Designed & Written by Mark S. Ball
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GAME OBJECTIVE  
Destroy all of the dungeon monsters to win the game
PLAYERS 
1 Player
MATERIALS
54 card deck (Ace - King, two Jokers)

INTRODUCTION 

In Clear the Dungeon, you are a monster exterminator hired by the King to rid his castle of pesky beasts.  As you tread through the dark and dingy dungeon cells, monsters will appear.  Beat them down with a powerful attack and wipe them out using their weakness against them.  Exterminate the monsters before running out of power or getting hit five times and victory will be yours.

MATERIALS

Clear the Dungeon requires a fifty-four card deck: aces up through kings in four suits as well as two jokers.

SETUP 

Separate all of the face cards (J’s, Q’s, & K’s) and jokers from the deck.  These fourteen cards are used to form the dungeon monster deck.  The rest of the cards (A-10) make up your power deck.  

Create the following layout to form the dungeon.  Each [X] represents a card that is face down.  Each row of cards should partially overlap the row above it.

[X]

[X] [X]

[X] [X] [X]   

[X] [X]

[X]

[X] [X]

[X] [X] [X]

Shuffle the power deck and place it to the right of the dungeon.  Before beginning the game, reveal the bottom three monster cards.  These are the first monsters you must defeat.

PLAY

Each turn has three phases: draw, attack, & discard.

DRAW
Draw three cards from the power deck.  These three cards make up your hand.  Each card will have to be played or discarded before drawing again.

ATTACK
Each monster type has a different power level: jacks  11, queens 12, and kings 13.  Decide how you want to play your cards.  Place them on the monsters you wish to attack.  Three cards must be used to defeat a dungeon monster.  Added together, the first two cards must be equal to or more than the monster’s power level.  Suit does not matter.   The third card is used to finish the attack, and it must match the monster’s suit.  Rank does not matter. A monster is immediately defeated once the third card is played.  Remove the defeated monster with the attack cards and place them in your clear pile.  Once a facedown monster card is completely uncovered, it may be revealed.  Be sure to reveal uncovered cards immediately. For example, if you are attacking a jack of hearts, your first two attack cards must add up to 11 or more.  In order to defeat the monster, your third attack card must be a heart of any rank.  Once the heart card is played, the monster is defeated.

HIT ROW
If you have played all three cards from your hand, immediately draw three more cards and continue.  If you have one or more cards left in your hand that cannot be played (or that you do not want to play), they must be discarded and counted as hit damage against your life.  Place these cards in a row to the right of your power deck.  The game ends immediately after you take your fifth hit. 

 ITEM CARDS
As you progress through the dungeon, item cards will be revealed.  Jokers are worth a power of 10, and they may be any suit needed.  Add the joker to your hand as soon as it is revealed.  Each king becomes an item once you have defeated it.  Place these defeated cards in your inventory row located under your power deck.  The K♥ allows you to place one card from your hand at the bottom of your power deck.  The K♦ allows you to look at the bottom card of your power deck and move it to the top if you wish.  The K♠ allows you to double the value of an attack card.  The K♣ allows you to immediately draw a card from the power deck.  Once a king item card has been used, it is immediately discarded with the rest of the destroyed monsters.

WIN

If you defeat all of the monsters before getting hit five times, you win the game.

Clear the Dungeon  v1.2.0 | Last Updated 1/7/20224 | Originally Published 7/30/2022
Printable rules doc that includes version 1.1 and 1.2