Preview: Minotaur

We are about to delve into the labyrinth constructed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus to imprison the Minotaur! Our party enters the labrynth only to find a maze of shifting halls and one angry Minotaur that is searching for the medallions that are the party's only way to get out.

Minotaur starts with 1-4 players (the solo mode has the player using 2 hero cards) in the middle of a 3x3 grid or 3x5 grid depending on player count. You deal out enough labyrinth cards to fill that grid and include the start space in the center. The players then work to create the labyrinth together by placing all the tiles connecting the corridors as best as possible. There will be dead ends, that's how it goes in a labyrinth right?

Players assume the roles of Wizard, Warrior, Rouge or Cleric and all start on the starting space. Then you can spread out and search for the 6 medallion halves that you need to get out or work together in a group. As the players explore the labyrinth and come to the edge of the playing area new cards are dealt out along that edge and added to the labyrinth. but the cards on the opposite side are removed. So if your party reaches the right side of the board you deal and place 3 new cards then remove the three cards on the left side. Along the way you will encounter creatures to battle and of course the Minotaur will be after you the entire time.

Minotaur had me looking around corners in my basement

We found Minotaur's combat system easy to understand. When you pulled an encounter from the bag all you had to do is decide if you were going to attack it and then pull a combat card to get the target value. Then you roll your attack. If your higher you win if you are lower you take damage equal to the difference. The Medallions are in the random encounters and these have little affect on exploring or your hero except when the Minotaur is involved. The amount of medallions determines the Minotaur's hit points when they arrive on the map. The encounter cards will let you know. The encounter cards also let you know how many random tokens to pull. Find all 6 of the tokens to seal the Minotaur in and win.

I am old everything is nostalgic these days

Minotaur is an adventure that reminded me of my days in front of my Nintendo playing games like Swords and Serpents. The 8-bit styled art work was well done and added to that nostalgia for me but I am old everything is nostalgic these days.

This is a fun dungeon crawler will have you wondering if that Minotaur is right around the next corner. We had a great time playing it and it was easy to learn. With the different classes and the random encounter cards there is a lot of replay value for Minotaur. Look for it soon on Gamefound and sign up for the email notifications and launch announcements from Lynnvander studios.

Players: 1-4

Year Published: 2022

Recommended Ages: 14+

Time to Play: 45

Transparency Statement

A sample pre-production vassel module was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for review purposes. Final products may vary from what is portrayed in this article.