The Red Dragon Inn Review
The Red Dragon Inn Review
Let me draw you a picture ...
You just woke up from a long night of drinking.
The cracks on the darkened curtains have the tiniest bit of a slit and the sun has found its way straight through that crack right into your eyes. As conscious thought begins to slowly seep into your crazy brain, you begin to write down where you are.
You’re still in your clothes from last night, missing your wallet, some of them are the secret of the liquid in the corner of your bedroom, and everything smells like old grains.
Congratulations, you just lost the Red Dragon Inn.
- Playing time 30-60 minutes for 2-4 players
- Basic game in the expandable series of the Red Dragon Inn
- With the game you get 4 unique cards for players with 40 cards, one card 30 ...
A brief overview of the Red Dragon Inn
The goal of the Red Dragon Inn is to be the last player to stand by the money at the end of drinks, gambling and celebrations at the inn.
The Red Dragon Inn is a fantasy card game inspired by pen and paper old school RPGs . Most of these games with pen and paper start adventure players start in some inn or inn to get acquainted and plan the next move. In this game, however, everyone is at The Red Dragon Inn and the adventure is over. The BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) was killed, the citizens rescued, and all that was left was to settle into an inn and relax with a pint or two.
"I drink to make other people more interesting." —Ernest Hemingway, American writer, 20th century
This is not to say that it will be a pleasant relaxing night for our fearless adventurers. He is paid and everyone buys drinks and gambling. If you are not careful, you may lose all your profits in the house or you may be robbed by “friends”.
CHEERS!
Variations and extensions
If you start reviewing the cards in the base game, you’ll see a lot of references to cards that don’t really exist. You may think you’re crazy, but you don’t. Well, you can, but not because of the game.
The Red Dragon Inn was designed with extensions in mind and did not disappoint. Every other year, Slugfest Games released a new extension.
Each extension adds more characters to the inn, along with its own fantasies and psychoses.
More characters = More decks = More stupid role-playing = More drinking
There’s even a stand-alone expansion where players become bad guys and hang out in an underground inn.
Complete sets
Allied enlargements
Other versions
Unpacking the Red Dragon Inn
Components:
- 4 unique gaming units with 40 cards
- One drink for 30 cards
- 4 suggestions for players
- 4 Strength marks
- 4 Alcohol content labels
- 50 Gold Coin tokens
- Rules
The Red Dragon Inn is mostly a card game, so most of the components will be 5 separate card cards. The cards are solid and made from a quality stock of cards.
The game also has several boards for players that actually look very nice and are durable enough that I don’t feel like I’m going to accidentally destroy them.
The remaining components of the game are gold card chips and a few followers stat on the board.
I’m actually excited about the gold coins involved in the game. They’re a lot bigger than I thought they would be, and they’re pretty big (for cardboard). Sometimes you get a big bunch of tiny chips that are hard to cut and keep track of, but these are some of the nicer ones I’ve seen.
How to play Red Dragon Inn
"There's nothing a man would invent to bring as much happiness as a good inn." - Samuel Johnson, English Author, 18th Century
The goal of the game is simple: "Keep your gold and be conscious".
Each player has their own hero deck full of custom cards that you can start competing with.
The players of each round will complete 4 stages:
1. Discard and draw
Discard any number of cards and draw cards until you get 7 cards in your hand. You don’t have to do anything if you like your hand and you have 7 cards. If you run out, just throw it away and stir it into a pile to pull.
2. Play the action card
You can play 1 action card per turn.
Action cards can do many different things. The deck of each character has different actions. The effects vary by campaign, but most deal with lowering the strength of other players or getting more Drink cards.
I really like the humor built into the game. The Red Dragon Inn makes fun of the many tropes and classics of the fantasy genre. You may find yourself in many funny situations. You could be attacked by a greedy (and militantly drunk rabbit) or you might find yourself in a philosophical debate about the benefits of a postal bikini armor.
