Guild of Dungeoneering: an RPG where you play as the difficulty curve

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The classes in Guild of Dungeoneering are pretty weird: there's the Cat Burglar, for example, who talks about lobbing kitties at her foes, and there's the Shapeshifter, who longs to be able to transform into a bag of silver coins. But far weirder is the role that the player is truly lumbered with for much of the adventure. I've been playing Guild of Dungeoneering on and off for a week, and I've only recently spotted it: this is an RPG where you play as the game balancing.
It's a touch more confusing than that. In combat, sure, it's all pretty traditional stuff. When your dungeoneer encounters a monster, it's card-battling time, your deck against their deck. It's pleasantly busy, with each class having their own particular tricks to play in battle, and a range of complicating factors to think about. Alongside physical attacks, for example, you can land magic attacks. Then there are blocks for both physical and magical attacks, lightning strikes, and unblockable moves. This is still just the most basic layer of the fun. Pretty soon, you're juggling cards that allow you to regain health if your attack is successful, and you're stopping off at fountains that may allow you to see your enemy's hand or limit you to a certain number of cards. Throughout all of this, though, the focus on tempo remains central to proceedings: if you can't do any damage yourself, you should at least be encouraging your foe to waste their turn too.
Beyond the battling, though, Guild of Dungeoneering is a much stranger beast. Outside of fights, you relinquish direct control of your dungeoneer. Instead, you play as the dungeon, choosing from the cards you're regularly dealt to lay down rooms, and then populating them with monsters and filling them with loot. Each dungeon is a one-shot affair, generally with a gimmick, such as a boss you will have to defeat after a turn counter has ticked down, or a tile you have to reach, and it's your job to tempt your dungeoneer in the right direction in both the way you build your dungeon and the treats you throw into its chambers.
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