River Dragons

Family Focus Review

These reviews provide insight on some of the best games for families with young gamers. Written from a parent’s perspective for a fun and educational family game night!

Overview

In River Dragons, you are a young hopeful from your village trying to be the first to cross the river and receive a golden dragon from the King himself. Players in turn choose 5 action cards that dictate what they do during the turn. You can place stones in the river, place a plank or two on the stones and even take away other player’s planks. But dragons can rise out of the river and cancel other players’ actions! Negotiate your way across the river to the opposite village and you win!

Set Up

The game board is placed on the table and each player chooses a starting village printed around the edge of the game board. Players take the deck of cards that matches the color of the village they chose. Each deck contains 8 action cards and one dragon card that matches the other players’ colors. (With less than six players, you simply leave out the dragon cards for the unclaimed village colors.) Each player also takes 6 wooden planks numbered 1-6 that match their village color. A pile of “stones” is placed nearby and the youngest player takes the “first player” token. Ready? