Cutthroat Caverns Core Set
An artifact of untold power lies in your hands. To claim it, you must escape the caverns alive. No less than nine horrific beasts stand in your way - that, and the greed of the other players.
In this game of kill-stealing, you decide whether to swing for a whopping 50 points of damage - or hold back, awaiting a more opportune time to strike. Only the final blow matters if you are to score the kill. Hold back or sabotage other's plans too much - and the entire party will die, without a winner.
Okay, that's what it says on the box... what's it really like?
Cutthroat Caverns is truly unique. While most definitely a highly interactive card game and very easy to play, it requires the strategic thinking of a board game. And, for some uncanny reason, the game will make you FEEL like you are in the middle of a classic dungeon crawl, even though table talk is about as much roleplaying as you are likely to do. That all said, it has proven to have a very broad appeal with gamers across several genres.
The real joy is the delicate balance between helping the party (and staying alive) vs working towards your own selfish goals (and risking the welfare of everyone). There are no dice. Each Turn, you will choose how much damage you are willing to do to the monster- or won't do - as you jockey for position to land the killing blow. And when characters can make that kind of decision, things get very funny & very deadly - very quickly.
With 25 encounters, all requiring a different group strategy and seperate individual strategy, game play is always challenging. Only 9 random encounters will be used in any game, so the experience is always different. Plus, the first expansion is already complete with 15 new, tougher encounters and a whole new 'character enhancing' game mechanic to keep people coming back.