Fist of Dragonstones Review by jabberwock
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I kinda like Bruno Faidutti. He and I seem to have the same taste in games (at least, I seem to have an inordinate amount of games he has listed in his ‘Ideal Games Library’). So when he designs new games, I generally take a gander to see if this one fits the bill. And a couple of years ago, I found this little gem made by him and Michael Schacht.
The idea is that during a round of the game, a selection of characters are auctioned off, each of which have their own special ability. The dragons all provide you with dragonstones of various colours, and the wizards and sorcerers turn dragonstones into points. And if you get three points you win the game.
During each round of ten auctions, eight of the characters remain the same, and two others are added from a Special Character deck, making each round very different (as the order in which characters are auctioned has its own impact as well). The ten standard characters include the dragons and magic-users described above, plus the Witch that allows someone to negate a character won later in the round, and the Thief that lets you nick someone else’s dragonstone.
The special characters are wide and varied, from special dragons and magic-users that give you stones and points in new ways, to fairies that gift you with more gold to spend in auctions, to the Ghost that brings an already-auctioned character back from the ‘dead’, to the Troll that makes all characters lose all stones of a specific colour.
There are (or were – the website seems to be down right now, but expect it to be back up at some point on the Days of Wonder site) even some special characters you can download, print off and stick on to blank cards that are provided with the game for even more variety. Days of Wonder held a competition when the game first came out for players to design their own characters, and they illustrated the winner’s suggestions.
The gold you are bidding with is, in the main, fairy gold that returns to your hand after each round of ten auctions. You also have a small pool of real gold that is gone for good if you bid with it (and everything bid is lost – whether you win or lose). If you ever tie with other players, you bid again using your small supply of silver (which is also permanently gone if you use it).
You can never be quite sure how much gold or silver each player has left (without a good memory) as all coins are kept hidden behind a screen for each player. And this is a blind bidding game – each player puts what he or she wants to bid into a fist, and holds it over the table, when each player has bid, all bids are revealed simultaneously and the highest bid takes the character.
There is a lot of second-guessing and psychology that goes into this small package of a game, and the sheer variety and randomness of the cards that come out make it very tricky to pin down exactly what cards are worth to each player (and hence how much each player might bid for that character). I love trying to out-think my opponents, and trying to bid just enough to outbid them without spending an inordinate amount in a single auction. Invariably I fail, but I still love the mechanic. But then I am a fan of blind-bidding games. If you struggle with this mechanic, you should stay clear, because there isn’t much more to the game than blind bid after blind bid…
Summary
Presentation: The cards are wonderfully illustrated by Julien Delval, with very evocative pictures and clear instructions for each character on the card. The coins and screens are functional and sturdy, and there are weird little scoring dice thingies to record everyone’s score (all the way up to the lofty heights of three), and lovely glass beads to represent dragonstones in a cloth bag. All in all very easy on the eyes and functional. 8.6/10
Clarity of Rules: The rules are pretty simple and easily explained. The majority of the rulebook is taken up by an in-depth explanation of each character card, although they are in the main very intuitive and easy to understand. 8.8/10
Game Length: The game can be over very quickly indeed. With only three points needed to win, and one card that lets you gain two points in a single auction, things need to be watched carefully to avoid an easy win for a player. Even with constant ‘hose the leader’ tactics, things don’t last long, and a game will take up a maximum of an hour of your time. Just enough for a game of this depth. 9.4/10
Value: It’s a small-box game that packs a lot into the gameplay. With a variety of characters making each game different, and a variety of ways to get this stones and points, things don’t get tired very quickly at all. And what with the free downloadable characters (should they ever get them back up again), your game will have fresh life for many playings to come. 9.1/10
Overall: If you like bidding games, and special ability characters, and fantasy themes, then you’ll love this game. It pushes all the right buttons for me (despite being devoid of zombies or pirates – although there is a Necromancer and a Brigand), and I’ll never turn down an offer to play this excellent light filler game. 9.3/10 (not an average)
I kinda like Bruno Faidutti. He and I seem to have the same taste in games (at least, I seem to have an inordinate amount of games he has listed in his ‘Ideal Games Library’). So when he designs new games, I generally take a gander to see if this one fits the bill. And a couple of years ago, I found this little gem made by him and Michael Schacht.The idea is that during a round of the game, a selection of characters are auctioned off, each of which have their own special ability. The dragons all provide you with dragonstones of various colours, and the wizards and sorcerers turn dragonstones into points. And if you get three points you win the game.
