Dragonkeepers Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Dragonkeepers, a family weight board game published by Thames and Kosmos. In Dragonkeepers, you are competing against other magicians for the most points.

Good presentation does a lot for me in terms of generating interest in a game, but a game’s mechanics are what keeps me engaged. Dragonkeepers, designed and illustrated by Michael Menzel, caught my attention with its cute dragons, but does the spellbook manipulation work? Is there enough decision space to keep me entertained, while also being simple enough for my family to play?

Read on to find out more about this two- to four-player game that lasts about 30 minutes for ages eight and up.

The goal of Dragonkeepers is to collect rewards such as amulet pieces, pearls for completing amulet pieces, golden eggs, some crests, and crystals for collecting sets of dragons. This is done by manipulating a magic book. It’s not really magic and it’s also not really a book, but let’s move on.

This not-quite-a-book has one card from each pile half flipped over to be a display. The card back shows a number and the card’s rewards on the left-hand side of the book, while the right-hand side shows the color of a dragon. The display shows face-up dragons, but the values on the reverse of that card are also shown.

A player’s turn is made up of three main steps:
• Players may take 1, 2, or 3 Dragon cards from the display, refilling the display each time.
• Players may add one card to either side of the magic book. This step can be repeated for the other side but only one card can be added per side per turn.
• Play a set of dragons in front of you that matches the number and color of the dragons shown on the pages of the magic book. And then collect the rewards shown on the left page.

As you collect sets of dragons, you’ll have a pile of each dragon type, but once a dragon has other dragons on both sides of it, you can no longer add more of that type to its pile. To take the edge off that point-limiting decision, collecting