The Kingdom needs you. They really are that desperate. Monsters are running wild. The guards are taking a nap, and the people are in trouble. Luckily you and your fellow heroes wandered into the kingdom and you are the only thing that can save the kingdom. While you may help the people for honor or glory, what you really want is loot. And there is a lot of it available in this kingdom.
What Is Lord of Loot?
Lord of Loot is a cooperative fantasy exploration game for 1-5 players, ages 10 and up, and takes about 60-90 minutes to play. It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a pledge level of $45 for a copy of the base game. $65 will add a fifth player and a new character to the base game. The All-In Deluxe Pledge includes the base game, the fifth character, an expansion deck, painted miniatures, a dice tower, two new endbosses, and frosted dice–all for $79. The campaign ends Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 11:59 PM PST.
Lord of Loot was designed by Philipp K. Berger and published by PKB Games.
New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.
Lord of Loot Components
Note: My review is based on a prototype copy, so it is subject to change and may not reflect final component quality.
- 1 Game board
- 5 Character miniatures
- 5 Character mats
- 30+ Monster and quest standees
- 24 Land tiles
- 3 Cloth bags
- 1 12-sided die
- 12 6-sided dice in three colors
- 30+ Wooden hearts
- 12 Monster cards
- 5 Player aid cards
- Assorted tokens
- 1 Rule Book
Lord of Loot includes character miniatures. Aurenna the Witch, Wompy, the…creature, Branok the Druid, and Sir Aldric the unyielding Knight are included in the base game. Ashlyn, the Wrymkin is added at the fifth character in the two high pledges.
The character mats are double layered so that there are indentations to create slots for weapons, spells, and items as well as the hearts for stamina and health.
The gameboard consists of a map with many locations connected by roads and trails. There are three permanent locations that are always in the same places: the castle, the tavern, and the blacksmith. The other locations are blank to begin with until the heroes explore them.
As heroes explore the map on the game board, they draw random land tiles and create the map as they go. Each land tile has an icon at the bottom which either lets players get items, weapons, or spells or they can run into a monster lair which spawns a monster when explored.
Lord of Loot features three cloth bags where various things the Heroes will need are stored. Items are kept in the red bag, spells in the yellow bag, and weapons in the black bag.
All of the monsters are represented by standees. Monsters have a number on them that represents their level and the number of dice they roll during an attack.
In addition to the monsters, there are also bosses and their quest items that are standees. During a regular game, you will face off against two of the seven available bosses.
When it is the monster’s turn, draw a monster card from the monster deck and do what it says. Each monster card is different. They often move monsters or bosses one to two spaces and then attack a hero if they end up in the same space. Bosses may drop items in their locations and monster cards can also spawn monsters as well as move the daytime marker.
The game comes with several types of dice. The red dice are used by heroes for attacking while the blue dice are their defense. Monsters roll the purple dice which can both attack and defend. Finally, the 12-sided die is used when spawning a monster. The number and color represent the type and level of the monster to be spawned.
Each player gets a player aid card for their character. They list anything unique about that character as well as all of the actions players can take during their turn.
How to Play Lord of Loot
You can download a copy of the rulebook here. There is also a How to Play video with Becca Scott at this site.
The Goal
The goal of the game is for the players to defeat all of the bosses before they run out of monster cards or Heroes get knocked out more than two times.
Setup
Start off by placing the game board in the center of the play area. Shuffle the stack of land tiles and place them face down near the game board. Put all of the spells in the yellow bag, items in the red bag, and weapons in the black bag. Take a number of brown monster cards depending on the number of players and shuffle them into a face down deck. Leaving a space for discards, take a number of random red monster cards depending on player count and place them face up near the monster card deck. Place all of the monsters on standees near the board along with all of the dice.
Now each player chooses a character and takes the character mat, player aid card, miniature. Place three wooden hearts on the gold stamina heart spaces and three hearts on the red health spaces. The druid gets four of each. Next place a number of guards equal to the player count on the map in any of the spaces with daytime symbols. Place the character minis all in the castle space and the circular daytime maker on the left daytime symbol on the game board. Finally, choose two bosses and place their standees and all quest standees and tokens on the game board following the instructions for bosses in the rule book. You are now ready to start the game with the youngest player going first.
Gameplay
Lord of Loot is played in turns of two phases: a Hero phase and a Monster Phase. For 1-3 player games, there is one Hero phase followed by Monster phase while it 4-5 player games, there are two Hero phases followed by one Monster Phase. Let’s take a look at what occurs during each phase.
At the start of the Hero phase, the active player becomes hungry and must eat by removing one of their green food tokens from their backpack or the lose a heart. When losing a heart, players always remove the left most heart token beginning with stamina and when that is used up, remove health hearts. If a player is located at the castle, blacksmith, or tavern at the start of their turn, food is provided for them and they do not need to use a green token.
Now the active player can take up to four actions. There are six different actions and they can perform the same action multiple times. First then can choose to move to an adjacent space or field connected by a road or trail. If the field they are located on is undiscovered, they can use an action to explore the field and draw a land tile from the stack and place it on their field. The symbol on the field activates immediately. If a field already has a land tile on it, the player may use an action to exploit the field and activate the symbol. These symbols usually cause the player to draw from one of the three bags. A fourth action is to collect any item tokens on the field and place them in your backpack. These are usually left behind by bosses. If a player is in the same field as another player’s character, they can use an action to trade weapons or items. Both players must agree to trade. Finally, a player can choose to fight a boss or monster in their field.
In addition to the six main actions, players may also do free activities during the Hero phase of their turn or another player’s turn. These activities include casting a spell by paying the cost and reaping the reward, using an item from their backpack, discarding an item, spell, or weapon either back to a matching bag or to the game box.
