Dwarf Mine: Beyond the Mountain

Dwarf Mine: Beyond the Mountain is the newest free expansion to Dwarf Mine!

In this Dwarf Mine challenge, you will build a rocket capable of lifting your dwarves far beyond the heights of even the highest mountain. You have the chance to lead your Mine into the stars – will you be successful in bringing glory and prestige to your mine?

Please Note: The Barrier Mountains Expansion requires the Dwarf Mine base game to be played.

The Beyond the Mountain Expansion includes:

• 3 new rooms for your Dwarf Mine
• New mechanics unique to this expansion

Design Premise

One of the questions I get asked often about the Dwarf Mine base game is “how do you win?”

The answer is simple – you don’t.

Dwarf Mine is a game that tells the story of your unique mine, how it rises to power, and its eventual demise. It does include a scoring mechanic through prestige – so it can be seen as a high score type of game. However, similar to an RPG or story game, there isn’t a way to “win.”

I received the same question – “how do you win” – so much that I decided to design a separate challenge (similar to the Thirteen Dwarves and a Burglar challenge) exploring the idea of winning Dwarf Mine.

That’s where this idea – Beyond the Mountain – came from.

Why I Used a Rocket

I love science fiction, and I had already explored the idea of blending science fiction with fantasy in the Barrier Mountains expansion for Dwarf Mine. In exploring the design premise, I needed a thematic way for the player to win the game that made sense. It felt a bit wrong for the dwarves to stay in their mine and win somehow – especially with dragons and buried gods lurking around the mine. 

The idea of building a rocket seemed like a perfect fit. It offered a way for the player to advance beyond the mine to somewhere else, offered a clear win condition, and combined my love of science fiction and fantasy.

It also sparked a ton of ideas, and I have a design concept created for the future that I think is pretty fun.

What Do You Think

I’d love to hear what you think about the new Dwarf Mine: Beyond the Mountain challenge! You can check it out using the link below.

Download Dwarf Mine: Beyond the Mountain

Come chat with us in the Dwarf Mine subreddit, and be sure to join our mailing list, where I share updates on game design, and some other goodies and thoughts!

As always, thank you for being fans of games!