During each round of ten auctions, eight of the characters remain the same, and two others are added from a Special Character deck, making each round very different (as the order in which characters are auctioned has its own impact as well). The ten standard characters include the dragons and magic-users described above, plus the Witch that allows someone to negate a character won later in the round, and the Thief that lets you nick someone else’s dragonstone.
The special characters are wide and varied, from special dragons and magic-users that give you stones and points in new ways, to fairies that gift you with more gold to spend in auctions, to the Ghost that brings an already-auctioned character back from the ‘dead’, to the Troll that makes all characters lose all stones of a specific colour.
There are (or were – the website seems to be down right now, but expect it to be back up at some point on the Days of Wonder site) even some special characters you can download, print off and stick on to blank cards that are provided with the game for even more variety. Days of Wonder held a competition when the game first came out for players to design their own characters, and they illustrated the winner’s suggestions.
The gold you are bidding with is, in the main, fairy gold that returns to your hand after each round of ten auctions. You also have a small pool of real gold that is gone for good if you bid with it (and everything bid is lost – whether you win or lose). If you ever tie with other players, you bid again using your small supply of silver (which is also permanently gone if you use it).
You can never be quite sure how much gold or silver each player has left (without a good memory) as all coins are kept hidden behind a screen for each player. And this is a blind bidding game – each player puts what he or she wants to bid into a fist, and holds it over the table, when each player has bid, all bids are revealed simultaneously and the highest bid takes the character.
There is a lot of second-guessing and psychology that goes into this small package of a game, and the sheer variety and randomness of the cards that come out make it very tricky to pin down exactly what cards are worth to each player (and hence how much each player might bid for that character). I love trying to out-think my opponents, and trying to bid just enough to outbid them without spending an inordinate amount in a single auction. Invariably I fail, but I still love the mechanic. But then I am a fan of blind-bidding games. If you struggle with this mechanic, you should stay clear, because there isn’t much more to the game than blind bid after blind bid…
Summary
Presentation: The cards are wonderfully illustrated by Julien Delval, with very evocative pictures and clear instructions for each character on the card. The coins and screens are functional and sturdy, and there are weird little scoring dice thingies to record everyone’s score (all the way up to the lofty heights of three), and lovely glass beads to represent dragonstones in a cloth bag. All in all very easy on the eyes and functional. 8.6/10
Clarity of Rules: The rules are pretty simple and easily explained. The majority of the rulebook is taken up by an in-depth explanation of each character card, although they are in the main very intuitive and easy to understand. 8.8/10
Game Length: The game can be over very quickly indeed. With only three points needed to win, and one card that lets you gain two points in a single auction, things need to be watched carefully to avoid an easy win for a player. Even with constant ‘hose the leader’ tactics, things don’t last long, and a game will take up a maximum of an hour of your time. Just enough for a game of this depth. 9.4/10
Value: It’s a small-box game that packs a lot into the gameplay. With a variety of characters making each game different, and a variety of ways to get this stones and points, things don’t get tired very quickly at all. And what with the free downloadable characters (should they ever get them back up again), your game will have fresh life for many playings to come. 9.1/10
Overall: If you like bidding games, and special ability characters, and fantasy themes, then you’ll love this game. It pushes all the right buttons for me (despite being devoid of zombies or pirates – although there is a Necromancer and a Brigand), and I’ll never turn down an offer to play this excellent light filler game. 9.3/10 (not an average)
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