Game Review: Red Dragon Inn
Red Dragon Inn - a lighthearted game where excessive drinking causes hilarity without the embarrassing morning after.

General Information
Number of Players: 2 - 4
Length of Game: 30 - 45 minutes
Difficulty of Game: 2/10
Strategic Depth: 3.5/10
Fun Factor: 9/10
Popularity at local game night: 8.5/10

Overview
Imagine a party of adventurers. They just completed an epic quest and have returned to town safely and loaded down with loot. Of course, they do what any good adventuring party would do - and they decide to go drinking. They head to the Red Dragon Inn where they spent their hard-earned gains in an attempt to drink each other into oblivion, often with quite humorous results. The last person sitting at the table will get all the gold that remains.

Game Materials
The game consists of four laminated cardboard play areas, four character decks of cards, one drink deck, some colored glass stones, and a collection of coins. With the exception of the card decks, the game materials are simple, functional, and durable. The coins are probably the least durable as some of the pieces of cardboard are fraying at the edges. It does not much matter since they are just corners. The decks are standard cards and hold up pretty well. However, the artwork on them is wonderful! It has a slight cartoony feel to it, but that only lends itself to the theme of the game. It is quite enjoyable just to flip through the character decks the first time you play a character for the art as much as for the description of what the cards do. My personal favorite is when Pooky goes on a psychotic rampage.

Play Summary
Each player starts with seven player cards in his or her hand and one drink card face down on the play area. Each player also starts with a fortitude of 20 and an alcohol of 0. Play starts with a random player and goes clockwise until the game ends (when there is only one player remaining). If a player 's alcohol every matches or exceeds the fortitude, that player is too drunk to continue and his or her money is divided between the inn and the remaining players. If a player ever runs out of gold, the wench kicks the deadbeat out of the inn and that player is out of the game.

Each turn is split up into four steps. First, you can discard as many cards in your hand as you want, and then draw cards until you have seven in your hand. If you choose not to discard, you can just draw cards.

Then you play an action card. These cards will specifically say "action" on them. They have varying effects but usually affect a player's (possibly your own) gold or fortitude, or start a round of gambling. With the exception of gambling, the action cards are simple and straightforward. They have amusing titles such as "That's not healing salve, it's contact poison!" or "It will hurt more if you do it like this!".

Now you buy a player a drink. This doesn't cost you anything - you simply take the top card from the drink deck and put it face down on a player's deck. Whenever the drink deck is shuffled because more drinks are needed, each player pays a gold to the inn to pay for the next round of drinks.

Finally, you drink the top card of your drink deck by flipping it over and doing what it says. Most of the cards change your alcohol content, fortitude, or both.

For the most part, this is how play continues. However, there are some ways that you can interfere in the middle of someone else's turn. Each player's deck has action cards, sometimes cards, and anytime cards. The sometimes cards have specific conditions that must be met in order for you to play them; those conditions are listed on the card. The anytime cards can be played anytime - even in another player's turn. These cards are what enable you to interfere in another player's turn.

Finally, gambling. When a player starts a round of gambling, each player puts one gold into the pot for their ante. At this point, the player who started gambling is winning. Play moves around the table and each player has a chance to play a gambling card, play a cheat card, or pass. Playing one of these cards usually gives you control of the round of gambling - the card will say something different if that is not the case. Play continues until everyone passes and it comes back to the last person to gain control. That person wins the pot.

Play Experience
This game is extremely fun. Half of the time when you first play the game, you will be spending as much time reading the character cards and looking at the pictures as you will considering what move you should make. This game often has several reactionary cards which will to long chains of one card after another, often by different players involved. The more players you can get, the more chaos will ensue. This is the game that I think is most likely to cause a communal "OHHHHHHHHHHHH!" when someone plays down a card that has an impressive effect.

Each of the characters is extremely unique and has their own style. They are also all humorous and their cards are in theme. For example, the warrior woman - Fiona - does best when she goes after attacking other people's fortitude and protecting her own. Playing as her you will be unlikely trying to win by making other people lose money. On the opposite side of the coin (pun intended) is Gerki the Sneak. The best way for him to win is be stealing gold from the other players and hoping they run out before he gets too drunk. That is not to say that Fiona can't take money or force others into poverty or that Gerki can't knock someone out cold - it is just that the decks do have a theme and the theme fits the character. Good luck if you are Fiona and are trying to make Gerki go broke - you're going to need it.

This game is very quick and lighthearted. The strategy is still on a fairly easy level. You can definitely hedge your bets and try to prepare for the best possible situation by hoarding certain types of cards. However, I find that this game is not about strategic depth. It has enough to keep you entertained and engaged, but this game is more about the straightforward fun factor. When you combine that with the relatively short playtime, you can see why it is a game night favorite.

Notable Praise
This game is quick and easy to pick up while still having just enough strategic elements to keep your mind rolling while you play. This makes for a rare and very useful combination as it appeals both to people with short attention spans who want their turns NOW, and people who like to think and plot out their moves a little bit. I will admit, the key word in that sentence is "little", but it is enough to keep me entertained.

Most importantly - this game is fun. To get a feel for it you just have to sit in for a round and listen to the crazy cards such as having everyone scream when Pooky goes on yet another drunken rampage. In my experience, this game produces more laughter than any other game in my collection.

I enjoy the fact that there are precious few ways to regain fortitude or lose alcohol content. This adds a ticking time bomb sensation to the play when you are finding your fortitude and alcohol approaching each other. That is a nice element that keeps the emotions running a little bit higher.

The simple mechanics and game materials make this game travel well. You don't need a large table and can play just about anywhere. The biggest concern would be cards blowing away if you are playing outside.

Notable Gripes
Since the game has the same four characters, after playing it enough times, you know what all of the cards are and it loses some of the novelty. You no longer have the pleasure of seeing a new card and having it make you laugh out loud. That is a significant portion of the game. However, the game is short enough that even after knowing what all of the cards are, I still am finding plays enjoyable. However, I would recommend not playing this several times in a row after the novelty has expired. This is addressed by new characters in the expansion, but that's a different review.

The strategy for this game is very light. This is both a good and a bad thing. The bad side to it is that once the game loses its novelty and you are not as entertained by the chain of cards, you no longer have something to sink your teeth into. In short - this game appeals because it is funny and entertaining. Once it stops doing that, I imagine you would have little reason to come back to it. Imagine playing magic where you and your opponent have the exact same deck - eventually it reaches a point where you crave something different. However, we have not tired of it yet and have played it consistently for a few months now every couple of weeks. This is just something I can foresee being an issue if the game is overplayed.

Summary
This game is extremely fun - but you have to approach it as a fun game versus a strategy game. It will tickle your funny bone and it will entertain you, but the strategy, while it does exist, is relatively minimal. It all depends what you are going for. If you want a brain scratcher, this isn't it. However, if you want something that will lead to most of the people around the table laughing and shaking their heads with a smile - then this is for you. I would recommend this version over the stand-alone expansion, because I find the characters in this one to be more over the top and more entertaining. Give it a try and have a good chuckle.