All players get a chance to respond to the action card. Sometimes players join the action or play opposing cards. For the most part, it has everything you need to know about the card, including when it can be played, and usually some stupid text of taste. Part of drawing the Red Dragon Inn is reading stupid text when you’re playing cards, and of course, if you’re uncomfortable with your friends.
3. Purchase drinks
Take a Drink card and place it on someone's "Drink Me!" Pile.
Everyone has Drink Me! a bunch on their board of players. It’s basically a bunch of cards you’ll draw every time your character needs a drink. If you are forced to take a drink and there are no tickets on your Drink Me! a bunch, then your character will start to sober up and the alcohol content will decrease.
4. Drink
Uncover the top card of your Drink Me! pile up and resolve the effects. There's actually a lot to drink. (Believe it or not)
"A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle."
-Jonathan Swift, Irish Writer, 17th century
Drink!
Just like drinking in real life, what you drink also has different effects on your constitution and BAC (blood alcohol content). There are many different types of drinks at the Red Dragon Inn, and each will affect players differently.
Some harder drinks will increase the alcohol content much higher than others. There are also some particularly ugly cards called Chasers. The pursuers force you to pull out another drink card and add it to the drink circle. If you are particularly unlucky and add another Chaser, continue until this is resolved. Oh.
Each drink will affect the alcohol content and strength in the player. This is very important because if your alcohol content ever gets higher than your strength, you will fall out and you are out of the game.
Remember the ancient saying, “Beer before alcohol, never worse. Liqueur before beer, you are clear. "
Play anytime and play sometimes
The Red Dragon Inn simplifies the rules considerably.
Play Anytime cards can be played at any time ...
Play Sometimes it is possible to play cards sometimes ...
No, I'm not trying to be bold, in fact they're called that.
Play Anytime cards are similar to moments or cancellations. With them, you can respond to another player's card. If someone buys you a drink or attacks you, Play Anytime cards allow you to redirect or cancel the attack on you. Everyone does something different, so read the cards carefully.
Play Sometimes the cards will do the same, but they can only be played in certain situations. Each card will only work at certain stages or when someone performs a certain action. They are especially useful for quitting gambling circles when you have insufficient funds.
Each additional card is dealt with the last one played and several cards can play these cards in a round. It’s pretty satisfying to see your friend drop the attack card and watch everyone else divert it around the board.
Gambling
We all have that friend who draws a deck of cards and tries to reach a game of Texas Hold’em that goes on at midnight. The Red Dragon Inn has a special circle called the Gaming Circle. It starts when someone plays a playing card and everyone is forced to put a coin in the pot. Anyone can play multiple playing cards (or even GO!) Or pass. If everyone passes, the last person to play the card gets all the money in the pot.
Don’t underestimate gambling at the Red Dragon Inn. Players who look like they are about to drop out can come back with something good with some good rounds of gambling.
Loss
There are a few ways to get you out of the inn (aka lose).
The first is, if you ever run out of money, they kick you out of the inn (Just like in real life!). Mommy at the bar will come by and throw you out when the bag is empty.
If your alcohol content is higher than your strength, after you have eliminated all the effects of the card, you lose strength and are expelled. Not only are you embarrassed, but the inn takes half of your gold, and everyone else left in the game keeps the other half.
Your first game of the Red Dragon Inn
During the first game, you will notice that you can choose from four different character decks:
- Fiona: Fighter
- Deirdre: Priestess
- Gerki: Fraudster
- Zot (and Pooky): A wizard and a wonderful rabbit who will try to kill you.
Each character has their own custom deck to be used throughout the game. Each character is better at certain skills, which is reflected in his abilities on board. As you can imagine, Gerki The Rogue is much better at gambling and will have more cards with gaming effects.
For your first game, you will closely monitor your Fortitude level against Drink. I originally played by replacing Drink cards with actual drinks. It’s not necessary, but it’s a lot of fun.
When choosing your character, do not pay too much attention to his abilities. Each has some serious disadvantages and advantages. Some are subjectively better than others, but this is your first game, so opt for one that you find fun.
