Dungeon Tryouts: The Party Game of Fantasy Misadventure
Created by Peter Chiykowski
Adventure fantasy meets unhinged all-ages party game! Pitch wannabe heroes for hilarious quests to make your friends laugh and win!
The premise? You run an adventuring agency where you try to find quests for wannabe adventurers.
The problem? The heroes in your roster all have "quirks" that make them hard to hire. They aren't exactly the cream of the crop–and neither are the gigs you have for them.
Dungeon Tryouts is designed for 3-6 players of all ages (or up to 10 players with the Big Jobs Expansion).
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Beta Release + Feedback Form + Launch Party!
about 1 month ago
– Fri, Jun 12, 2026 at 04:47:21 AM
The PDF Beta Is Here!
We did it! After a whole lotta coffee and many research trips into the dungeon, we are thrilled to announce that the Dungeon Tryouts PDF Beta is complete!
We’ll walk you through the details in a moment, but first we want to give a HUGE thank you to artist AC Stuart and graphic designer Zach Schuster for getting us through the final stretch and putting the finishing touches on all the cards in time for launch. This beta doesn't happen without them, and we're honored to be sharing the adventure!
Here’s what we have for you today:
What to expect (when you're expecting betas)
Feedback Form
Accessing the PDFs
Livestream Launch Party!
We Want Your Feedback
A beta is an important part of development where we send out a rough, non-final version of the game to get feedback and fine tune details before heading to print.
This version of the game has not yet received a sensitivity review or professional proofreading, and may contain typos or sensitive material. With that in mind, please reach out through our beta feedback form if you spot any typos, errors, inappropriate jokes, or other issues in the beta.
You will have until July 17 to provide feedback through the beta feedback form.
What's in the Beta
The Dungeon Tryouts Beta will be a digital, non-final version of the main game, and will NOT include expansions.
They will include two print-and-play versions, one with art and one without:
HQ (High Quality)
Artwork included on all cards
360 adventurers, 88 quests
8 cards per page
Eco (Ecologically & Economically Friendly)
Artwork NOT included
400 adventurers & 100 quests *full length of the final game
16 cards per page
A note about the beta:
We’re still figuring out what cards would work best in the main deck versus in expansions, so some beta cards may end up in the expansions when we go to print if the content is a better fit.
How to Access the Beta
The beta will be delivered via BackerKit’s “Digital Download” system to every backer or pre-order customer who pledged for a PDF or physical copy of the main game.
Please note, your survey must be locked and payment confirmed in order to receive PDFs.
Don't forget you can still place a pre-order to receive the PDF beta once your order is locked and processed!
Can't Access the Files?
If you’re having trouble accessing your survey or your files, please reach out through our contact form and we’ll be happy to help troubleshoot the issue.
Ready, Set, Quest!
We will officially release the PDF beta during our livestream today at 2:30 ET. Tune in to help us count down to launch, ask any questions, and see how our heroes fare in a Dungeon Tryouts x Story Engine Mashup
Grab your party hats and help us celebrate our party game's big debut!
Locking surveys + Charging cards for shipping/taxes/extras + Beta PDFs + June 12 livestream
about 1 month ago
– Thu, Jun 04, 2026 at 01:33:50 PM
Let the Adventure Begin!
We have lots of news and a few important deadlines in today’s update! Here's what's coming:
Locking surveys June 6-8 + charging cards for shipping/taxes/post-campaign extras on June 9
Beta PDFs launch on June 12
Livestream release party on June 12
So let's dive in!
Locking Pledges
🔒 We'll begin locking pledges on June 6th, at which point BackerKit will send you a notification and you will have 48 hours to make any final changes to your pledge.
What does this mean for you?
Head to your pledge to make sure your survey is complete, choose any add-ons, and confirm that your payment information is up to date. It is still possible to make changes and add items to your pledge after we charge cards, but you will have to contact us through our contact form to do so.
You can still make changes to your address after surveys are locked as long as it is within the same shipping region. If you need to change your address to a different shipping region, reach out through our contact form and we can coordinate those changes with BackerKit.
