25. Clank!

In this episode, we go searching for dragon treasure while moving very quietly in the board game called Clank!

In Clank!, players take on the role of dungeon explorers, attempting to steal treasure from a dragon who really doesn’t want her treasure stolen. As players move around the dungeon, they’ll unavoidably make noise, and the more noise they make, the more they’ll suffer the wrath of the dragon. (Thus the name of the game, Clank!) Your mission is to escape the dungeon alive, while picking up more treasure than your fellow players.

Clank! makes for intense games, with dramatic story arcs to them. One player might move fast, racing to get an easy-to-reach artifact, then racing to get out of the dungeon, leaving other players scrambling to get out in time. Sometimes all the players will explore cautiously, aiming for the big-point artifacts at the bottom of the dungeon, waiting to see which player turns around first. Some players might not sweat the artifacts, choosing instead to bulk up their points with cards from the dungeon deck—some of which, like the gem cards, are worth big points.