During the Monster phase, the active player draws a card from the monster deck and resolves the actions on it. There are three boss actions which include moving one field towards the closest hero and attacking, moving up to two fields to attack a player, moving, dropping two items, and then attacking. Other actions include moving a non-boss monster one field and then attacking, spawning a new monster, or proceeding the daytime marker one space clockwise.
When a player attacks a monster or boss, or the monster or boss attacks a player, combat begins. To resolve combat, the player takes a number of red attack dice equal to their current weapon (or one if they have no weapon equipped), a number of blue defensive dice, equal to their shield value, and a number of purple dice equal to the level of the monster or boss. All dice are rolled together. Purple shields will block red swords for the monsters while blue shields will block purple swords. Any unblocked swords inflict one damage each. Players lose a heart for each damage while monsters lose one health for each. If the number of hits to a monster equal or exceed their level, they are eliminated and the player collects the items or weapons from the bags as shown on the monster’s symbols. Also, if the defeated monster is a level 2 monster, the player advances to level 2 and can use steel weapons instead of only wooden weapons. Defeating a level three monster levels up a character to level 3 and allows them to use gold weapons as well. Otherwise, place red wound makers on the monster or boss standee to show how many hits they have taken. If a hero ever loses all of their hearts, remove the miniature from the gameboard and all of the items, weapons, and spells from the game. The player can then start off with a new hero of their choice at level 1 at the castle with no equipment. Add a gravestone marker to the map by the castle.
Game End
The game ends in a victory when players have defeated the two bosses. Before you can damage a boss, the players must first complete their quests as listed in the rule book. These quests can consist of collecting items and delivering them or defeating other monsters. The players lose if a hero is defeated and two other heroes have already been defeated as represented by the two gravestone markers by the castle. The players also lose if when a monster card is to be drawn, there are no more in the draw deck.
Why You Should Play Lord of Loot
Lord of Loot is a game with a fun theme. Unlike many fantasy games, it does not take itself seriously. The monsters are kind of silly rather than scary, the guards that are supposed to be guarding the kingdom can be defeated to take their weapons, and there is lots and lots of loot available for the players to collect. Now just because this game has a fun theme, don’t expect it to be easy. It can actually be tough to win. The heroes start out with nothing. They can only roll one attack die and most don’t start with a shield so have no attack dice. The monster cards not only dictate what the bosses and monsters do, they also serve as a timer. Some of the quests are fairly involved, so you need to start working on those as soon as possible while also exploring the fields and collecting weapons, items, and spells. Going after the guards is a great way to start so you can add some weapons. Also be sure to collect items for food and bonuses as well as for ingredients for casting spells. The tough part is that until you defeat a level 2 or 3 monster, you can only use wooden weapons and when you draw from the black bag of weapons, you may draw steel or gold weapons instead and are not able to use them.
The monsters and bosses will move towards you to attack. Early in the game this can be tough since you don’t have a lot of attack or defense dice to roll. However, as you collect weapons and items that can give you bonuses during combat, go after those higher level monsters so you can level up and get better weapons. As you work at completing your quests, you will need to explore fields as well as exploit them so you can get items to eat or use to cast spells. Once you have completed the quest for a boss, you can then attack it and cause damage. Bosses are level 4 so get to roll 4 dice during an attack. This can be damaging early on. However, if you take damage from a monster or boss and don’t defeat it, you can either leave it in the field with you or send it back to its spawn point or home base respectively, giving your hero some time to progress on their quests rather than just being attacked over and over again.
In many fantasy games, weapons, spells, and items can be tough to obtain. However, Lord of Loot lives up to its name. There is loot everywhere. Not only can you obtain it from defeating monsters, you can find it exploring as well as exploiting fields you have already explored and placed a land tile on. There is so much loot that you will actually have a hard time holding on to it all since your backpack has a limited amount of space. Furthermore, every character can have spells. Each spell requires specific items that are used to get some type of result. Spells can provide needed items, let you make extra moves, and even add to your attacks and defense. The nice thing about spells is that they do not require an action to cast them. They are free activities. Therefore, there is a strategy of when to use spells to get the desired result and give your character an advantage or bonus.
I really enjoyed playing Lord of Loot. Though it was only the prototype, it seemed almost like a finished product. I have reviewed other games by Philipp K. Berger and have always been impressed with the quality of the components as well as the design of the game. Lord of Loot is no exception. The art on the game board, standees, tokens, and character mats looks great. I also like that Berger’s games have a unique feel as compared to other games of similar genres. While it may seem similar at first to other fantasy games, Lord of Loot has its own twist that offers a fresh take on the familiar. Plus each character and boss has a back story which adds to the theme. I also like how easy the game is to setup and play. Since all of the item token are already in bags and the characters start with only hearts on their character mats, you can be playing within about 5 minutes of opening the box once you have played it once or twice. The rules are also relatively simple and easy to teach, especially if one player already has some playing experience with the game. However, don’t be fooled by the ease of learning the game. Lord of Loot can be a tough game to win and it will usually take players a few games to develop a strategy of cooperation. Plus with seven different bosses (two more are included in the All-In Deluxe Pledge), each game can be different. I found one of the biggest challenges is trying to win the game before the monster cards run out and taking advantage of free activities can help make a difference as well as focusing on completing the boss quests. Though I have only had a chance to play a few games, including one solo game which was fun as well, I am impressed with the game and recommend it for those who enjoy fantasy-themed games but wish they could get a lot more loot during a game. It is also good for playing as a family with children as well as with adult game groups.
For more information or to make a pledge, visit the Lord of Loot Kickstarter page! The campaign ends Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 11:59 PM PST, so act quickly.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
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