What rules are frequently overlooked in the first games?

• You need unconquered tunnels to mine gold.
• When building a room, you have to replace an existing unconquered tunnel. You can’t just place a room on an empty space connected to your tunnel system.
• Besides the fact that a monster (or ghost) leaves you when not paid on Pay Day, you also gain one Evil.
• The paladin will not leave your dungeon and move to a different dungeon unless another player’s Evil Counter is higher on the Evilometer than yours. (Being on the same space is not evil enough to make the paladin move, regardless of who is closer to the starting player.)
• The paladin does not move to another player unless that player is on or above the marked space of the Evilometer (even if that player’s Evil Counter is above the one of the player that currently has the paladin).
• In each combat round, you may choose any of the unconquered dungeon tiles closest to the entrance, regardless of which one you chose the previous round and regardless of whether the party conquered or not.
• You have to pay one extra Gold when using a trap in a room (except  in the Labyrinth).
• After its attack, a typical monster (or ghost) is knocked out (turned face down) for the rest of the Combat. However, after Combat (before the Second Year starts), all monsters (and ghosts) are turned face up again, so they will fight for you again in the second Combat.
• The party gets no fatigue when it does not conquer. (Some players forget this when using a Demon.)
• The amount of fatigue is stated on the Combat Card. The fixed amount of two fatigue was just for the training scenarios.
• You lose one Evil every time the party conquers a tile of your dungeon.
• In the Second Year, you can use First Year rooms twice during each round’s Production Phase.
• When using the Buy Traps action in the Second Year, you get one extra Trap Card and then return one Trap Card of your choice. (It does not have to be one of the cards you just drew.)
• When playing with special events, you reveal the Special Event Card as soon as the Special Event tile is revealed (i.e., after the Special Event Card is revealed, there will be two Orders Phases before it takes effect).
• You start the game with 3 Gold, 3 Food, 3 imps and 3 tunnels. (This mistake may not be the most common, but it is surely the most fatal.)

In which order do the players play the game?

Clockwise. When the rules say that something happens “in order, beginning with the starting player” it means the one with the Starting Player Token goes first, the person on the starting player’s left goes second, etc.

(We are sorry the clockwise order was not stated in the rules explicitly. This will be corrected in later editions.)

Can a non-player Evil Counter get the Lord of Dark Deeds title in the 2-player game?

No. Only player Evil Counters are taken in account.

(This is not exactly stated in the rules. It will be added in the later editions.)

What player actions are performed simultaneously?

In fact, only Selecting Orders in the Orders Phase and Choosing Initial Inaccessible Orders in the Full Game are done purely simultaneously. Many other actions (reacting to an event, planning combat, etc.) can be done simultaneously to speed game play, but if it matters, players have to make their final decision in clockwise order, beginning with the starting player.

Similarly, when executing orders in the Orders Phase, players can do some things simultaneously to speed up the game, if they are sure their decision will not influence and will be not influenced by other players’ decisions. However, whenever it matters, the decisions are made and evaluated in the order of actions: Get Food, Improve Reputation, Dig Tunnels, Mine Gold, Recruit Imps, Buy Traps, Hire Monster (or Ghost), and Build Room. (And within each action, the order is from shorter spaces to longer ones.)

We do not recommend resolving the Battle Phase simultaneously; each player should show what is going on in his or her dungeon to the other players. If you decide to save time by resolving the Battle Phase simultaneously, remember that order becomes important when there is a possibility that the paladin will switch dungeons.

When does the paladin move to a dungeon?

The rules for moving the paladin are the same in the Combat and Building Phases. You have to check the situation after each move on the Evilometer. (Players never move their Evil Counters simultaneously.)

The paladin enters the game as soon as a player’s Evil Counter gets on or above the marked paladin space of the Evilometer. He is put in front of that player’s dungeon. He moves to another dungeon only when another player’s Evil Counter is:

• “on or above the paladin space”

and at the same time:

• “higher than the Evil Counter of the player who currently has the paladin”.

Especially note:

• The paladin does not leave when the player’s Evil Counter falls below the paladin space.
• The paladin does not move to another player’s dungeon if that player’s Evil Counter is not on or above the paladin space (even if that player is more evil that the player that currently has the paladin).
• The paladin ignores the Starting Player Token (if Evil Counters are tied, he stays where he is), unless two new players become most evil (and on or above paladin space) at the same time. (This can happen when the most evil player drops and exposes two other players to be most evil, or at the start of the Second Year, when a new paladin has to be assigned.) In these cases only, the paladin goes to the player that is last in play order among the tied players.