Iron Helm is a solo-play dungeon crawler, designed by Jason Glover at Grey Gnome Games. You play as a hero in search of one last major score before finally hanging up the sword and retiring. It is massively fun to play and is a difficult challenge — I've won very few games and lost many. You can learn about or buy Jason's game right here.
The goal of this article is to provide simple modifications to make this a multiplayer cooperative game. I stuck as faithfully as I could to the original rules, mechanics and balance.
I have tested this with two players. Let me know if you try it — I would love to hear how it goes!
Fundamentals
Each player gets their own character, manages their own gold and equipment, and faces their own encounters, BUT they act as one team delving into the dungeon. They may trade or share items or gold between turns but not during combat.
Before you play, select a difficulty:
- Hardcore: if one player dies, the entire party loses.
- Difficult: if one player dies, they are eliminated, but the other players may keep going.
- Moderate: if one player dies, other players may heal them by immediately giving them potions or food. The party only loses if all players die (i.e. nobody left to heal you).
Before you play, decide if you will be facing multiple bosses or one super boss.
Dungeon Cards
The players explore the dungeon together, selecting one Dungeon Card as normal. All must agree on the selection.
For Ambush and Skirmish, draw one enemy for each player (see "Combat" below).
For Clearing, draw only one plot card and read aloud to all players. Players must agree upon and select one path and are each impacted the same way. Ten eye symbols still trigger the end of the game.
All the other Dungeon Cards work as normal. Each player interacts with these individually.
Combat
Monsters
Each player faces their own monster. Your monster only attacks you and you may only attack your monster. However, if you dispatch yours and other players are still fighting, you may engage with a different monster to help your buddy. Keep fighting until all the monsters are dead.
Bosses
Before you play, decide if you will be facing multiple Bosses or one super hard Boss.
- Multi Boss: draw one Boss per player and run exactly like the Monster Combats above.
- Super Boss: multiply the Boss' hit points by the number of players. Each turn of combat, the Boss attacks each player.