Dungeon of Chance Complete Series

Serious Probabilities #1–3 omnibus

by Jonathan Brooks

Contains all 3 books in the Serious Probabilities

Dungeon of Even Odds
Dungeon of Double or Nothing
Dungeon of All-In

In a dangerous world dictated by probabilities, Clay falls well outside the standard deviation….

Thousands of Heroes protect the land, defending against the periodic incursions by gigantic monsters known as World Threats. This was the way it had always been and Clay Shuntwise was perfectly fine with that. Running deliveries for his family’s shop in the sleepy town of Renton, the young teenager barely even thought about Heroes and their role in keeping the world safe.

That was, at least, until a World Threat came crashing down on him.

Reborn into the brand-new and unfamiliar form of a Dungeon Core, Clay struggles as he learns more about Heroes and the dungeons they delve through to get stronger. According to the odd dragonling guide that tries to help him understand his new life, since he was a former Hero, Clay should already intuitively know most of what he needed to succeed. All of the finer parts regarding the relationship between Heroes and dungeons, including information about probabilities and drop rates, should be common knowledge to former Heroes.

The problem? Despite wishing that he had been that lucky in his past life, Clay had never been chosen to be a Hero. Now, though, he might be forced to become one, though not quite in a way he ever expected.

This book contains Dungeon Core, LitRPG, and GameLit elements including dungeon construction and defense, monster summoning, character progression, and a game-like interface. In addition, many of the probabilities the world is based upon are similar to Gacha-type mechanics. Contains no profanity, harems, or explicit sexual content.

643 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 5, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Michelle Nelms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stats-based LitRPG

I picked this up on a whim and I'm glad I did.

The writing is fun if a little rough in a few places. I liked the various perspectives throughout the series. I love the idea of seeing things from the dungeon core's perspective and watching the core and new heroes all learning things in parallel.

I like the unique problem-solving that both the core and the island heroes bring to the table because their thinking isn't limited by tradition, and it's good to keep that in mind in the real world.

I'm so very glad it eventually stopped focusing on the one female character's chest after a bit. One or two jokes, ok that's the world we live in and some people can't help themselves. But it was a little tiring and I'm glad we were able to move on.

I did like the cat bit, and it was good to see Clay eventually give in. It also made for good development as he stopped letting it get in the way of his purpose after a bit.

Overall I enjoyed this series and I plan to read more from this author

[Nolan Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

always amazes

I have called Jonathan Brooks the grand master of dungeon core fiction. This omnibus does nothing to change that. How one individual can come up with so many different and highly detailed concepts boggles my mind.

So, hero’s killed fighting world threats become new dungeon cores responsible for training future hero’s. Check! Until a weaker threat appears and no hero’s die. This unique event has caused the first ever instance of a non hero who is inadvertently killed to become a new dungeon core.

Not having been a hero he has no clue how any of this works and his Dwight unit, the helpful dungeon core assistant has to teach him everything from scratch. This leads to some humorous situations as Dwight keeps forgetting the new core is clueless.

Turns out whatever powers the system of hero’s and world threats wants a change in the status quo and uses this as the prime opportunity to change everything.

Some characters are likable, some are pricks, but all are having to learn a new way of doing business.

I really liked Dungeon of Chance. As always with Brooks it is a solid, well thought out, internally consistent system. The training is intense but the threats are real. And truly the more you bleed in training, the less you die in combat.

And death is all too real and common when facing the monsters that are classified as world threats.

If you are a fan of the dungeon core genre, I think you will enjoy this slightly different take on things. I know I did. Once again, Brooks knocked it out of the park in my opinion.

[Nicholas J Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic, straightforward Jonathan Brooks dungeon core with a slight twist.


Dungeon of Chance doesn’t reinvent the dungeon core genre, and it doesn’t have to. It reads just as a great core novel would, full of stats and growth for both the dungeon as well as the adventurers (heroes in this case). The idea of heroes and dungeons working in tandem to prepare for world bosses is a fun dynamic too.

The fun twist of this story would be the dungeon core being more intrigued by probabilities over traditional dungeon building mechanics. The dungeon mobs are treated as mystery booster packs, and the dungeon core bases which pack he gets on what he feels is more likely to spawn strong/rare monsters (that aren’t cats).

[Melanie Baptist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting concept

This book was interesting. New concepts. The characters were likable and relatable. There was plenty of action. All together enjoyable.