The Red Dragon Inn 3
Overview
Red Dragon Inn 3 introduces four fresh and lively characters that use side-decks to implement various new game play mechanics and cool card combo interactions. The new characters are a Troll, a Pixie, a Half-orc and Gnome! Let’s meet our new guests.
Red Dragon Inn 3 is a stand-alone expansion to its two predecessors. So you don’t have to have the original set to play. It comes complete. If you want to see how the game is played, check out the Red Dragon Inn review here!
New Characters!
Wizgille the Tinkerer (Gnomish Artificer):
Meet Wizgille! She likes to make gadgets. After she makes them she likes to tinker with them. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes…not so much. Wizgille has a “Gear” side deck that is shuffled and placed next to her player board at the beginning of the game. She has a lot of standard cards in her deck: (Gain gold, make other players lose Fortitude, etc.), but a little more than a third of her deck is Device cards (identified by small “gear” graphics in the card’s title box). When a Device card is played, Wizgille gets to reveal the top card of the Gear deck and follow its instructions. Of the 18 cards in the Gear deck, 13 of them allow the just played Device to take effect, but it may have a positive effect or a negative effect – increasing of decreasing the numerical value of the Devise card respectively. Five of the Gear cards cause the just played Device card to fail, usually with detrimental effects.
Cool Card Combo: Device: “Yup! My new Gold Attractor makes dungeon delving easier”
(Each player pays you 1 Gold) + Gear: “I’m Brilliant!” (Add 2 to any numeric effects) This means each other player pays you 3 Gold. That might be enough to knock several players out and get Wizgille a cool 6-24 Gold pieces depending on the number of players!
Kaylin the Renegade (Pixie Enchanter):
She’s a little pixie with a big attitude and an even bigger animal companion. Kaylin brings a side-deck representing her companion Wulfric to the game. Wulfric’s deck is shuffled and placed beside Kaylin’s player board and the top card is placed in his own discard pile. Wulfric’s deck is made up of 12 cards that represent his mood. Each of his moods (Playful, Needy, Clumsy, etc) has a game effect that is active for Kaylin’s turn. At the end of Kaylin’s turn, Wulfric’s mood changes. The next card is turned over and discarded.
Kaylin’s main deck has a good mix of the usual cards, gaining and causing losses of fortitude, ignoring drinks and a small amount gambling cards. Kaylin’s main deck also has several cards that ignore actions played against her.
Wulfric’s deck is comprised of and even amount of five cards that help Kaylin, five cards that are detrimental to Kaylin, and two cards that have no effect (“Wulfric is feeling Content.”) The best of these is probably “Wulfric is feeling Stalwart.” Which prevents any player from ignoring or negating any cards you play on them. (So save the coup de grace for when Wulfric is feeling Stalwart).
Cool Card: “I need some Private Pixie Time”
This card ends Kaylin’s turn immediately, she doesn’t buy drinks or drink. Even though other players can buy you drinks, they can’t target you with card effects. Most importantly, Wulfric doesn’t change moods. That means you have two turns to stockpile powerful cards if he is feeling Stalwart or any of the other positive moods.
Brewmaster Phrenk (Troll Alchemist):
Phrenk is a master of making potions. He begins the game with a Potion deck that’s shuffled and placed near his player board. Every turn he gets to turn over the top card of his potion deck, and he may use that potion’s effects as an action – as if that card were being played from his hand. Phrenk is not much of a gambler and his regular deck of cards focus a lot of affecting alcohol content, and Fortitude. The real “kick” to Phrenk’s deck is in his Potion side deck.
Of the 18 Potion cards available to Phrenk, eight affect Fortitude (either by gain or loss) six affect Alcohol content ( by addition or reduction) An invisibility potion allows a player to ignore any card that affects a player’s Alcohol content or Fortitude. One luck potion allows the player to add 1 to the effects of a card just played, but two of the cards: “Brewing Mishap” blows up your current potion. Kaboom!
Phrenk also has the choice of selling his potions to other characters for the gold purchase price shown on the card. They then take that potion and place it from them and can use it as if the potion were in their hand. This will net him Gold, but its an interesting option since this choice may come back to bite him. But hey, he’s a troll.
Cool Card: “Invisibility potion”
When this card is in front of you, it acts like an “I can get out of anything you throw at me” card. So it’s a good deterrent against other players playing nasty cards on you. It also creates a distraction for other players wanting to purchase it for its great effect.
Serena the Pious (Orc Paladin):
She’s a female Orc Paladin and she goes by the book: the Paladin Codex that is. Every card in Serena’s deck (except three) affects her Piety rating, which is indicated by a blue “up arrow” that raises her piety, or a yellow “down” arrow that lowers it. A card that is placed next to her player board tracks her Piety. Standard Gambling cards: “Gambling? I’m in!”, “I Raise!” and cheating cards make her Piety go down. Cards that affect other players, when Serena is praying, or Ignoring affects, makes her Piety go up. And five cards actually give Serena a choice of actions that will make her Piety go up or down based on her choice.
So what! You may say, what care I about how pious a Paladin Serena is? Half of Serena’s cards will have varying affects based on her Piety level at the time the card is played. The catch here is if her Piety is low (Bad Paladin! Bad Paladin!) game play effects that work against other players are worse – such as loss of Fortitude which seem to be prevalent in her deck. However at the same time, cards that affect Serena in a positive way are much less effective. (Gaining Fortitude and the like) So Serena is always conflicted, walking the fine line between wanting to win the game, (by crushing other players), and raising her piety (to give herself the upper hand). So as a player you are constantly tracking your Piety and evaluating the cards in your hand so they can be played with the most effective outcome.
