Dungeonology is a dungeon-crawler about studying rather than slaying

Everybody knows what you do in a dungeon-crawler: explore a room, defeating monsters and looting treasure, before moving into the next room. Rinse and repeat. But upcoming dungeon-crawler Dungeonology wants to take a more studious approach to delving the depths – literally.

In Dungeonology: The Expedition, the players aren’t sword-swinging warriors, spell-casting mages or dead-eyed rangers out for goblin/orc/troll/skeleton/zombie blood. They’re scholars from the local Rocca Civetta University, looking to further their studies by venturing into the Laetus dungeon.

The dungeon itself is made up of 19 zone tiles, which the scholars venture through on their quest for knowledge. Like a typical dungeon-crawler, there’s a boss and other variable elements on each map that can change the scenarios from playthrough to playthrough.

Players use the cards in their hand to guide their academic around the maze, with the chance to hinder their rival researchers by laying traps. The players are racing to collect both the most information and the best-quality info, in the hope of being promoted to professor ahead of their colleagues.

The game plays with up to four people in an hour and a half, and is set in the fantasy Renaissance world of Ludus Magnus Studio’s previous game Nova Aetas – albeit a lighter version of the dark universe.

Dungeonology was funded on Kickstarter back in May, but has now been picked up for an English retail release by Wings of Glory and War of the Ring publisher Ares Games. The game is due for release at Essen Spiel this October.