I was excited to try Squish! after enjoying the vibe and simplicity of Stravagante, which I played in quasi co-op mode with my daughter.

I abandoned my first Squish! adventure after I realised I was playing some of the rules wrong but more importantly I was playing it like a procedural dungeon crawl game – trying to tactically ‘win’ each prompt rather than going with the characters into the story.

My second adventure was way more enjoyable and here is a brief report.

---

My character, Nibbs, a gremlin with an aura of misfortune, teamed up with Shanette, a boastful Barbarian who is addicted to gambling. Shanette was trapped in the dungeon due to her gambling debts and just wanted to escape… What could go wrong!

We meet up with a Summoner who doesn’t survive an early ambush combat encounter. But we quickly recruit two more Adventurers, a Cleric and a Warrior. Shanette unfortunately does not do well in combat and is quickly outshone by our new companions. She develops a condition of needing to behave recklessly in combat and the new group’s cohesion is tested by her poor decision-making.

However, after a good rest and a couple of good rolls, the team is working together well and finding common ground between their backstories – Shanette wants to connect with her Barbarian roots and Nevilus, our cleric, wants to discover the truth of his noble family.

Just when the team is on a roll - finding keys, clues, food and treasure – things get weird.

We discover that Shanette’s great-Aunt Shandee is also trapped in the dungeon and she might be leading a rebellion against the dungeon ruler, a powerful wizard. The party is afflicted with powerful hallucinations with one adventurer lured away by the delusions. Nibbs, sticks with Shanette and Nevilus as they attempt to free Shandee and overthrow the wizard but Nevilus is unable to withstand the cosmic horrors that lurk within the deep dungeon and becomes cursed.

We face the Dungeon Ruler who is holding Shandee hostage but are unable to rescue her. Shandee sacrifices herself to destroy the dungeon and invokes the Barbarian lineage, telling Shanette she must escape to continue her growth as a Barbarian. We barely make it out alive as the dungeon collapses around us.

Shanette, Nevilus and Nibbs stand in the rubble of the once-formidable dungeon – will they keep adventuring together or is this the end of their partnership?

---

I think I will play through again – perhaps in co-op mode with my daughter. I’d like to try out some of the other adventurer classes and get into spell casting, which didn’t really feature this time.

Towards the end of the adventure, I must confess I did skip a few prompts that seemed like a distraction for my story but I took that as a good sign I was invested in my characters. Interestingly I found myself identifying Shandee the barbarian as the ‘main character’ with Nibbs more following along for the ride. Something to consider for next time!