When the Adventure is Over, the Real Game Begins: ‘Red Dragon Inn 2’ Reviewed

Elliott MillerAug 21, 2012

Game Name: Red Dragon Inn 2

Publisher: Slugfest Games

Designer: Cliff Bohm, Geoff Bottone, Coleen Skadl

Year: 2008

Players: 2 – 4

Ages: 13+

Playing Time: 30 – 60 Minutes

Retail Price: $37.95

Category: Fantasy Card Game

Components:

4 unique 40 card player decks
One 30 card Drink deck
4 Player Templates
4 Fortitude markers
4 Alcohol Content markers
50 Gold Coin tokens
Rules

From Slugfest Games:

Once again you and your adventuring companions have spent all day slogging through the Dungeon, killing monsters and taking their stuff! Now you’re back in town, healed up, cleaned up, and ready to party at the Red Dragon Inn with four new members of the party!

Drink, gamble, and roughhouse with your friends. But don’t forget to keep an eye on your Gold. If you run out, you’ll have to spend the night in the stables. Oh… and try not to get too beaten up or too drunk. If you black out, your friends will continue the party without you… after they loot your body for Gold of course!

The last conscious adventurer with Gold wins the game!

The Red Dragon Inn 2 introduces four new members of the party and can be played alone or in combination with The Red Dragon Inn to allow for games of up to 8 players!

So, take on the role of one of these heroic fantasy adventurers – Gog, Fleck, Eve, or Dimli – and enjoy an evening at the Red Dragon Inn!

Although the Game is Red Dragon Inn 2, my understanding is that all of the games in the series (1, 2, and 3) are pretty much the same. The characters change, but that is about it. My review was completed by playing Red Dragon Inn 2, but my observations should apply to the entire series.

One of the nice features of the game is that multiple versions can be combined to play. Put two together and you can play an 8 player game. Put all three versions together and you can play a game with up to 12 players. I’m not sure how long that would take, but the option is there. Which brings me to my second point. You could easily play this as a drinking game by taking a sip each time you gain alcohol content, but the game isn’t designed to be a drinking game, and I didn’t try it that way myself. It was just an errant thought.

The object of the game is to be the last player standing. The premise is that you are a team of adventurers returning from a tough day of slashing up monsters and collecting treasure in the local dungeon. Now you are all looking for some time to kick back and party in the local inn. You’ll enjoy some drinking and some gambling this evening, but if you ever run out of gold, or you pass out (have more booze in your system than fortitude), you are out of the game. Once people start dropping out the end comes fairly quickly, so you won’t have that much downtime. The game itself runs a bit long for what it is, but lets look a bit deeper.

The components are very good. There are four glossy color player mats, and each player will get their own themed deck of cards depending upon the character they wish to play. You could be Dimli the Dwarf, Eve the Illusionist, Fleck the Bard, or Gog the Half-Ogre. The cards themselves have nice artwork specific to each character. They are glossy and look good. A bit on the thin side though. Each character deck has a different colored back, so they are easy to distinguish. Gold coin tokens and some red and clear glass beads round out the component list. Overall, great components.

I’m also impressed with the box and insert. Separate slots for each deck and room for the beads and coins. The player mats sit neatly on top to hold the decks in. Big thumbs up for box design.

To begin, all players get a character deck, a player mat, 10 coins, and two beads: one clear and one red. The beads are placed at opposite ends on the track on the player mat. It is numbered from 0 to 20 and represents both your fortitude and your alcohol content. Fortitude starts at 20 and alcohol content starts at zero. As you play the game they move toward each other. At the point they meet, IE your alcohol content is equal or greater than your fortitude, you pass out and are out of the game. Your gold is split between the other players and the bar, and you can go watch some reruns of Big Bang Theory.

There is additionally a deck of drink me cards that all players will draw from. At the start, each player selects one face down and places it on their play mat. This will start their personal drink me pile. Everyone draws seven cards from their decks and the game is set to begin.

Each turn has four phases. First you discard as many of your cards you like and then draw back up to seven cards. Secondly, you can play one action card. The action cards normally will give you some gold from other players, or force someone to lose some fortitude. There are two other types of cards, called sometimes or anytime cards. The anytime cards can be played, well, anytime. The sometimes cards state when they can be played. These generally screw over another player or stop someone from screwing you over.

In phase three you draw one one “drink me” card from the deck and give it to another player. They place it on their drink me pile without looking at it. This is one of the things that you need to keep an eye on, because of another player ever runs out of drink me cards, then they won’t have to take a drink during their own turn. This would give them a distinct advantage, so make sure everyone has a healthy load of drinks coming their way at all times.

Finally, in phase four you reveal the top card of your own “drink me” pile and follow the instructions on it. This is how your alcohol content will go up. Some drink me cards will be bad, and some will be worse. A typical card will tell you to “add two alcohol content” and you’ll move your clear bead two spaces up on the track. Once it starts getting close to your red fortitude bead, it is time to start sweating because the end is near for you. Some cards will require you add a chaser too, which means you’ll have to draw a second “drink me” card and apply its effects as well.

Play continues, with players trying to protect themselves and screw each other over. At times you’ll play action cards that begin a round of gambling. Players will ante and bet and play any gambling cards they hold in their hand in an effort to win the gambling round. The player who wins, takes the coins. Remember, if you ever run out of coins you are also out of the game.

I found Red Dragon Inn to be an entertaining game. It is a lighthearted, good time. The cards are humorous and if the players get a little bit into character it adds to the fun. My only problem was that is lasted a bit long for me. Games generally took about an hour to play, and this was with three players which seemed a bit much. If you like the screw your neighbor type games you’ll enjoy it a lot. It isn’t blatant, you won’t be throwing cards down and screaming “In your face!”, but you will steal their cash, send them drinks, and bash them around a bit.