If you asked me whether board games are a good fit for Doom, I'd probably scratch my head a little, stroke my chin thoughtfully, and settle on "hmm." No matter whether it's the original 1993 shooter or the latest grungy installment, The Dark Ages, the franchise is known for one thing: speed. Well, that and gore. And demons, of course.
Anyway, the point is this: I was unsure of how well Doom would translate to board games at first, because that sense of frantic momentum is pretty difficult to represent on tabletop. That's why I eyed the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages Arena (hitting Kickstarter in the not-so-distant future from designers Resurrectionist Games and publisher Modiphius with wariness – until I talked to developer Ben Maunder about the project, that is. Besides namechecking an already fast-paced wargame I'm very fond of (Warhammer: Underworlds) as an inspiration, he tells me that "speed, violence, and escalation" were key to its design. More specifically, he says that the elevator pitch is "heavy metal chess." If I wasn't in before, I sure as hell am now.
Ahead of Doom: The Dark Ages Arena being available to try at Gen Con 2025 (a show dedicated to the best board games), I was able to pick Maunder's brain over email about what makes the upcoming game tick. I'll admit that I had my doubts before, but now? I'm in. Bring me the demons.
Rather than one, singular game, Doom: Arena has been divided into a couple of versions - one based on the original video game and another inspired by Doom: The Dark Ages. Both will use the same core rules but feature different foes.
GamesRadar: It feels as though Doom is one of those crown-jewel IPs to adapt. How are you and the team feeling now the game's finally out in the open, and what was it like to embark on this project?
Ben Maunder: Moderately terrified! Doom is a huge property and a really important one to me – the sheer number of deadlines I made just because I was listening to DOOM 2016’s soundtrack on repeat is unreal! Doom is a part of videogame history, and anything linked to it has a lot of eyes on. My only hope is that everyone else has the amount of fun with it that we had making it. We’ve still got a journey ahead of us, and I’m really looking forward to every step of it.
GR: If you had to describe this game in one word, what would it be?
BM: Metal.
GR: Can you give me a quick rundown of how this game will work?
BM: Doom: The Dark Ages Arena is a game about three things: Speed, Violence and Escalation. I really wanted to nail the feeling Doom gives you of one (very angry) man against all of hell itself, so rather than worry about any other style of play – I went completely competitive. One player gets to pick up a Super Shotgun and the other to command the legions of Hell, take to the board and take it in turns to use every weapon at their disposal to spill as much blood as possible. One of the core mentalities I had when building the game was the same way I described it to everyone who asked, "heavy metal chess." Each turn you push your models around the board, hunting down the best angles to tear through your foes – play fast, play violent and the game will reward you. It does that through our Tempo system, which unlocks new abilities for use as long as you’re making sure that you deal damage every single turn.
This is far from the only Doom tie-in available right now. One of my favorites is the Doom floppy disk pin for $24.99 at Merchoid, alongside the replica Dark Ages helmet for $175 at Bethesda (of course). It's not the first Doom board game either, because one from Fantasy Flight is available for $89.99 at Amazon - but Arena sounds like a different approach because it puts you in the shoes of the Doom Slayer rather than generic marines.
GR: If you had to compare Doom: The Dark Ages Arena to something else in terms of mechanics or feel, what would it be?
BM: So I played through a lot of games when pulling my inspiration together for Doom but the core inspirations were Adrenaline, Warhammer Underworlds and Kingdom Death. Like the Modiphius team, every game we make we try to make as true to Itself [as possible], rather than make a conglomerate of lots of different games – but I suppose the main game it’s like is Doom!
GR: Roughly how far along is this project?
BM: If I speak too loudly I know Jamie (the Project Manager) will arrive and yell at me for spilling all the beans! What I can say is that the Core Rules and moment to moment gameplay is done, and that the main thing now is playing and tweaking and playing and tweaking and so on and so on. The bigger the Kickstarter grows though, the more Demonic toys I get to put together... so maybe I’m nowhere as done as I’m thinking.
GR: How are you hoping to capture the distinct feel of Doom for this tabletop experience?
BM: For me, so much of Doom is its rhythm, that moment to moment play where you move from one unspeakable violent (and awesome) act to the next. That is what I wanted to implant in the board game – turns play fast, they are punchy, and they are always driven by "how can I deal the most damage in the shortest amount of time?"
GR: Why are there going to be two different versions of this game, and what opportunities did this give you?
BM: Size is the honest answer. Doom is a big franchise with a lot of moving parts and if we tried to put every demon, weapon, and pulse pounding moment of play into one board game, well it would be more unwieldy than a chaingun. So we split the game down the middle, not so much into two different games, but two versions of the same game. Doom: Arena is Doom: Arena, regardless of flavor (Classic or Dark Ages), all that differs is the models you get to play with. Splitting like that really allows us to pull the main focuses of the games to the forefront. Classic has a lot of weapon variety, and is all about the Demons keeping pressure on Doomguy, whereas Dark Ages has a much closer range to it, with the Doom Slayer hurling himself down the demons’ throats and them trying their best to chew through him as fast as possible.
GR: What are you most looking forward to fans seeing in the game when they get an early look at Gen Con?
BM: All of it honestly! The game looks gorgeous, the team has done an amazing job. I’m looking forward to people getting their hands on the game, and really seeing what parts of it leap out to them. But if I had to pick one thing? It’s the Tempo system, I’m hoping it keeps people moving, keeps them always gunning for the next big move.
GR: Can you give me any examples of your own memorable moments when testing the game during development?
BM: There are a lot, our playtest team at Resurrectionist Games is fantastic and I have seen some beautiful moments come through really organically. However, my favourite one was watching one player repeatedly use the Bouncy rule on the Cacodemon to beat the Doomguy to a pulp; like a big meatball shaped baseball bat.
GR: Who do you prefer to play as – the Doom Slayer or demon hordes, and why?
BM: Honestly both. They both play uniquely and I enjoy switching up a lot. There is beautiful simplicity to the Doom Slayer, charging around the board Ripping and Tearing as I go, watching the Demon player try and work out the best way of slowing me down. Whereas I love the chess-like gameplay of the Demons, knowing how to position my horde to best keep the pressure on, when to use each Demon for maximum carnage, it’s a hell of a feeling. [Ed's note: Pun very much intended, I presume]
GR: Is there anything you've had to drop along the way that you had your heart set on, or anything you've added that you didn't expect but now enriches the experience?
BM: Originally, every Doom Slayer variant had the 'Glory Kill' ability, but in one meeting with ID we made the call to keep that ability off of Doomguy – as it just wasn’t a thing in the original game. I really enjoyed the Glory Kill mechanic and immediately was a bit "oh no," but, from that came a lot of innovation in how to keep the same mentality the rule embodied, but make it unique for each variant. And I love how it turned out.
GR: To finish, do you have any tips for those who'll be trying the game in the not-so-distant future?
BM: Play fast, play violent, play Doom.
For more tabletop goodness, why not check out the best adult board games or the best tabletop RPGs?
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