Charging Cards
We will be charging cards for post-campaign charges on Tuesday, June 9th. So far, we have only collected payment for the original base pledge and add-ons you committed to during the crowdfunding campaign in July-August of last year.
This round of payments will cover any post-campaign charges that were previewed to you when you completed your reward, including:
shipping charges
taxes (where applicable)
post-campaign add-ons
post-campaign pledge upgrades
If your payment fails, BackerKit will automatically notify you by email and provide instructions for updating your payment information. BackerKit will also periodically re-attempt to charge the provided card that failed.
If you run into any issues with payment, reach out via our contact form and please provide your BackerKit name and email so we can identify you in the system and work on solutions with you.
Open Beta PDFs 🎯
We're so excited to announce that Beta PDFs are coming Friday, June 12th!
We're finally ready to hand the adventure over to all of you, and we can't wait for you to make your first official foray into Dungeon Tryouts.
Who, what, when, where?
Beta files will be distributed to all backers whose pledges include the respective physical decks and/or PDFs, as well as anyone who pre-ordered them following the campaign.
And don't worry! There's still time to get your name on the list if you don't want to miss out on the fun. Just place a pre-order and you'll receive the Betas along with everyone else on June 12th. ⚡️
We’ll have another update the day of the release with more details about the Beta, instructions for accessing the PDFs, and info for troubleshooting any issues.
Get ready to give us your best pitches, make suggestions, and ask any questions you have about the game. It will be a jam-packed celebration you won’t want to miss! 🔥
Update: Big Jobs + Mash-Up + Betas coming soon!
2 months ago
– Thu, May 07, 2026 at 11:19:11 AM
DIGITAL BETAS ARE COMING!
That’s right! We’re on track to release the Dungeon Tryouts beta PDF later this spring, and will have more info as we get closer to the launch. By then we’ll have dotted our i’s, crossed our t’s, and perhaps figured out a way to give this dwarf a long overdue bath for the big day! 🎯
In the meantime, we've got some brand new Quests to tide you over, and they’re bigger than ever!
⚡️ BIG JOBS, BIG ENERGY ⚡️
With the help of our enthusiastic dwarf friend, we dug into our creative mines and unearthed a sneak peek of our Big Jobs Expansion. Designed for up to 10 players, these cards are bigger, badder, and tougher than our regular quests and require heroes to join forces to get the job done.
Whether they're facing down an all-knowing pirate or a bee with a killer sting, you’ll need a multi-adventurer team-up to defeat these formidable foes!
Go ahead and put your heads together, because one of these unruly rascals is a true Russian nesting doll of a villain. 😈
PATH OF THE GIANT CAT 🐾
The cat’s out of the bag. Now we just have to get it back in. Think these three Adventurers are up to the task?
Give us your best pitch for how these Adventurers could join forces to complete the Quest! ⚔️
Don’t forget that you can still add the Big Jobs expansion to your pledge! Just head to your survey and click the "Edit Your Order" button in the top right.
Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Edit Add-ons."
Sometimes we like to mix things up to see what happens - and that's how we invented Story Tryouts! Our mad scientist brains put together a Frankenstein-ian mash-up of Dungeon Tryouts and the Story Engine Deck.
Curious? So were we! Head to social media to see these Adventurers moonlighting as Story Agents. ⚙️⚔️
Update + New Cards + Caption This
4 months ago
– Thu, Mar 19, 2026 at 02:50:17 PM
Hello Fellow Adventurers!
For many Canadians, winter is a quiet season of snow moons and peaceful contemplations. It’s a time to slow down and dream about the warm days to come.
Unfortunately, Canadian Adventurers don’t get to hibernate. Instead of hunkering down under warm blankets, we’ve been hunkering down in our development bunker to plug away at Dungeon Tryouts (and a whole new set of Story Engine Deck Expansions)!
Now that we’ve got a chance to catch our breath, we want to take care of some long overdue business. We’ve got six new Adventurer cards to share that we’ve been desperate to reveal! 🎯
And who are these dashing debutants, you ask?
