Whenever a TTRPG takes me inside a dungeon, I find myself wondering, “How did this thing end up here?” When you step back and think about it for a moment, fantasy dungeons are really weird. Sprawling, trap-filled structures that, despite their complexity, seem to have appeared out of thin air rather than being built. Flatpack Dungeon takes this idea to its logical conclusion by suggesting that dungeons are commonplace due to fantasy Ikea selling them in flatpack form.
Shadowchild Games’ Flatpack Dungeon comes in both single-player and multiplayer forms. No matter which version you play, the premise is the same: a group of adventurers has purchased a flatpack dungeon kit from a dodgy store. So, before they can explore the dungeon and have a rollicking good time, they have to construct the dungeon. However, this is easier said than done, as the kit is not the best quality and the instructions leave lots to be desired.
To Make A TTRPG, You Must First Build The Dungeon
Before the game starts, players need to gather six-sided dice as well as paper, pens, and notecards. After this, the players create their characters by splitting points between three stats: Brawn, Wit, and Luck.
The gameplay is split into two main phases. Assembly and Exploration. During the Assembly phase, the players attempt to put their wonky flatpack dungeon together. To do this, players take turns rolling the dice and consulting the Flatpack table to discover what sort of thing they need to add to the dungeon. The player then describes the room they’ve created and draws it on the group’s map.
Once the dungeon reaches a specific size (or all players have had a chance to add a few rooms), the game transitions to the Exploration phase. During this phase, the players step into the shoes of their adventurers and explore the horrible dungeon they’ve created.
On their turn, the player rolls a die to discover what they find in the room and then rolls to see how they overcome the situation they find. Doing well nets the players Allen Keys, while messing up causes them to lose Allen Keys. The game ends when the players explore all the rooms they created, or when they run out of Allen Keys.
World-Building That Embraces The Weird
Flatpack Dungeon is a cute game that is sure to delight any table that likes world-building games. The game’s best element is the Flatpack table, as it strikes a perfect balance between offering players enough guidance to keep the game moving, while still allowing room for creativity. Because of this, each session of Flatpack Dungeon is guaranteed to create a unique and memorable dungeon that is unlike any dungeon you’ve explored before.
While the Exploration phase is simple and mechanically light (especially compared to other dungeon-crawling TTRPGs), this does work in the game’s favour. The main appeal of the Exploration phase is exploring the dungeon you created during the Assembly phase and playing off all of the stuff your table came up with during that process. More complex Exploration mechanics could end up overshadowing or undermining the free-form world-building done during the Assembly phase. However, the game’s rules-lite approach means that players get to directly engage with the ideas they seeded during the previous part of the game, no matter how weird or wacky they are, making the whole experience feel cohesive rather than two separate games stapled together.
However, those looking for a deeper dungeon-crawling experience could use Flatpack dungeon as a world-building tool, taking dungeons created during it and using them as part of a campaign in another game.
The only change I would make to the rules is the length of the Assembly phase. The default rules say that this phase should last until you’ve made six rooms (for single player) or each player has had the chance to make two rooms (for multiplayer). However, during my testing, this always felt a little too short. The Flatpack table has many fun prompts that can be combined in creative and memorable ways.
Thus, it always felt a little disappointing when the building phase ended and my group (or me in the solo tests) hadn’t gotten a chance to use many of them. This is especially true in multiplayer, as the players who roll first or second have way fewer options on their first turn drawing (as they have nothing to build off). Thus, I would suggest making the Assembly phase a little longer if you try the game out (or continue until you all decide you’ve had enough).
Flatpack Dungeon is a TTRPG that is sure to delight fans of world-building games. It taps into a common question many TTRPG fans often ask and combines it with fun and creative prompts, leading to a memorable world-building experience that will allow your table to create one of the weirdest but most memorable dungeons in fantasy history.