Each character is better at certain things, and they will be better at others. Some characters will lose strength, get drunk, or lose money faster than others, but they will make up for it in another aspect. Everything is relatively balanced, especially since players tend to attack the strongest character instead of choosing the weakest.
Advantages disadvantages
Advantages:
- Funny topic
- Great for drinking
- Great works of art
Weaknesses:
- Elimination of players
- It seems strangely unfinished
- Confused text and card rules
There is a lot of mixed feeling about the elimination of players. For some players, this doesn’t bother them, and for some, it’s a turning point. If you play with a very competitive group, the game ends pretty quickly after the first player leaves.
Playing the Red Dragon Inn racetrack is kind of at odds with the feel of the game. It’s a super easy, silly game, so playing with a bunch of Alpha Gamers who want to cover the competition destroys the theme. Most of the players in my group are usually diplomatic and attack the strongest player. It’s nice and yet, but it stretches the game much longer and the fired player has nothing left to do.
Rules and versions made by fans
Fortunately, there are many (many) rules created by fans to ease the pain, because let’s be honest, it’s likely that you drink while playing. Basically, any school can implement the rules of the game by drinking to your liking.
If you don’t drink or play with a younger crowd, I read a version of the rule where an eliminated player will “throw stones” at an inn and may accidentally harm someone or target another player. It’s less themed, but it will help push the game to the end.
This is a question that will arise in any game that uses player elimination. Without a built-in timer, there is always the possibility of someone being left twisted with the thumb. There are ways to avoid this with house rules, but it seems to me that I wouldn’t have to arrange the game to fix the final situation.
I guess excluded players could always be sent out for a drink.
Confused text / card rules
At the first issue, there were a lot of open rules that didn’t make sense. The Red Dragon Inn was designed with extensions in mind. That’s fine, but the base game has some weird cards with rules and statements that don’t match anything in the base game. For example, the card says if you are ______, and if not, ignore that card.
It bothers you if you don’t know that’s supposed to be the case for future enlargements. This makes the basic game seem unfinished. It’s 100% complete and complete, but the way future extensions have been handled is more disruptive. Basic playing cards that reference cards in extensions don’t make sense.
The Red Dragon Inn Review (TL; DR)
The Red Dragon Inn is a drinking game disguised as a really fun board game. You could play it sober, but it’s a lot more fun than a drink.
The game is relatively fast if players are actively trying to knock out, but the game suffers from early elimination of players. How long they have to wait before jumping in depends on playing in a group. There are a number of amateur house rules that offset the elimination of players.
Even without drinking, the Red Dragon Inn is one of the dumbest, more interactive group parties. The Dungeon & Dragons themed elements provide many opportunities to allow players to play roles and enter the character.
Definitely worth a try, but bring a suitcase of beer.
conclusion
Most of the lighter games I’m talking about, I say in the introduction, make great openings for game night. The Red Dragon Inn has the opposite reaction. The night of the game ends perfectly. It’s light, easy to get started, and if you do it right, everyone should be a little intoxicating and ready for bed.
Even though I’m a Navy veteran myself, I’m definitely not an alcoholic. I’ve talked quite a bit about The Red Dragon Inn with a drink, but it’s hard not to. The theme is set in the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons in the inn. Somewhat can be avoided.
Do you have to be drunk to enjoy the game? Absolutely not.
Have I ever tried? No ... no, I didn't.
Part of the on-board gaming experience is social interaction. The Red Dragon Inn offers a hefty amount of social interaction ... if you will. The characters offer great role-playing opportunities for the actors. How many games does the opportunity offer to show up at the table with a stuffed rabbit and yell at your opponents? Not much. However, it can quickly turn into a fun bunch of players screaming at each other strangely, which is a lot of fun.
- Playing time 30-60 minutes for 2-4 players
- Basic game in the expandable series of the Red Dragon Inn
- With the game you get 4 unique cards for players with 40 cards, one card 30 ...
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