Look, New Cards!
This trio includes a slick rogue and a crash test dummy who can’t catch a break. Which one of these maladjusted madcaps would you swipe right on? Which one would you introduce to your parents? And which one would you decapitate with a vorpal sword? ⚔️
Now you’re stranded on a desert island with one of these next three elegant eccentrics. What tool would you want to have in your bag of holding? A security earpiece, a never-ending supply of tissues, or a whetstone for sharpening axes? 🤔
Caption This
We've got another piece of art to reveal - but we're not telling you what this one is supposed to be!
Reply in the comments to give us your best guess for this Adventurer!
Don't forget that Dungeon Tryouts is now available for pre-order for anyone that hasn't made a pledge.
Here's why we changed one rule in Dungeon Tryouts
6 months ago
– Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 08:51:17 AM
Making a fun party game isn't always fun and games.
Sure, there's a lot of fun and games. But sometimes you have to take a step back to make sure you're cultivating the right kind of fun and games.
That became more and more apparent the deeper we got into the development of Dungeon Tryouts, and led to a slight tweak at the heart of the game. Keep reading to find out why we changed one of our most important rules!
The Pass/Fail Problem
Early versions of Dungeon Tryouts placed a strong emphasis on success. Can each Adventurer plausibly complete the assignment? We want every card be funny, but we also don't want cards to sit in your hand. That meant that every Adventurer needed enough utility to get pitched for a wide variety of Quests.
Unfortunately, we soon found ourselves cutting a lot of fun, funny, and/or interesting Adventurers for one of three reasons:
The Adventurers were either under or overpowered for most of the Quests.
It was easier to make a funny argument than a credible one.
Their usefulness was a little too narrow and they stayed in your hand until you could match them to one specific Quest.
That led to a couple of design challenges. For one thing, it's more difficult to create 'playable' Adventurers when each one needs to have a high match rate with Quests. For another, it seemed at odds with the core purpose of the game.
Remember, winning is the secondary objective in Dungeon Tryouts. The primary goal is to have fun pitching zany characters. Why would we want to get rid of cards that facilitated that experience?
Pitch Perfect
To solve the problem, we looked at the instructions to see if there was a way to word things in a more open-ended manner.
The original rules read like this:
The quest giver decides which Adventurer gets the Quest and wins the round.
That language is deliberately vague because we didn't want to tell judges what criteria they should use to make their decisions. However, the broad phrasing ended up leading to a default interpretation that was much narrower. Most playtesting groups assumed they were supposed to pick the Adventurer who was most likely to succeed.
You can certainly use success as your primary metric (and some players will). But it's not the only option. As the judge, you're choosing your favorite pitch. Exactly how you determine that should be up to you.
That's why we tweaked the rules to put the emphasis on the pitches rather than the Adventurers. The new text reads more like this:
The quest giver chooses the pitch that impressed them the most (whether through persuasiveness, creativity, or sheer entertainment value).
You now have permission to laugh
The new rule makes it clear that judges are free to use their own criteria, and have permission to choose funny pitches over plausible ones. In doing so, it gives everyone more agency during gameplay. The game rewards players who pitch well instead of players who happened to have the right card.
Players are still free to pitch in whatever manner suits them. There are simply more avenues to victory if you prefer one style over another.
Can you make this Adventurer a relatable underdog? Is your logic undeniable?Can you persuade the judge with an unexpected argument? Can you make a zany plan the judge WANTS to see happen, even if it has low odds of success?
It's all fair game thanks to the update!
Who's Quest is it Anyway?
The other nice thing about the change?
It means you're going to get a wider variety of Adventurers. You'll see more cards that may not have as much obvious utility, but will hopefully inspire you and your friends to make some truly ridiculous and memorable pitches.
You don't have to get into character if you don't want to, but the change should make the pitch process more unique (and more fun) for everyone at the table.
You can see six of the improv-forward Adventurers we greenlit after the change scattered throughout this update. Take a look so you can start practicing your skills for when the game comes out!
