Players: 3-4
Time: 60-120 minutes
Difficulty: 4 (of 10)
The Components
3/4 Players essentially comes with a duplicate of all the items in the main Dungeon Twister box, but in two new colors, green and blue. This includes: 8 room tiles, 2 starting lines, 2 quick reference screens, many portcullis markers, 28 tokens (for characters and items), 10 action chits, 16 (standup) cardboard figures, 32 cards, and 1 rulebook.
Here's some small notable differences in these components, as compared to the original.
Room Tiles: The new rooms (9-12) aren't identical to the originals (1-4), though they are plain rooms, without any of the special elements of other expansions. However, the rooms, pits, gears, and portcullises are in new configurations, allowing for new tactics.
Portcullis Markers: These are now double-sided, showing broken portcullises on one side, and open portcullises on the other, which makes them easier to use.
Rulebook: The rules for 3/4 player play take up just one page. The bulk of this book is a set of 7 scenarios. Various of these scenarios support 3 or 4 player play. They have lots of unique setups and rules.
There's also one new component:
Short Start Lines: Each of the four colors is given a short start line. They're printed full color on cardboard, and generally match all of the other board components. Each of these lines is just 5 spaces wide rather than 10. They're used for various unique scenarios.
Overall the components of Dungeon Twister: 3/4 Players are just like those for the original game, with some small, incremental improvements. Besides being useful for 3/4 player play you'll also be able to use the maps to give more variety to your 2-player game.
Like the original Dungeon Twister these components are good quality and beautiful. I've given than a full "5" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
3/4 Players doesn't have much in the way of new rules:
3/4 Player Play: In the basic 3/4 player game you use 12 rooms to set up either a "T" or a "+". Players then try and get out via any other entrance. The only other notable change is that you're now trying to get 6 victory points rather than 5.
Scenarios: The other big change in this supplement is the scenarios, which can be used instead of the basic setup, if you so desire. These are all for 3- or 4-player play, and they can really change up the Dungeon Twister game.
Some scenarios have unique setups, including limitations on which rooms you can put characters in, and a more dynamic setup where any player can put a character on any starting line. Some have unique victory conditions, including getting to the top of a pyramid, getting to only certain other starting lines, or going to "exits" which aren't any of the players' starting lines at all.
Some scenarios deemphasize combat, while one gives rules for group combat. One scenario has a special "sliding" room.
In short, the scenarios add a lot of variability to the Dungeon Twister game.
Relationships to Other Games
3/4 Players is the second expansion to Dungeon Twister. You need the base game to play. This new expansion is largely not compatible with all the other Dungeon Twister expansions, which are otherwise set up for 2-player play (meaning that the red & green player colors which show up in this expansion aren't used anywhere else).
There are some minor ways that you could integrate 3/4 Players with other Dungeon Twister expansions. First, you can use the maps from any expansion interchangeably. Second, one could envision asymmetrical scenarios where some players have characters or items from the expansions and others have these base characters and items--but I'm not aware of any at this time.
The Game Design
I thought that the original Dungeon Twister was a superb game, and I was somewhat leery of this expansion because I was afraid it might make the game very chaotic. I was pleased to find that wasn't the case; instead, the game worked great for 4 players.
The game length is dramatically increased. The original Dungeon Twister came in at 45-60 minutes. This one will run 90-120 minutes, and that will result in some downtime.
In addition, at least in my 4-player game, there was more emphasis on combat than I've seen in most 2-player games. This seemed a pretty natural result of the game being played (at least in the basic setup) on a smaller set of boards per player. Within a couple of rounds we were having some massive and multiple player interactions.
I really like Dungeon Twister played with 4 players. There was some chaos, but it made the game interesting and exciting, not hard to control. I do have some qualms about the game length, but beyond that I pretty unreservedly recommend this expansion for players of Dungeon Twister who want to try it with a larger gaming group.
Conclusion
3/4 Players is a Dungeon Twister expansion that does exactly what it says: it lets 3 or 4 players play this previously 2-player board game. It works great, and is every bit as interesting as the original game, but has a lot of new excitement as well. Fans of the original game are well recommended to pick this one up.
