Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls: Tarot Card Game

Earlier this year, I heard about a cool Tarot project that was kick-starting: Dungeon Solitaire - Labyrinth of Souls. What initially caught my eye was the striking black-and-white artwork by the artist Josephe Vandel but that would have only made an interesting Marseilles-style Tarot deck. What really set it apart was the game for which the deck was made: the eponymous Labyrinth of Souls, a card game created by Matthew Lowes. Sadly, my Tarot budget was already spent when DS-LoS was kick-starting, so I was delighted to see it achieve it's funding goal. After much waiting, the rule-book and Marseilles-style Tarot deck for Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls were released into the wild for folks like myself to purchase. Oh yeah, did I mention that I purchased these things? In the spirit of full disclosure, I spent my own money to purchase both the rule-book and deck, and I didn't receive any incentives or enticements in exchange for this review.Normally, I don't get so excited about something unless I've done the research to learn all about it and watched a few unboxing and game-play videos, but what really sold me on this was the fact that the deck and game I'm reviewing today - Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls - is based on the proven success of another game from Matthew Lowes, Dungeon Solitaire - Tomb of Four Kings (which is free to download from his website!) So for me, a game that's proved itself in the marketplace of ideas paired with a striking deck made the purchase a no-brainer.The rule book has a very polished, professional appearance, the binding is solid, and the pages are a satisfying thickness. It's well-made and is going to lat a long time.The best thing going for DS-LoS is that it's a lot of fun. If the Labyrinth of Souls were only a Tarot deck, it'd still be great, but what really pushes it over the top is that the game for which the deck was made is terrific fun. At the time of this writing, I've only learned to play the Basic and the Expert rules: I still haven't learned the Advanced rules, the two-player co-operative module, or any of the other game modes. The game-play is addictive and does a fine job of replicating with paper cards the random, procedurally-generated level design found only in video games like Rogue Legacy and Spelunky.I found myself playing hand after hand trying to beat my score. Sometimes the game is just brutally punishing and I'll get killed by a monster on my very first turn, but most of the time I have enough options available that I'm able to enjoy a strong feeling of being challenged. That's hard enough to do with a video game, let alone with a deck of cards.I'm a huge cheap-skate and I deeply resent spending money if it doesn't live up to my expectations. I'm happy to say that this purchase exceeded my expectations, and it's one that I recommend to anybody. If you want to understand what I'm talking about, I recommend you visit Matthew Lowe's website and download the free Tomb of Four Kings rule-book. That'll introduce you to the game mechanics but also give you an idea what to expect with the more advanced rules.The creator Matthew Lowes recommends that you use your imagination to fill out the details for each monster, locked door, trapped treasure, and maze you encounter. If you're like me, then this isn't a problem, but a feature: it really gives you an opportunity to escape into the game world. With the selection of an appropriate Tarot deck, you can use your imagination to play out all kinds of scenarios. This isn't an issue for me, but to get the Full Experience™ you're going to have to suspend disbelief and invoke the power of your inner geek. You know the one: the kid who was rolling dice and playing D&D with the nerds at the school library. If you don't have much of an imagination, then you might not find this game as engaging as I do.

I came to this game through looking up "thematic solitaire playing-card games" on the site boardgamegeek. One of the games was "Dungeon Solitaire: Tomb of the Four Kings". The rules were available on boardgamegeek, and are also available for free on Matthew Lowes' website. I played the game and enjoyed it, though the dungeon-crawling theme isn't really my taste. I used to play D&D back in the 1980s and our group quickly adapted it to a non-dungeon RPG.But the game mechanics are great. You enter one level at a time, and have to defeat the monster or trap or locked door, and if you succeed you can gather up some treasure. The four aces are torches that burn out one after the other. If you haven't found the Scroll of Light before the last torch goes out, it's curtains for you. And you have to decide how deep to delve before turning back. If you turn back too soon, you miss out on that fabulous treasure, especially the tomb hoards of the four kings. But if you wait too long, you may use up all your hit-points or torches.I had enough fun playing the basic game that I decided to order the book, which describes a game meant to be played with tarot cards. Or rather, half a dozen variations of the basic game. If you're worried about a 152-page rulebook, don't be. The rules for the Basic game (which is pretty much identical to the free game) are given in six pages, followed by a six-page example. The rules for the Expert game, using the entire tarot deck, adds an extra seven pages. There's also an Advanced game, using a specialized deck made for the book (available separately) which has ten extra specialized cards (though he explains a way to play it with a regular tarot deck using some other method to keep track of hit points.) And there are several variations on the Advanced game for those who want extra variety.I have played the Expert game several times and enjoyed it more than the Basic game. He adds in interesting things like three Heavenly Gems (which remind me of Silmarils), companions for your journey, magical potions you can collect as treasure and then use, and a couple of pretty scary Corruption cards.I read through the Advanced game and it was too dark for my taste, with undead hordes and their scary ruler, and losing your memories and your mind in the dark. The cards that were made to go with the book are also too dark for my taste. The Lovers, for example, shows a woman in the arms of a skeleton. The Chariot is also driven by a skeleton. So many skeletons. If you like that sort of thing, you might love it, but I don't. But I have a huge collection of tarot cards already, so I was able to play the game with a deck that did suit my taste.If you use a regular tarot deck to play this game, I strongly recommend using a deck with pip cards that don't have scenes on them. Use something like Tarot Classic or Ancient Italian Tarot or Visconti-Sforza, where the coins look like coins (which makes the treasure seem more real). You could play with a Waite-Smith deck or one its clones, but I found that distracting. The scenes made it hard to focus on the game theme.I should also say that the book itself is very nicely made, a pleasure for a bibliophile like me. And I found the instructions easy to follow, especially after playing through his example game. The game designer has several youtube play-through videos that are also helpful if the written rules don't click.

Libro arrivato caro con alcune pagine ,compreso copertina, piegate

first off, I found out about this book purely by accident...and what a happy accident it was!I am an avid Tarot consultant for the better part of 25+years now and always learning...and this book in particular I would highly recommend for any Tarot enthusiast to purchase. What this book does is it uses a Tarot deck to play Solitaire in a Dungeons and Dragons sort of way. There are basic, advanced and intermediate rules to try, along with a very unique take on a Tarot spread.Matthew Lowes does have a special edition Tarot deck through his website (I highly recommend checking it out), but as he states "it is not necessary"....'hint' purchase a 10 sided dice for advanced/intermediate play.I highly recommend this book, and looking at the author's website for other amazing items available!

This is a great game. I use tarot cards for it and I love this book.

Just what I had spent years waiting for!

This tarot card game book is very cool, I love it!