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Description
"Without teamwork, you will never survive. Without betrayal, you’ll never win."
Cutthroat Caverns is played over 9 rounds, each with a random encounter. Essentially a game of 'kill stealing'. Each round, any monster encountered will have a prestige value of 1 through 6. The player that successfully jockeys for position and lands the killing blow gets the prestige value for the encounter. Some encounters will not have a specific monster, such as a trap room for the heroes to pass through (and in this case, earning no prestige). The surviving player with the most prestige after the 9 encounters is the winner. If the players do not survive all 9 encounters, no one wins the game.
A unique combination of cooperative game play and opportunistic backstabbing.
Year Published
2007
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Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment:
pos 0 ·
mix 1 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 1
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video R9QVoHzSCNU
Unknown Channel game_review at 0:29 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 60786 · mention_pk 153239
Click to watch at 0:29 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- High replayability due to the randomized encounter deck and varied monster styles
- Tension between competing goals: accumulating points vs staying alive
- Keeps a broad group engaged; late-game point bonuses keep players in contention
- Items and action cards enable creative bluffing and sabotage
- Multiple viable victory paths (points or last-man-standing)
Cons
- Component quality and health trackers are suboptimal and slippery, leading to tracking errors
- Art direction is inconsistent and can be jarring
- Rulebook is unclear, with accessibility problems and confusing elements like Plan B
- Encounter pacing can feel off and some late-game outcomes can be anti-climactic
- Downtime can be lengthy with 4-7 players, reducing interaction between participants
Thematic elements
- Array
- Fantasy dungeon crawl in a cavern network
- Backstabbing, humorous, competitive dungeon crawl with betrayal elements
Comparison games
- City of Horror
- Munchkin
- Bloodborne
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Combat: Damage Based — Monsters have health values and are attacked by players using attack cards; monsters retaliate in initiative order.
- Encounter Deck / Randomized Encounters — A deck of encounter cards provides varied monsters and challenges for each dungeon, driving replayability.
- Event/Trap Rooms and Rider Mechanics — Encounteres include trap rooms and rider effects that modify combat or provide temporary buffs/debuffs.
- hand management — Players manage attack cards, action cards, and items to influence encounters and outcomes.
- Monster Health & Combat — Monsters have health values and are attacked by players using attack cards; monsters retaliate in initiative order.
- player elimination — If a player dies, they are out, but there is an alternate path to victory by being the last survivor.
- Player Elimination with Alternative Win Conditions — If a player dies, they are out, but there is an alternate path to victory by being the last survivor.
- Scoring / Prestige Points — Players earn prestige points for defeating monsters, with special bonuses in later rounds.
- Simultaneous action selection — Players set attack cards simultaneously and then reveal them in initiative order to resolve combat.
- Simultaneous Actions — Players set attack cards simultaneously and then reveal them in initiative order to resolve combat.
- Unique player powers — Multiple character options with different stats are dealt to players at the start.
- Variable Player Powers / Character Selection — Multiple character options with different stats are dealt to players at the start.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Cutthroat Caverns is a car driven semi cooperative dungeon crawling game for 3 to 6 players plays in about an hour
- it's wonderfully complemented by the diversity attacked and action cards
- you definitely want to screw over other people throughout the game to get points but rational players will realized that there are limits
- if you've ever been curious on how dungeon crawling will look like with adventures backside of each other for personal gain this is the game for you
- this game truly shines with four or five players
- the final three rounds provide the winner of each to those rounds with extra points
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video XWrw6s-sCow
The Broken Meeple review at 15:02 sentiment: negative
video_pk 10002 · mention_pk 29460
Click to watch at 15:02 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
negative
Pros
- funny take-that concept
- requires teamwork for survival
Cons
- excessive take-that mechanics
- can make people angry
- clunky rules
- many FAQ moments
- group dependent
Thematic elements
- dungeon crawling
- D&D-like adventure
- monster slaying
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's only a game
- you're listening to the broken meeple show a podcast that speaks passionately about board games
- I am very much a cold blooded I'm a cold blooded lizard I need cold
- the top 50 has finally finished finally it's done
- there is nothing apart from it being bright and sunny there is nothing about the summer that really gets me like you know excited or interested because it's just too hot
- I look at these top 50s uh they certainly increase a bit
- there's a lot of good feedback in terms of what's up next hard to say really
- I would give it at least a seven out of 10 right now and say it's good
- the Arkham Horror games are still pretty solid and you know they're fun to play but they are definitely getting to a point where I don't think I can uh like really say that they're practical
- my tastes were new at that point you know I respected terroriser for its thiness
- I have definitely developed to want more theme in my games
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–2 of 2