Mini Rogue

The Game

Mini Rogue is a streamlined and compact dungeon crawler, which can be played solo or as a two-player game. You enter a dungeon and fight through traps and monsters, sometimes collecting equipment and gold along the way, sometimes leveling up as you gain experience. Eventually, you will get to the boss at the end of the journey, and if you beat it too, you win.  

The game comes in a small box. Your encounters in the dungeon are represented by cards. Every segment of the dungeon is represented by a 3×3 grid of cards. You start with the card at the top left and must get to the card at the bottom right. You may only move right or down. If you survive all the encounters, you complete the segment. You then move on to the next segment.

The 3x3 grid is the current segment of the dungeon you are in. 

You roll dice to determine the outcomes of your encounters. You need to roll above specific values for success. Die rolls also determine the penalty or reward, depending on whether you are successful. As you level up, you get to roll more dice, which means your chances of success will increase. However, as you move deeper into the dungeon, the monsters will get stronger too.

Possible results of your encounter are listed at the bottom of the card. 

This is your player board. You track several stats like level and hit points. 

This is a monster. At different levels, the stats differ. 

Several other aspects of dungeon crawlers are present. You can get poisoned. You can get cursed. You can obtain magic potions to use on yourself or on your enemies. You can equip yourself with weapons and other items.

Purple cubes track the potions you carry (max 2). 

There are four characters to choose from, with different special abilities. 

The Play

So far, I have only played this as a two player game. Although many elements of typical role playing games have been simplified, I find that there is still a lot to handle. The game is physically small and the number of game components is low, but the gameplay is still rich. I kept referring to the rulebook to check what the icons mean and how to resolve specific situations. This is by no means a light game. It is still very much a dungeon crawler. The early game seems to be more luck-heavy, since you only have one die and your fate is very much dependent on that one die. Or maybe I need to work harder to find ways to mitigate this early luck factor. 

Unfortunately we didn't last very long, and I never got to experience the late game. Every fight with a monster is a fight to the death, theirs or yours. There is no running away. The moment you get stuck with a monster you can't kill, it's game over. I like this. It keeps you on your toes. 

As you explore the dungeon, cards are revealed. 

This is the master map. You need to survive 10 segments to get to the final boss. 

When you encounter the merchant, you can buy or sell stuff. 

The pawns are lovely. 

The Thoughts

Mini Rogue is a miniaturised dungeon crawler, but it is still very much a dungeon crawler. It's a constant struggle to survive. You need to fully utilise everything at your disposal. You need to plan to level up and to equip yourself. I've never been a dungeon crawler fan nor am I into roleplaying games, so this game didn't quite click. I got it because I was curious about how they miniaturised the whole dungeon crawling experience. I'd say they were successful. 

The Story

I bought this game at the Ares Games booth at the Essen game fair 2024. Well, to be more precise, I got it for free. This is one experience that will make me always remember Ares Games fondly. I browsed their shop and found one of the games being sold, Port Arthur, interesting. Browsing further, I saw the other game in the series, by the same designer, 300: Earth and Water. I decided to get both. One of them was EUR25, and the other EUR29. As I prepared to pay, the lady made me an offer. She said if I picked a third game, I could get three games for the price of two, with the lowest priced game made free. I thought why not. So I browsed the shelves again. I really couldn't find anything else I was particularly keen to try. I only found Mini Rogue to be somewhat interesting, because it was trying to do something a little unusual, packing a dungeon crawler into a small box. So I picked it. Now Mini Rogue was only EUR25. That meant I would get it for free. I thought I was being quite clever. Had I picked a game with a higher price, I would be spending more money in total, despite getting one game for free. I thought the lady would now probably regret making me that offer, because instead of generating more revenue, I was just getting a free game from them. That was a bad deal for them, but a great one for me. The lady checked my three items. She said to me, "Since the third game is EUR25 too, then let's do this. The EUR29 game will be free, and I'll charge you for just the two EUR25 games. So the total will be EUR50." She gave me an additional discount! That was such a nice thing to do. This little act of kindness is what will make me always remember Ares Games fondly. 

It is something we should always remember. Choose to be kind to people.