Dragon Run

About this board game

Dragon Run is a fast 2–5 player game that takes about 15 minutes, challenging adventurers to escape a dragon’s keep with their loot and lives intact.

Each player begins with four treasure cards and must choose how boldly to flee. Advance boldly by drawing from the location deck, risking a dragon encounter, finding new treasure, or discovering a card that lets you redraw or stop. Drawing the dragon costs one of your two health points, lowers its temper by one, and reshuffles the deck.

There are other ways to survive the escape, but each demands a sacrifice:

• Flee cautiously: discard a treasure worth at least one coin, then roll a d10. A high enough result calms the dragon and reshuffles the location deck; otherwise, you still draw from the deck.
• Cry like a baby: discard a treasure worth at least two coins to avoid drawing a location card.

Treasure cards may be worth one to five coins, or provide useful effects. One-shot potions offer temporary assistance, while talismans remain active until the location deck is reshuffled. Every player also has a unique power usable once per round, such as the thief’s ability to steal cards or the cleric’s talent for healing opponents in exchange for treasure.

Dragon Run lasts from five to eight rounds. If the dragon loses its final temper point, the game ends and the player holding the most valuable treasure wins. But if every adventurer is injured twice and dies first, the dragon triumphs instead.