Drakon - A Lot of Expectation to Live Up To - I'm not disappointed

Drakon - A Lot of Expectation to Live Up To - I'm not disappointed: "Ah, finally! Many of us found our way to the Geek while pursuing information on a particular game. Drakon was mine. After reading about it on a blog about Dungeon Crawls, I thought it sounded like a very cool game. But no matter how hard I looked I could only find the 1st edition and 2nd edition expansion which aren't graphically compatible without a draw bag. Eventually, I found my way to the Geek and a whole world of games opened up. I found Tom Jolly's website and asked him what the deal was. He informed me that FFG was going to be re-releasing an updated version within a couple of months, and it would be worth the wait. Of course it turned out to be closer to a year.



So basically, this game has had a whole year to build up it's anticipation for me. A whole year of imagining playing it. A whole year for me to build it up to a level that even the best of games would have trouble living up to.



The Components:



The original version had cardboard cutouts with drawings of the characters on them. The updated version has gotten the full FFG treatment. Wonderfully sculpted miniatures.



The tiles are also bigger and have more detail added to them. It isn't a problem to have all the characters (minus the Drakon, a very large Dragon figure) on one tile. It's tight but it works.



There's also a fistful of drakon gold punched out from thick cardstock, some counters to keep track of special powers, and player aids (on decent cardstock) with abbreviated rules for each of the various chambers.



While beautiful and cool to hold the pieces and tiles aren't without their flaws:

1. The characters are different shapes and sizes, but in low light or with people with not so perfect eye sight, they can be confusing since they are all grey. Several times there was some confusion over who was who. I think I'm eventually going to paint them so that they each have their own overriding color theme.

2. The tiles, while they have more detail that adds some nice Dungeoney feel to it all, again can be difficult for people with vision problems. The icons are small compared to the overall 'ground' artwork and can be covered by a single pawn. Covering with the pawn was a pretty common occurrence as the pawn's base fits perfectly over the circle, so it just felt like you were supposed to put it there. Slightly bigger icons would have been nice.



But those two negative elements are pretty minor as the quality of the materials (thick cardstock, and decent plastic for the characters) more than make up for it.



The Rules:



The rules are well written and we only had two questions come up we weren't entirely clear on, but were able to agree on something that worked for all of us (both have been asked and answered in the rules forum).



I won't go too in detail as you can read the full instructions here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/PDF/Drakon_rules.pdf



The object of the game is for players to explore the Drakon's dungeon and be the first to find 10 gold. Coins are numbered 1, 2 or 3 (you randomly choose) and because of the point distribution, getting 4 or 5 coins will typically win the game.



There are a pile of tiles that illustrate chambers. Each player starts with four chambers in their hand. On their turn they can either move to an adjacent chamber or place a new chamber. Each chamber has 1 to 3 arrows on it. Arrows dictate which direction a player can leave the chamber. Chambers can't be placed so that arrows point at each other (in other words you can't go through the same door you came in from).



Most chambers have an icon that dictate an instruction for the character to follow that ranges from collecting a gold piece, stealing a gold piece from a neighboring player, to destroying a chamber, rotating a chamber, or controlling the Drakon.



Not including the start and blank tiles, there are 16 different chambers. That's where the player aid was invaluable for new players. As we got going we needed it less and less, but it was nice to have. The player aid's rules descriptions are usually enough but occasionally a key element to the rule was missing and we needed to refer the rulebook, but all in all it was a nice reminder after we got through each chamber once.



There are also several rules variants for team play and special character abilities. Team play seems like it would take some of the real fun (screwing with your neighbors) out of the game, and the character powers don't seem to add a whole lot (or take away anything) so we decided not to go with them for our initial plays. While we didn't use the player abilities (or particularly feel that the game needed them), it's nice to know they're there if we wanted to add some variety to the game.



The game:



The game plays very nicely. As with many games, everyone is a little hesitant to make the first move. But after the group of adventurers start leaving the first chamber the game progresses quickly.



This is not a friendly game of tile laying wholesomeness like Carcassonne. The object is to steal gold from either the Drakon or your neighbor. Several tiles allow you to rearrange the map effectively yanking the rug out from under an opponent just as they're about to execute a carefully laid plan.



Often someone would set up a treasure gathering loop (get a coin or two, repeat) only to have someone else come and knock it apart sending them into a loose a coin square.



A 4 player game averaged out to about half an hour after we all got the rules. I imagine that more would draw the game out and less would speed it up.



Overall impressions:



The game is, in its essence, a programming exercise, where the player's string together a bunch of 'If Then' statements and follow them out. But don't worry, the theme and player interaction keep it from being anywhere near as dull as that description sounds.



We had a great time, and even with a full year of expectation built up, I was not disappointed. Even my wife, who doesn't really get much out of a Fantasy theme (even if light), really enjoyed it.



There were times when analysis paralysis was a problem, especially if your brilliant plan is suddenly changed by destroying a chamber in your chain, but I'm sure familiarity with the tiles will help some, not totally, but some, with this.



The 'take that' element was hard for one of the people we played with, but she eventually won by stealing a coin from me. Once everyone is on the same page of stabbing each other, it's a lot of fun.



The game felt a little short with 4 players. We could always agree to go for more gold. Maybe it's just the result of having a good time, but the board was getting REALLY interesting when someone would win. Maybe it's all my hours with Carcassonne, but ending a game with most of the tiles unplayed just feels a little odd. It is oviously a different game, and I'm coming to like the chaos of not knowing whether a tile will end up in the game or not.



I'm curious to see how playing with more or less will go as it seems like there needs to be an element of chaos for this one to really work as intended while analysis paralysis can be a bit of an issue. I think it'll work with 2, but possibly just not quite as much fun and might slow down too much with more. With 4 it works great!



I'm going to give this a 10. It's not without it's minor flaws, but I really had a great time with this, can't wait to play it again, and only see myself having more fun with it as I get to know it better."