I have always had a love for games that fit in your pocket. It was my theme when I first started as a Rathole Reviewer, and small games are still some of my favourites. That’s why I was excited when I learned about Dice of Dragons, a “tin box” game from Thing 12 Games, makers of Dice of Crowns and Dice of Pirates. I call it a tin box game, although it took me longer than I would like to admit to realize that the only way that everything would fit inside the tin is if the instruction pamphlet is left out. Or rather pamphlets, because the game includes optional rules of how to combine Dice of Dragons with the other two “Dice of…” games. Dice of Dragons + Dice of Crowns make “The Fate of Dragons”. Dice of Dragons + Dice of Pirates make “The Serpent Isle Adventure”.
Before anything else, I need to talk about the quality of the components. This game is gorgeous! The tin box is the same size as your average tin of fancy mints, but a little thicker, with the game’s name/logo embossed on the top. The “dragon token” is a very large, solid metal coin, beautifully decorated with a flaming dragon head on one side, and a spiral dragon tail on the other. The Gold Coins and Energy Tokens are quite a bit smaller and made of plastic, but an effort was made to make them both attractive and durable. The 7 player dice are a good size and easy to read, with each symbol being easy to recognize by both form and colour. The Dragon Die, which is a little bit bigger than the others, is translucent orange and easy to read. The 6 full colour Character Cards do not include a picture of your character, but do provide details about the attack strength and special abilities. There is also one more card, an ice dragon named Bone Chiller, that you can use for an extra challenging game. The pamphlets are small, but easy to read and comprehend. I did notice one error in the instructions, which I will talk about later.
What I like most about Dice of Dragons is that it is a fully cooperative game. Players aren’t competing with each other; everyone works together to defeat the dragon. A bonus side effect of this is that this is one of the few games I have seen where a solitaire game isn’t a watered-down version of the multiplayer game. If you are playing with 3-6 players, then each player controls one character. In a two player game, each player can have two characters if they wish. But for a solo game, the player can create a party of up to 5 adventurers to confront the dragon.
Being named Dice of Dragons, it isn’t too surprising that this game is played by rolling dice. The player’s dice have four symbols: black banners, yellow swords, blue energy, and red dragon flames. The Dragon Die is really more of a count-up token than anything else, going up by one at the end of each turn to represent how much damage the dragon will do when it attacks. At the setup stage, each character gets 2 gold coins, this represents their health. If you want to play a more challenging game, then you can start with one gold coin each. All remaining gold coins belong to the dragon. These are both his treasure, and his health. At the beginning of the game, the dragon is awake (“heads” side up) but not yet enraged (the dragon die is set at 1).
At the start of your turn, you roll all the dice available to you, to a maximum of 7 dice. Each symbol does something different. A banner represents a call for help; you hand over a banner die to another character to be re-rolled. A flame is the dragon’s attention; any flame must be immediately placed in front of a character, either yourself or someone else. Any time a character has 3 flames in front of them, the dragon immediately attacks. Swords are your ability to attack; you need a minimum of 3 swords to be able to attack the dragon, but more swords do more damage. Energy powers a character’s special abilities; you can exchange 3 energy dice for one energy token. Later, you can use one or more energy tokens to activate a special ability. What the written rules fail to mention (which I later found on the Thing 12 website) is that if you collect energy tokens, you end your turn and forfeit your ability to re-roll dice.
Unless you roll 3 energy, or there are 3 flames in play, you can re-roll some or all of your dice pool as many times as you want. Of course, the more you roll, the more you risk provoking a dragon attack. If you have 3 or more swords, you can attack the dragon. All attacks automatically succeed, and the more swords you attack with, the more damage you do. If you attack with more than 3, you also use one of your special abilities. Your second special ability, the one that costs energy tokens to use, can also be combined with an attack. Some special abilities can be used on another player’s turn to help them. You may even be able to Stun the dragon, preventing it from attacking. Collect your gold coins, raise the Dragon Die by 1, and end your turn. When a character has 3 flames in front of them (or rolls 3 flames on their turn), they are attacked by the dragon. Some special abilities may be able to prevent damage, or distract the dragon into attacking someone else, but otherwise, a player will automatically take the damage that is currently on the Dragon Die. When a character loses their last coin, they are Knocked Out. A player who is Knocked Out can try to recover on their next turn by rolling either 3 swords or 6 energy to get one coin from the dragon and lose the Knocked Out status. If all characters are Knocked Out at the same time, then the game ends and the dragon wins. If anyone takes the dragon’s final gold coin, then the players are victorious!
For a game based on rolling dice, there is a surprising amount of tactics and strategy involved. On your turn, do you attack as soon as you get 3 swords, or keep rolling in hopes of getting a stronger attack? If you are a banner ally and roll a sword, do you give it to the active player or someone else who can use their special ability on their turn? Is gaining one or more energy tokens worth ending your turn? Who
You can find Thing 12 Games online at thing12games.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/Thing12Games.
[Debra Savage]
