In Dungeon Lords, you are an evil dungeon lord trying to build the best dungeon out there. You hire monsters, build rooms, buy traps and beat the do-gooders who wish to bring you down.

Have you ever ventured with party of heroes to tame dungeons, gain pride, experiences and of course rich treasure? And has it ever occurred to you how hard it is to build and manage such underground complex filled with corridors and creatures? No? Well now you can try for yourself. Put yourself in the role of the master of underground, summon your servants, dig complex of tunnels and rooms, set traps, hire creatures and try to stop filthy heroes from conquering and plundering your precious creation. We can guarantee you will look at dark corners, lairs and their inhabitant from completely different perspective!

Every turn, players use a hand of cards to choose where to place their worker. Actions will vary from mining gold, hiring monsters, buying traps etc. Each action has three spots free- with each spot having different effects (e.g. mining gold lets you mine more gold in each spot).
When using the cards, two cards will become locked and cannot be used next turn.

There are 4 turns to place actions for every game "year" and two game years in a whole game.
Turns are identified as a "season". Each season, players will get to see the heroes and events to come the following season. Thus allowing them time to prepare.

At the end of each season (after the first), heroes will be divided among each player according to their level of evil. Heroes will range from mighty heroes to sneaky thieves. Each hero has their own power which the player needs to prepare for.
Finally, at the end of every year, the heroes will travel down into the dungeon to fight.

Scoring in the game is based upon what you have made, the monsters you have hired and the heroes you have captured.