Escape the Dark Castle is a casual, cooperative adventure game with a focus on atmosphere, player cooperation, and fun. Designed with newcomers to tabletop gaming in mind, it takes 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 30 minutes, and no two games are ever the same.

1-4 players take the roles of prisoners on a quest to Escape the Dark Castle, and must work together to overcome its many horrors, traps, and challenges – each of which is represented by a large, beautifully illustrated chapter card. As these immersive chapter cards are revealed one by one, the game takes on the form of a shared storybook experience, with the players making decisions about what to do each chapter before using a combination of dice and item cards to complete challenges.

The goal of the game is for the group to complete every chapter in the 15-card castle deck, and then defeat the final boss. To win, they must keep every member of the team alive – if any player is killed the game ends immediately and all players lose.

Escape the Dark Castle is largely inspired by 80s fantasy classics like the TV programme Knightmare, the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, Dungeons & Dragons, and Heroquest.

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