Tyrants of the Underdark

Tyrants of the Underdark is a competitive board game in which you play as a drow house recruiting monsters, cultists and demons to aid you in controlling locations such as Menzoberranzan and Blingdenstone.

Gameplay
Each player leads a house of Drow in a section of the Underdark below the Sword Coast. The Drow house is represented by a deck of cards, with each card being a minion in that player's deck. Each minion belongs to one of five aspects of Drow society, and those aspects correspond to different strategies in the game, e.g., malice minions excel at assassinating opponents' troops, while ambition minions are best at recruiting additional minions and promoting minions to your "inner circle", which is a special zone that increases their value at the end of the game.

When you set up the game, you create an 80-card deck by shuffling two 40-card half-decks together, with the half-decks being Drow, Dragons, Demons, and Elemental Evil.

A central marketplace has new minions that can be recruited through influence, one of two resources in the game; purchased cards are placed in your discard pile, then shuffled together with other cards in your deck when needed. The other resource is power, which allows you to place troops on the game board, expand your forces across the map of the Underdark, manipulate happenings in the city, and assassinate enemy troops.

Players gain points by controlling sites, recruiting valuable minions, promoting minions to your inner circle, and assassinating troops, and whoever ends the game with the most points wins.

Expansions
Released in 2017, the Tyrants of the Underdark: Aberrations and Undead expansion contains an additional 80 cards. It was published by Gale Force Nine and designed by Sean Goodison.

Index

 * Locations:
 * Buildings & Structures:Chasmleap Bridge
 * Realms: Ch’Chitl • Gauntlgrym
 * Ruins: Ammarindar • Chaulssin • Dekanter • Eryndlyn • Jhachalkhyn • Kanaglym
 * Settlements: Blingdenstone • Buiyrandyn • Ched Nasad • Gracklstugh • Menzoberranzan • Llacerellyn • Skullport • Ss'zuraass'nee • Tsenviilyq • Yathchol
 * Wilderness: Araumycos • Buried Realms • Everfire • Labyrinth • Mantol-Derith • Wormwrithings

Game Credits

 * Game Design: Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson, Andrew Veen
 * Game Development: Yoni Skolnik (lead), Mons Johnson, Peter Lee
 * Additional Playtesting: Jeffrey Bates, Bart Carroll, Nik Davidson, Melissa DeTora, Ian Duke, Chris Dupuis, John Feil, Demitrios Feredinos, Ethan Fleischer, Aaron Forsythe, Dan Gelon, Mark Globus, James Hata, Ben Hayes, Dan Helland, Charlie Helman, Graeme Hopkins, Cate Horne, Cory Howell, Dave Humpherys, Kate Irwin, Reid Johnson, Glenn Jones, Trevor Kidd, Scott Larrabee, Adam Lee, Jackie Lee, Chris Lindsay, Shawn Main, Dave Marsee, Bill McQuillan, Mike Mearls, Alli Medwin, Andrew Miotke, Lynwood Montgomery, Shauna Narciso, Tom Olsen, Steve Pelikan, Marc Peterson, Ben Petrisor, Adam Prosak, Jules Robins, Bill Rose, Hilary Ross, Robert Schuster, James Sooy, Ryan Spain, Matt Tabak, Greg Tito, Chris Tulach, Mike Turian, Scott Van Essen, Gavin Verhey, Matt Wolff, James Wyatt, Chris Youngs
 * Writing: Adam Lee, Ben Petrisor, Matt Sernett
 * Editing: Bill McQuillan
 * Design Manager: Chris Youngs
 * Senior Manager: Mike Mearls
 * Business Team: Nathan Stewart, Liz Schuh, Greg Bilsland, John Feil, Hilary Ross, Greg Tito, Trevor Kidd, Shauna Narciso, Kate Irwin, Emi Tanji, Shelly Mazzanoble, Chris Dupuis
 * Artwork: Rob Alexander, Alexey Aparin, Daren Bader, John-Paul Balmet, Eric Belisle, Sam Burley, Carlos Nunez de Castro Torres, Milivoj Ćeran, Conceptopolis, Julie Dillon, Olga Drebas, Jesper Ejsing, Empty Room Studio, Wayne England, Jason Engle, Emily Fiegenschuh, Lars Grant-West, Brian Hagan, Todd Harris, Ilich Henriquez, Ralph Horsley, Tyler Jacobson, Tomasz Jedruszek, Jason Juta, McLean Kendree, Vance Kovacs, Guido Kuip, Howard Lyon, Damien M, Slawomir Maniak, Jake Masbruch, Marcel Mercado, Marco Nelor, Jim Nelson, William O’Connor, Hector Ortiz, Ryan Pancoast, Adam Paquette, Klaus Pillon, Claudio Pozas, Aaron J. Riley, Marc Sasso, Craig J Spearing, Raymond Swanland, Arnie Swekel, Bryan Syme, Matias Tapia, Stephen Tappin, Francis Tsai, Tyler Walpole, Richard Whitters, Eva Widermann, Ben Wootten, Kieran Yanner, James Zhang
 * GALE FORCE NINE:
 * Creative Director: John-Paul Brisigotti
 * Graphic Design: Sean Goodison
 * Cover Illustration: Steve Ellis
 * Game Board Illustration: Katie Dillon