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Dungeons & Dragons: Temple of Elemental Evil Board Game

#1973BGG ↗

2015 · 1-5 players · 60min · weight 2.45 · 2,092 ratings

port: no portdifficulty: Medium
BGGv4 widev4v4 deep5Sources3Rules cardCandidate0.485Deep dive
Bayes
6.27
Users rated
2,092
Owned
6,249
Wishing
1,264

At a glance — v4 wide

Controlled-vocabulary primitives + 8-axis MDA aesthetic vector. Vocab v1.

Core loop (micro)

Move hero, flip a new dungeon tile, fight any monster on it, then draw treasure and gain XP.

MDA aesthetic vector (0–3)
Sensation
1
Fantasy
3
Narrative
2
Challenge
2
Fellowship
2
Discovery
3
Expression
1
Submission
1
Mechanic-interaction primitives (5)
  • [3]variable_player_powers— “Each player selects a hero, such as a fighter, cleric, or wizard
  • [3]partial_observability— “explore further into the dungeon (turn over new tiles); new monsters to fight are added
  • [2]escalating_threat— “When a new dungeon tile is revealed, there is typically an encounter of some sort, and new monsters to fight are added
  • [2]variable_setup_per_game— “Temple of Elemental Evil includes multiple scenarios, challenging quests
  • [2]dice_mitigation— “Slain monsters reward the players with treasure, and experience points, allowing them to level up and increase their skills during play
discovery_score: -0.346

Archetype fits — v4 deep

How well this game shape maps to mobile archetype templates. Composite is a weighted sum of the 10 fit dimensions.

ArchetypeCompositeLTFSessionComboArcShare5inOnboard
Coop
Strong coop shape: shared dungeon fail-state, scenario campaign extends content, variable_player_powers create role asymmetry, xp progression adds inter-session arc. visual_legibility_5in_fit hurt by sprawling modular tile board (canonical hard dimension).
5.406.0757445
Balatro
xp_level_up_mid_session is a genuine engine_growth signal — combo_scaling 5. Modular dungeon adds run-variety. But 60-min session with multi-scenario campaign is over Balatro's 15-30 sweet spot.
4.606.0456444
Snap
Coop dungeon crawl is fundamentally not the Snap shape. No factional faceoff or lane structure.
3.806.0334344
Cozy
Coop-or-Solo tier (no cap) but escalating_threat + monster combat are anti-cozy primitives. Dungeon-crawl tone is desperate combat, not unhurried.
3.404.0334333
Wordle
60-min dungeon crawl far over Wordle's window; no daily-puzzle structure.
3.304.0234343

Translation candidate

Composite fit_score = bayes×0.30 + wish×0.18 + compress×0.17 + difficulty×0.20 + headroom×0.15.

bayes_norm×0.300.062
wish_norm×0.180.618
compress_norm×0.170.500
diff_norm×0.200.600
port_headroom×0.151.000
fit_score (total)0.485= 0.485
Difficulty reasoning

The D&D Adventure System has a well-worn co-op dungeon crawl loop that suits digital; asset density is manageable since tiles and counters are abstracted.

Closest loop translation
none yet

Sources (3)

Inputs to rules-card synthesis. Click any pill with ↗ to open the original source.