It’s time to celebrate a successful dungeon crawl. But try not to pass out or be kicked out of the tavern to win The Red Dragon Inn.
In The Red Dragon Inn, you and your friends are all members of a D&D-style adventuring party. Only, this game doesn’t follow any of those adventures. There’s no dungeon crawling or dragon slaying here. Instead, The Red Dragon Inn is where your friends get together to relax, tell tales of your day, get a few drinks, and generally have a good time. This is the adventuring party’s after party, but if you’re not careful, you may just drink too much or gable away all of your dungeon earnings… Or both!
| Quick Guide | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mechanics | Hand Management, Betting & Bluffing | |
| Players | 2 – 4 Player, Ages 13+ | |
| Playing Time | 45 Minutes | |
| Similar Games | Dragon & Flagon, Battle Wizards, Sentinels of the Multiverse | |
| Publisher | SlugFest Games |
The Red Dragon Inn Overview
If you’ve played any fantasy-adventure tabletop RPG, you’re probably familiar with all of the tropes. Some players will try to adopt every monster, some characters will try to date every monster, and the post-adventure wind-down in the local tavern is sure to be a disaster. Will the characters intend to talk to the townsfolk and get information or maybe even a next job? Sure, of course. But will they actually party a little too hearty and risk losing all of their newly acquired loot? They just may.
The Red Dragon Inn is a game that falls right into that exact adventure cliché. Which makes it a hilarious game for any regular fantasy TTRPG player. Players will choose their hero and their hero’s deck, and party it up at the Red Dragon Inn. If you black out, your friends will party on without you – that is, if they don’t loot your passed-out body for gold.
The last adventurer conscious wins! Good luck!
How to Play The Red Dragon Inn
To set up a game, each player takes a mat, a red marker, a clear marker, and the deck for the character they have chosen. Then players shuffle both their character deck and the drink deck, placing the latter where everyone can reach it. Players will take their stash of gold, and set their red and clear makers on the spaces on their mat representing a twenty fortitude and a zero alcohol content respectively. Finally, players will place cards in their ‘drink me’ pile as well as pulling their starting hand of seven cards.
Turns consist of four phases, which must be played in order. Here players can ‘Discard and Draw’ cards, play an ‘Action’ card, ‘Buy Drinks,’ and of course ‘Drink.’ Throughout turns, players will increase or decrease their fortitude and their alcohol content, make various actions—including gambling. Gambling acts almost like a mini-game within The Red Dragon Inn. Here, players will play gambling or cheating cards or opt to pass.
There are many ways to lose The Red Dragon Inn, including running out of gold (the bar wench will kick you out) and passing out (maybe you’ll luck out and nobody will steal all of your gold and write on you with fantasy-sharpie). But to win, you’ll need to be the last adventurer standing.
Should I Buy This Game
If you enjoy any of the fantasy TTRPGs and want to continue enjoying all of that silliness and all of those tropes in other games, yes. The Red Dragon Inn is a game that’s competitive and strategic, but also doesn’t take itself or its audience too seriously. And those are the exact kind of games that are so easy to play and then immediately replay or get off f the shelf every time your group comes to visit.
There are also a ton of expansions, meaning that there are so many characters to choose from. You can easily fall into playing your favorite drunken adventurer all of the time, or mix it up and never ever get bored.
And, there’s even a Kickstarter for even more Red Dragon Inn live right now
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