James Lees is our Abnormal Member for Board Games. Today he reviews one of the games in the society hoard: The Red Dragon Inn.The Red Dragon Inn has a very fun premise. You are all adventurers returned from a long, hard quest so you decide to go for a drink at (you guessed it) The Red Dragon Inn! However, being adventurers, it isn’t long until drinking is turned into a competition.
The object of the game is very simple: be the last person still standing! Drink your opponents under the table, or have them run out of money so that they get
kicked out of the bar. To drink them under the table their fortitude counter
and alcohol counter must meet.
At the end of each of your turns you must drink (so long
as there is a drink card on your board, which unless you’re playing against gibbons
there almost always is) and whilst the drinks have a number of potential
abilities the most common is an increase in your alcohol content. However, by
using cards that you obtain at the beginning of each turn you can force others to
drink, make others lose fortitude or even avoid a drink. There’s far more strategy
then there first appears to be with alliances being swiftly made and then
broken again.
The game has a fantastic feel and aesthetic and despite
the lack of lore you get an excellent idea of its many colourful characters
from the card titles alone. Some of my personal favourites include "No More
Chainmail Bikini Jokes" and "I’m not That kind of priestess"
It’s a fantastic game that can be played over and over (and yes, it can be played as a great drinking game - I have tested this myself).
It’s also a game with loads of expansion packs. Whilst I’ve
not yet had the pleasure of trying any of these out, so as soon as I track them down (and I’m led to believe that
somebody in the society has them) I know what I’m
playing!
