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I was playing the new release of Dungeon! by wotc with about 6 young players. Looking at the cards, I noticed that its nearly impossible for the Rogue to ever win.
What is the best way to give the rogue a fighting chance? Should we reduce the amount of loot required to 5,000 or 8,000? Or should we perhaps give the rogue a "sneak attack" +1 to all dice rolls (on top of the magic sword)
I would agree that the Rogue is the weakest class, although I don't have hard data to back that up. The reasoning is simple: she needs the same treasure count as the cleric, but is weaker in combat. Their special power to pass secret doors is a very poor compensation, not least because it's unreliable, and is easily copied with a secret door card.
The easiest adjustment is to change the amount of treasure required to win, but I have little idea what an appropriate target would be. Instead, you might consider adjusting the Rogue's special power:
Personally, I find it more fun just not to use the Rogue. Four is a sensible number for a good game of Dungeon, and two clerics and two warriors offers good balance, simple rules (no special powers) and plenty of competition without too many players hunting in the same levels.
We've gone through a few sessions of this now, having just gotten the game for my daughter's birthday (full disclosure: I'm a "real" D&D player going back 30+ years now). We've not played enough iterations to really decide if one class is wholly underpowered, though so far we are tending to think it is the rogue. We have already made one house rule change involving them, and will likely make one more. First, the idea that you are supposed to honestly remember all of the secret doors is a little tough for us, so we have already decided that you must roll each time you try to cross a secret door, unless forced through one because of combat. We are also toying with the idea of making the secret doors card move regular players to rogue level and rogues are the only ones who get auto-find. This would help balance those pesky cards a little bit. The second change we are considering in the rogue area is to add a sneak ability. If a rogue enters a room or chamber with a monster and there is a door or passage on the other side, the rogue can sneak through and move past if they roll a 4+. If not, they must fight. This would improve their mobility a LOT and might compensate for their very weak combat some. Imagine this - they see a stronger character go down in a deeper level, and zip over there to attempt to claim the loot.
As an aside, I'm also liking the suggestion made to allow rogues to double wield swords. In the games we've played so far, rogues have a pretty hard time of it if anyone else decides to raid those level 1 rooms, and they definitely are in trouble going any deeper than level 1 without a magic sword. Given that they would already have a hard time trying to GET two swords, this doesn't seem like a common occurrence for them.
House rule that Rogue can use two swords changes it 100%. If you roll poorly on both swords that's +1, and +1. If you have amazing luck and roll +2 and +2 on both swords it can go to level 4 & 5. My reasoning behind it is that Rogues normally can gain duel wield ability in classic games.
Check out Dungeon Master Pastor website. My family has been using a version of his house rules and it’s been a lot of fun. In particular if you are struggling to find rogue fun. We don’t use loot swap but still work great. I posted other enhancements my family uses that we like and makes for a more forgiving game for kids.
I don't know why you say the Rogue can never win. How many times have you played Dungeon?
You might be interested in the variants posted on Board Game Geek, such as Class powers, Chambers, and so on:
