

There is ultra-high bureaucracy involved in gaining, noting, managing, counting, spending XP. The game gets slow but the mechanism returns close to no fun.
It is even worse if you have development trees - if you take the wrong branch, it generates constant, staying frustration until the character is dead.

So it really is a concept that i would throw away immediately; or if i use it, it has to be on a super-simplified basis, like, 1XP per 5 or 10 missions (or better, 1XP per Mission); and a maximum of 2 or 3 levels for a skill.

[Schmidt]

I was thinking more like
Kill LV1 get 2 XP
Kill LV3 get 17 XP

When you reach 100XP you are LV2 and is allowed to use battle axes instead of just a short sword.

[Anderas]

So you want to take a note and calculate after each single Monster death?

It's exactly what I would discard without a second glance. I've did this in "Das schwarze Auge", first edition, and it really took much, much time without adding anything to the gameplay. In DSA you had 2 or 3 fights during the evening, consuming 2 hours of time.

In Dungeon Crawl games, normally you want to have 10, 15 rooms full of fights, and afterwards you want to have enough time for a second game.

In my opinion "fast gameplay" is a must have; so anything that gets into the way of "fast gameplay" without adding fun... well... shoot it at sight. Don't ask questions.

Of course this is strongly dependend on the group you are playing with. If you all are role play gamers and think XP is the ultimate target, go on with it.

[Schmidt]

it should be calculated after each quest. When you level up, you get a fixed skill according to the stat card.
"LV 4 Barbarian: If you kill a monster and there is another monster adjacent to you, you can attack that monster as well."

[The Road Warrior]

I would shamelessly steal from be inspired by the WHQ roleplay book.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of this in other games but I'm only really familiar with HQ and WHQ.

[artisturn]

I would keep it simple, limited character profile very similar to Heroquest and Warhammer Quest.

Advancement I would keep simple as well,Defense and Attack increase with equipment changes and certain attack moves would be opened up according to the characters level and would have to purchased through a training system. Magic users would purchase spell books instead of training.

Using Heroquest as an example the only stats that would would increase would be body and mind points,and they would increase a point at a time after an allotted number of quests/adventures.

For combat based Heroes mind points would be for magic defense and mind points for magic based Heroes would determine how many spells they could cast and the power level of spells.