Dungeon Mayhem is D&D’s answer to Love Letter

Dungeons & Dragons is spinning out into a new card game that plans to cram the sword and sorcery battles of the RPG into under 15 minutes.

Dungeon Mayhem is a snappy game along the lines of filler favourite Love Letter, as players lays down cards to eliminate their opponents.

Unlike that game’s ‘draw one, play one’ simplicity, though, here each player has a separate deck representing their character’s typical D&D class – be it barbarian, paladin, rogue or wizard.

Characters start with a set amount of HP and can be gradually whittled down by their rivals if they fail to block the incoming blows using cards from their hand. Attacks might be thrown daggers, axe swings, sword parries or, yes, Magic Missile.

Other spells and abilities might let players heal, swap their hit points with an opponent, force everyone to discard their hand, perform group attacks or destroy shields, with illustrator Kyle Ferrin putting a cartoony touch to classic D&D incantations. 

Created by Jordan Comar and Roscoe Wetlaufer, Dungeon Mayhem has an unexpected celebrity link – Seattle Seahawks American football player C.J. Prosise helped playtest the game during his internship at Wizards of the Coast.

Dungeon Mayhem will be out in shops on November 16th. It’ll cost $15 in the US.