Fafnir

About this board game

Fafnir is a 2–4-player gem-collecting game that plays in about 20 minutes. Each day, the chicken Fafnir lays two new gems, tempting everyone to trade away stones that might be less valuable than the ones to come.

In each round, players choose how many gems to throw away. Whoever discards the most acquires the two newest gems, but there is an important restriction: you cannot discard either color of the gems Fafnir has just laid. The gems you reject determine whether you can claim the gems you want.

The round ends once a certain number of stones have been discarded. Everyone then scores the gems they have collected, making every choice a balance between immediate value and the changing mix of colors in your collection.

• Gold gems: Worth 1 point each, regardless of how many you collect.
• Most frequent color: Worth 3 points per gem.
• Second-most frequent color: Worth 2 points per gem.
• All other colors: Worth -1 point per gem.

Gold offers a dependable way to score, while the five colored gem types can produce much higher rewards if you collect the right colors. However, collecting a color that falls outside the top two can cost points, so the value of your collection depends on how its colors compare with one another.

With its changing gem supply, discard-based race, and distinct scoring priorities, Fafnir creates a compact contest over which stones to keep and which to sacrifice. Play it safe with gold or pursue the colors that could lead the scoring.