Catacombs is an award-winning, cooperative board game set in the fantasy world of Cimathue, and you need skill and dexterity to master this fast-paced game.
One player (the Overseer) marshals an army of monsters while the others choose from six brave heroes who embark on a quest to save the town of Stormtryne from the threat lurking in the catacombs below. As the heroes explore, they must use their abilities, buy items, and recruit allies to help them defeat the monsters before facing the powerful Catacomb Lord, thereby saving the town.
In more detail, in Catacombs players flick wooden discs that represent the monsters and heroes. Contact with an opposing piece inflicts damage, while missiles, spells, and other special abilities can cause other effects. When all of the monsters of a room have been cleared, the heroes can move further into the catacomb.
Items and equipment upgrades can be purchased from the Merchant with gold taken from fallen monsters. The Catacomb Lord is the final danger that the heroes must defeat to win the game. Conversely, the Overseer wins if all of the heroes are defeated.
This third edition of Catacombs has all-new artwork compared to the earlier editions, but more importantly the keywords from the first two editions has been replace with iconography, the terminology has changed, and the third edition has new shot types, new card effects, and a different set of components (many of which have changed statistics) as well as wall pieces not present in earlier editions.
Rook & Record - Catacombs
- Dexterity-based challenges provide tactile, kinaesthetic gameplay
- Strong thematic tie-in with goblin/necromancer imagery
- Energetic, album-inspired mood enhances the dungeon crawl experience
- Goblins, rainbows, and other fantastical dungeon lore; surreal, heavy-metal aesthetic vibe
- Fantasy dungeon setting featuring goblins, necromancers, and dungeon corridors
- Implied through imagery and mood rather than a linear story
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dexterity-based dungeon crawl — Players perform dexterity-based actions and manipulate components to progress through a dungeon.
- Dungeon Crawl — Players perform dexterity-based actions and manipulate components to progress through a dungeon.
- Thematic integration with multimedia cues — The game design leans into a strong thematic mood that matches the album-inspired fantasy setting.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- hey this is a dexterity based dungeon crawl
- you could totally expect a bunch of ghouls zombies maybe some bats and a catacomb Lord necromancer jammin out in the middle of some dungeon
- that's exactly what catacombs does by saying
- the band totally threw away the shackles and said I don't care what you think what a rock band has to be we're going to tell you what a rock band can be
- we don't have to answer to nobody other than ourselves about how awesome that can be