How To Host A Dungeon 2nd Edition

In late 2019 or early 2020 Tony Dowler released a Second Edition of How To Host A Dungeon. I'm not sure if there's a free version available, so I'll only discuss the differences in abstract terms.

The Primordial Age is greatly improved. There are many more things that can appear on the map, and the map space is divided up differently, so you end up with about twice as many terrain features on the map in this edition. This sets up the whole game to be a little more exciting and varied.

The Age of Civilization is also much improved. There are more Civilizations to choose from, and each has more choices and options during creation. The Age of Civilization is more exciting, less tedious, and feels more like a game now. No longer do any two Dwarven Civilizations follow the same roadmap. They're more likely to feature different rooms and layouts, and there are now three very distinctly different ways that the Dwarven Civilization can end. Not just by "Delving Too Deep", but alternately by "Industrial Accident" or "Great War", which have their own specific effects on the map.

The Age of Monsters is... well, it's different. Each monster group now has a customized card with instructions on how they take their turns. This keeps you from having to refer back to the rulebook as often, and allows different Monster Groups to have more variety and distinction, so that's really cool. Another fun feature of this edition is that the Monster Group cards make for an easy tool for determining "Initiative" or the order in which Groups activate each turn. You shuffle up your hand of cards each turn, to mix up the activation order and make things a little less predictable. They can also work as a bookmark of sorts to help you remember where you were if you got interrupted mid-game. It's possible however that some of the Group cards still need some refining, as there were a number of rough edges that could use a little polish. Thankfully, just as with 1st Edition, the rules still suggest you customize the game with your own content, so any Monster Group Cards that seem a little buggy can easily be removed from the deck or house-ruled. I would expect to see a fair amount of that sort of content here on the wiki before too long.

The Age of Villains is also newly revised. It was pared down to just two Villain types: The Empire and The Horde. Again, I expect there to be more options on the Wiki before long, but in the meantime The Empire seems to have more going on.

So overall, the early game is significantly better, which has positive ripple effects throughout the later stages of the the game as well. While the end game is probably not as significantly improved as the first half, but it is new and different, and has a lot of room for customization. Hopefully this new edition will renew interest in the game for people who've already played a lot. This wiki contributor has played one full game of the new edition, and thinks it's pretty great.