Good presentation does a lot for me in terms of generating interest in a game, but a game’s mechanics are what keeps me engaged. Dragonkeepers, designed and illustrated by Michael Menzel, caught my attention with its cute dragons, but does the spellbook manipulation work? Is there enough decision space to keep me entertained, while also being simple enough for my family to play?
Read on to find out more about this two- to four-player game that lasts about 30 minutes for ages eight and up.
Gameplay Overview:
The goal of Dragonkeepers is to collect rewards such as amulet pieces, pearls for completing amulet pieces, golden eggs, some crests, and crystals for collecting sets of dragons. This is done by manipulating a magic book. It’s not really magic and it’s also not really a book, but let’s move on.
This not-quite-a-book has one card from each pile half flipped over to be a display. The card back shows a number and the card’s rewards on the left-hand side of the book, while the right-hand side shows the color of a dragon. The display shows face-up dragons, but the values on the reverse of that card are also shown.
A player’s turn is made up of three main steps:
• Players may take 1, 2, or 3 Dragon cards from the display, refilling the display each time.
• Players may add one card to either side of the magic book. This step can be repeated for the other side but only one card can be added per side per turn.
• Play a set of dragons in front of you that matches the number and color of the dragons shown on the pages of the magic book. And then collect the rewards shown on the left page.
As you collect sets of dragons, you’ll have a pile of each dragon type, but once a dragon has other dragons on both sides of it, you can no longer add more of that type to its pile. To take the edge off that point-limiting decision, collecting sets dragons of each of the four colors earns you a crest worth 6, 10, or 16 points with the first player grabbing the highest value remaining (though the 16-point token isn’t used in a two-player game).
Besides the four colors of dragons, there are also black shadow dragons. These can be used as wild cards, but must be matched with at least one red, green, white, or blue dragon to play the role of a matching card.
The rewards earned may be a combination of crystals (take an extra card), shadow dragons, the lowest-available amulet piece, the highest-available amulet piece, or golden eggs. Each time you collect three amulet pieces, you can assemble the amulet and take a pearl, starting with the more valuable red ones (8-9 points) before settling for the lower scoring blue pearls (3-4 points). The golden eggs are worth four points each, but whoever has collected the most gets to flip one over which boosts its value to 16 points as well as showing its (adorable) hatched side.
The game continues until a target number of amulets are completed by all players (seven amulets for two players, eight for three, and nine amulets for four players). Highest score wins the game.
Game Experience:
Dragonkeepers is a slick game with beautiful art that gives players a lot of choices while still playing quickly. While there are many possible choices, it’s not overwhelming as you’re probably working towards specific types of dragons. I like how if you have the perfect hand to play some dragons, you can collect two cards (grabbing the display and then what was the top card) and then put that card back to execute your plan. You can play a lot of small sets to collect small points or swing for the fences with some giant sets of dragons.
With larger sets granting bigger rewards, it becomes an interesting choice of deciding whether it’s worth chasing after golden eggs, or instead if you should focus on crystals to dig through the deck faster, because clearing a deck is another way of triggering the end game. Choices also sometimes have downstream effects. For example, if I place a shadow dragon card on the deck so I can play a set of six dragons (go me!), this means I also just left a wild card for someone else to scoop up and use (d’oh!). I feel like I’m saying it a lot, but it tickles me how many choices such a simple concept can provide.
The box says 8+ and while my eight-year-old was drawn to the art and understood the core game loop, the deck manipulation and set building didn’t click for him as easily as some other games we play together. If you’re thinking about this for younger children, it might take more than one session for them to grasp the strategy and game loop or they might need some assistance through their first few turns. It clicked on subsequent plays and he was able to be competitive (which can also be read as he beat me).
The abstract nature and decision space can lead to some analysis paralysis, especially if a player is stocking up on cards for a future turn. Fortunately, as the game progresses and especially after a third dragon color has been played, effectively locking another dragon type, the decision space gets smaller and it may reduce the benefit of several cards in your hand down to being fodder to put back onto the deck.
One additional twist to the base game play is the addition of magic chests. Chests provide all players with a common rule-bending ability at the cost of one crystal. This incentivizes playing smaller sets to trigger this potentially powerful ability. There’s six in the box and only one is used for the duration of the game, adding more variety to the experience.
As I look for criticisms, only two things come to mind. First, each game will play out similarly, so while you can focus on improvement, there’s not a lot of room for new discovery after a handful of games. Second, the set up is a little long relative to game length, but it consists mostly of sorting the amulet pieces and setting up the decks, so this quibble is admittedly kind of a reach.
Final Thoughts:
There’s a lot to like in Dragonkeepers. It’s a deceptively simple game where you can tinker with different strategies across multiple plays. For some reason, it didn’t really land with my family and I think that comes down to their own preferences. While I would describe this as a family-weight game, it’s probably best with a family that plays strategy games. The art should bring some smiles to the table and theme, while thin, is appealing and a solid hook.
Final Score: 4 Stars – Dragonkeepers features beautiful artwork and offers a lot of choices in a quick playing small box game.
Hits:
• Deck manipulation to build sets of dragons
• Nice decision space within a simple concept
• Beautiful art
Misses:
• Limited discovery after the first few plays
• May take younger children a few rounds to a game to get the core game loop
