Board Game Review: The Red Dragon Inn

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!