Drinkin' Dragons is played with face up circular drinks on an 8 x 8 board. Dice are used to show the exact orthogonal distance you move, and other dice show the direction you move. When you move from a position the drink is consumed and it disappears from the position, so players' options will progressively decrease. You don't win the game by consuming your desired drinks, but you gain an extra die to roll once you consume one of your desired drinks, increasing your movement options. What determines the winner is who possesses the holy grail at the end of the game.
- The starting positions for dragons and the holy grail are determined with eight-sided dice.
- Players choose which character they want to be.
Your character would not be secret ("Aren't you allergic to that?"), but the desired drinks are secret, until consumed.
- Dragons can fight if they are on the same position. Roll a six-sided die to see
who wins, the attacker wins ties. The loser would not be able to do anything for four
turns - after the winner moves from the position.
Note that while dragons could fight, that doesn't mean they would.
Dragons would normally fight for possession of the holy grail.
- The alternate name for Drinkin' Dragons is Dragons and Flagons.
- This is for three or four players.
- Dragons go for desired drinks, they might co-operate with each other, they could
go for the holy grail. Later in the game it is a scramble with
dragons chasing down the dragon with the holy grail and fighting.
- When you consume a desired drink, you get one additional die for your turns.
Your choice of direction or distance, maximum of four for each.
What do we do about bad drinks? If you don't drink, e.g. tea, you can't land on
that bad drink.
If you land on
alcohol you can continue to fly around and drink, but you can't communicate meaningfully,
speech or body language,
for three0 turns. Drunk dragons lose ties in fights. Someone who has a coffee who also
has a bad die roll (one in three) will be preoccupied during the next turn, going to the bathroom, so can't move or communicate for the next turn. Allergy or lactose intolerance
probably means you miss the next three turns, and can not fight. If you land on a peanut product and you
have anaphylaxis you are out.
Bleh!
So you're in the middle of the game with two or three dice for directions, and two or three dice for distance.
During a turn you may reroll some or all of your dice, maybe keeping some dice unrolled
for options, future moves.
Permutations, possibilities, planning. Target options. Other dragons are doing whatever. A disappearing board. A bad drink over there.
During your turn, after rolling some dice, you may move your dragon, with one die
showing direction and another die showing exact distance.
You take the two dice used for the move and put them in a different place, like a
little bowl. They are still very much your dice, but they
will have to be rerolled before they can be used again.
Tinkering with the numbers. Four parts 1, four parts 2, three parts 3, two parts 4. Have fun putting that on a die.
You are green dragon. X shows desired drinks. Dot shows the holy grail.
Are you supposed to have a drink with another dragon, perhaps beer? Is there more than one
flagon for one of your desired drinks? Does the holy grail happen to be located on a desired drink? Does another dragon also want the Peardrax?
the Dice Shop at mathartfun.com
There are 13-sided dice. Who knew?
Before I forget:
Sandy might be inclined to sing Caribbean songs, especially when drunk.
Add Vietnamese coffee. No dot, so rare. The lactose intolerant dragon should watch out.
Let's talk components and aesthetics.
It would be European dragons,
with hints of the middle ages. No Asian dragons.
The box art would be
cartoony. The box picture would remind one of the Last Supper painting (plus flying dragon
or two). Possibilities include stained glass colours and clouds.
I like that red plastic dragon up top, simple and smaller. One primary colour per dragon. Fitting dragons - possibly more than one - on a position is an issue.
Drinks are discs made of something, mostly brown with some green guarana, white banana milk etc.
Nice script with the name of the drink.
There is a holy grail figure. It starts off
on the board, but when a dragon takes it, the player puts it in front of him.
Dice would be 13-sided for the distance, four-sided for direction (I want to use eight-sided).
Six cards would be in front of you, your desired drinks. These would be
upside down, but turned face
up when the drink has been consumed.
So would the game be any good? Only testing will tell.
Con:
You have a place to go. You roll dice. You may or may not get it. Yay.
Is it too difficult to chase down the dragon with the holy grail? Meanwhile the
first player to grab it gets it pretty much randomly. Not everyone is going to be
happy about the randomness of fighting.
Would the game be too brief? Say 18 moves for a dragon in a three-player game, with twice as
many turns.
Pro:
There is a whole grab bag of possible things that could be taken
into consideration when you move (and reroll certain dice). A basic dilemma is whether
to go after your desired drinks or go after the holy grail. Various bits of theme
would add to the experience. Could be some interesting route finding at the end.
What could make the difference is player interaction.
I get fiction ideas. Nothing will ever come of it.
Red Dart has the skeletal structure of Star Trek, but is its own thing. The titular government starship scooting through space. Uniforms, crew structure, bridge. Peacefully seeking life.
A lot of people stuff goes on. Not really my thing; it would be nice to work with another writer with different strengths. A spy, never quite identified, known as Glow Worm. Love that. Ambassador. Classic murder mystery. A trial, like on Star Trek. Black hole, a bit of astronomy. Food. Dance. Parties, cruising, festival. Financial schemes. Organised crime. An alien pet. Researching life, maybe some single-celled life on one of Gloonx's moons. Maybe a fame-seeking narcissist.
So why would there be a spy on board a science space ship? What I'm getting at is
we should shake up what the Red Dart ship does, is for. Let's look at some options,
precedents.