Reign of Dragoness
Reign of Dragoness is a ladder climbing card game for 2–8 players where you're trying to be the first player to get rid of all your cards. The game is designed by Harrison Beck and Jessica Beck and it's published by Grandpa Beck's Games. The cards all feature Apryl Stott's striking dragon-themed artwork.
The game is played with a deck of cards made up of eight suits of dragons, each with cards numbered 1–12, and one Dragoness card with the number 13. In addition the deck includes three Pages, treated as wild cards in the range 1–8, one Squire, wild in the range 9–12, one Dragon Knight that's wild in the range 1–12, and three 'Revive' cards. The dragon suits are ranked against each other and the number of suits you play with, and the mix of other cards, is determined according to player count: with 2–4 players you use the first five dragon suits, adding a suit for each additional player up to seven.
Players are dealt 13 cards and the player with lowest dragon card (lowest number in the lowest ranking suit) leads. They can play a singleton, matching pair, multiple set of the same number or run of at least three cards. This sets the 'pattern' of play until everyone has passed. To play, the next player has to play cards in the same pattern but higher than the previous cards played. You can play the cards with the same number as played previously provided your highest card beats the highest card previously played. So, for example, my 10–12 run with a 12 Safyre dragon (rank 5) can be played to follow your 10–12 run that had a 12 Lochen (rank 1). If you can't follow with a pattern that beats what's been played, or if you choose not to follow, you pass unless you play a Revive card which lets you reset the pattern. When everyone else has passed, the player that remains sets the next pattern. The first player to shed all their cards wins the round and earns 3 points, with 2 points going to the player with fewest remaining cards and 1 point for next fewest, and you play for five rounds.
There's tactics in players' decisions over when to play and when to pass. Tho' it's usually better to play if you can, you may prefer to push your luck and pass if your play would involve breaking card combos that you have a good chance of being able to play against another pattern. Tho' the rules are short and simple, Grandpa Beck's have included alternative and optional 'advanced' rules, including provision for players playing 'Hordes': sets and runs that can be played regardless of the pattern: for a 2–4 player game, four-of-a-kind or a run of four cards in a single suit, and for a game with five or more players, five-of-a-kind or a single-suit run of five cards. The rules suggest that Hordes can only include one wild card. We would routinely incorporate the Horde rules.
Reign of Dragoness is an attractively packaged, easy-to-play card game. It works at all player counts but, from our plays at Board's Eye View, we've preferred it as a filler-length 20–30 minute game for four or five players; it's likely to play longer at higher player counts.
