Lairs

Lairs Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Lairs

Lairs, a two-player dungeon game from KTBG (Kids Table Board Games), draws strong enthusiasm from the channels that covered it. Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower gave the base game a 7 out of 10, then raised it to a 9 with the Adventurer Pack, which on its own earns a 9.5 and the label "fantastic, almost essential expansion." Dr. Brian McDonald of Brains On Games said a prototype play might be one of the top five gaming experiences of the year. Board Games UnLocked gave it a 10 out of 10, while conceding that a more objective score might be a 9. BoardGameCo's Alex Radcliffe added it to a collection capped at 200 games, though without promising it a permanent spot. The shared caveat is that the base game is simple, and the added content is where the game opens up.

Two disclosures apply. Brains On Games reviewed a prototype sent by KTBG ahead of the crowdfunding campaign. Board Games UnLocked bought an all-in pledge secondhand after missing the campaign. BoardGameCo's channel is sponsored by All Play, which is unrelated to Lairs.

Core Mechanics That Define Lairs

Dungeon Building and Exploration

Each player secretly builds a dungeon behind a screen, then explores the opponent's dungeon on a blank grid, marking walls and features as they are revealed. Tom Vasel sums it up as "almost dungeon battleship," and Board Games UnLocked heard it pitched as "fantasy battleship." In the prototype Brains On Games covered, each builder places three chests, three traps, three monsters and at least 17 of the 20 walls. The rules are short: no enclosed spaces, and a path from the start to every goal and the exit that never passes two of the same hazard in a row. The first player to finish building chooses who explores first.

That freedom drives the fun. Board Games UnLocked built one lair as a near circle with every treasure inside, so the explorer either found everything at once or circled the outside through every hazard. In a later game the channel simply tossed the walls onto the sheet and used wherever they landed.

Cube Spending and Fatigue

Exploration runs on cubes. In the Brains On Games prototype, a player starts with four white cubes, one yellow and one green. Green peers into a space before entering, and yellow rushes up to three spaces; two white cubes can substitute for either. Spent cubes cycle from fatigued to spent to fresh, and up to three can be conserved between turns. Monsters are fought with dice: the base game's hungry blob has 6 health, and each cube committed rolls one die. Board Games UnLocked points out that damage carries over, so a failed attack still wears the monster down. Leaving requires three monsters, three chests, or two of each, and the first player out earns bonus points. Only four treasures count at the end, and some reward sets, such as a bonus for a second book.

The Lairs Experience

Laughter at the Table

The reviews keep coming back to laughter. Dr. McDonald's son and a friend were cackling while building their dungeons, already imagining the reactions to their traps. Board Games UnLocked calls the best part seeing "how absurd the other person has developed" their lair, and describes the pain of watching an explorer stop one step short of a treasure chest and turn away. The BoardGameCo gameplay by Mal and Ricky ends the same way, with the builder revealing a treasure that sat right next to the explorer.

Approachable, With Dice That Stay in Their Lane

The reviewers treat Lairs as a game for a wide audience. Tom Vasel calls the base game a good way in for people who have not played many games. Board Games UnLocked argues that Lairs is not really a deduction game: players get enough tools to avoid blundering, without the heavy logic that keeps some deduction games off the table. Randomness is limited too. Traps mostly punish players who rush through without scouting, and scouting costs cubes that may be needed later, so Board Games UnLocked reports no problem with how the dice work. Brains On Games lists the box at ages 10 and up and about 40 minutes, and Board Games UnLocked puts real games at 40 to 60.

What Makes Lairs Stand Out

Paced Unlocks in the Adventurer Pack

The Adventurer Pack releases content in steps rather than all at once. Tom Vasel describes a sequence that starts with Box 1, marked not to be opened until players are comfortable with the introductory game, followed by envelopes and further boxes. The pack adds orange, blue and purple cubes, each with new abilities, along with new monsters, traps and moves such as charge and sneak. A player now starts with three white cubes plus three colors, and a white cube can be converted to another color. Tom Vasel played through it with his son and says every game feels different without ever feeling overwhelming. Board Games UnLocked describes the same structure, calls it "a legacy game without the horrible parts," and chose to play several games with each new addition before opening the next.

Production Built for Resetting

Player sheets print every rule needed. New rules arrive on removable adhesive labels, which Board Games UnLocked compares to window decals and Brains On Games notes let the game be reset. The Adventurer Pack includes a vault box that, in Tom Vasel's words, fits basically everything. Joey Evans of The Dice Tower showed a 3D-printed insert that holds the Adventurer Pack, Deeper Dungeons, Kickstarter extras and six dry-erase boards, though it does not take sleeved cards.

Potential Drawbacks

A Thin Base Game

Dr. McDonald says plainly that there is less replayability in the base game, while crediting the gradual unlocks for easing new players in. Tom Vasel scores the base game two points below the complete package. Tom Vasel also notes that some intermediate cards are used for a few games and then never again once later content replaces them. Brains On Games also reported prototype walls getting knocked over during play.

Built for Two

Brains On Games calls the prototype two-player only; with three people, one would be left waiting. Alex Radcliffe mentions a three- and four-player mode, and Board Games UnLocked believes the extra expansion adds higher player counts, but neither channel has covered that mode. Groups that regularly play with more than two should treat Lairs as a two-player game.

If You Enjoy Lairs

Tom Vasel's "dungeon battleship" line points to Battleship as the core idea behind the exploration. Dr. McDonald says the theme recalled early Dungeons & Dragons, with its focus on crawling through dungeons, collecting loot and defeating monsters. Board Games UnLocked names Dungeon Lords as a similar build-a-dungeon concept, and Stonespire Architects as another dungeon-building game, one that channel liked less because of its randomness and punishing market phase. Board Games UnLocked also contrasts Lairs with Search for Planet X, Search for the Lost Species and Turing Machine. Players who love those heavier deduction games may find Lairs lighter, and players who find them too demanding may prefer it.