Cool Card: “Purify Beverage” When played, if Serena’s Piety level is 8-6; reduce the alcohol content of a drink by 3. If her Piety level is between 5-1, reduce it by 2. If you play this card on another player, Serena’s piety rating goes UP 3 spots on the Piety track. A quick way to help yourself or your piety
New Drinks
Aside from the Inn’s normal fare, the wench may bring a few new drinks to your table.
Pixie Punch: Simply causes your character to gain 3 Alcohol content.
Gnomish Inspirational Ale: This drink causes the character to gain 2 Alcohol content BUT you also get to draw two cards and add them to your hand immediately. Inspirational!
Gamblers Grog: Gain 4 Alcohol content OR pay 2 Gold to pass the Gambler’s Grog to another player
Barroom Brawl!: This new Drink event causes every player to lose 1 Fortitude.
Monster Attack!: Each player loses 1 Alcohol Content. AND each player that chooses to help fight the monster will lose 3 Fortitude but gain 2 Gold from the Inn.
Components
Red Dragon Inn 3 utilizes the excellent work of Kennon James, Beth Trott, Doug Kovacs and Rose Besch to bring these unique characters and their various side –deck implementations to life. As with all the editions, much of the game’s appeal is in the art. Wulfric is cute. Wizgille is charming, you just cant help but like the characters created by Slugfest and company.
Final Thoughts
With Red Dragon Inn 3 the game can now be played with 12 players. I mean… what? As if this weren’t enough, the new characters in this third stand-alone are so rich with game play possibilities, card combos, and timing strategies. We have the evolution of some real strategic card play here. It’s not that the previous releases aren’t good. The game itself has always been solid. But earlier versions seemed lighter, more compact and this meant speedy game play. If you do actually manage to get 9-12 players (excluding the Allies expansions) the game slows down a bit but creates a more interesting, enduring game experience.
It is probably not coincidence that the original Red Dragon Inn released in 2008, came out about the same time as the deck-building craze began. And with this, the hobby game community who weren’t already playing card games, became more accustomed to non-collectible, strategic card play. The influx of these sorts of games influenced all games and this is seen in the evolution of the different characters in Red Dragon Inn series. This is not in any way a detriment. It is clear proof that the folks at Slugfest understand what players like and evolve with the preferences and trends in the industry – keeping players interested and challenged.
All that muckity-muck aside, this version of the game is a blast. No matter what character you choose, these characters when matched against any of the previous characters are challenging and the interactions are through the Red Dragon Inn roof. Red Dragon Inn 3 was quickly followed by two expansion Allies decks: (Pooky and Erin) that follow the same trend of expanded game mechanics within the decks themselves. Check them out!
Reviews for other Red Dragon Inn games:
User Reviews (4)
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I have never actually gone into a bar and drunken myself into a stupor, yet despite the questionable theme, it is my favorite game. Each player is a different character in a Dungeons and Dragons-style fantasy setting. The quest is over and now everybody is drinking, brawling, and gambling at the Inn.
Each player has a mat and a deck of cards for their character. There is one life bar on each player’s mat with Alcohol Content at 0 and Health at 20 plus each player starts with 10 Gold coins. Each turn a player plays an action card with a variety of effects. Helping himself, rough-housing with others, starting a round of gambling, etc. Then gives another player a drink card, then turns over a drink card in their drink pile. Damage drops Health, drinks increase Alcohol Content, and gambling costs money to everyone but the winner. If your Health or Alcohol content ever meet, you’re unconscious and thrown in a bed upstairs. If your Gold ever runs out, you’re in the stable for the night. (and thus out of the game.)
In this edition it adds the special mechanisms for each player. The Troll Alchemist makes drinks and potions. The Orc Paladdin’s cards have different effects depending on her piety. The Pixie Enchanter has a wolf that has different effects depending on his mood. And the wonderfully fun Gnome Tinkerer has gadgets that sometimes work great and sometimes blow up in her face.
Great fun to play as a nightcap for an evening of gaming.
RDI3 is probably my favorite of all the Red Dragon Inns–up to and including the current four. The game is great by itself, but imposes a limitation of four players. Combine it with any other RDI (or the single-character expansions) for more players.
The only issue I have with the newer expansions (both this one and RDI4) is that they make playing early characters, specifically from the first RDI, a bit difficult. Slugfest is great at coming up with unique mechanics for every new character, but I think that the advanced nature of these newer versions is steadily making the original characters somewhat obsolete.
Overall–great game and a great theme.
If you enjoyed the other Red Dragon Inn games, you’ll most likely enjoy this one also. It ups the total playable decks to 12. (not including the 2 decks you can purchase separately)
It also adds strategy into the mix with various added mechanics on these new characters. They can help or hurt you depending on what you’re doing, so you have to be careful!
Overall it’s a wonderful game. It’s simple in it’s design, and can be picked up by even your novice gamer without issue.
Red dragon inn is a game based on what happens after the adventure, and is amazing fun, simple to learn and have loads of replay value. simply put its a drinking game at the red dragon inn. and you are trying to drink your fellow adventurers under the table. also you are kicked out if you run out of gold, so that is a way to win as well.
overall this is a simple quick and fun game fun for most everyone, not really for the kiddies tho, as there is much drinking in game involved.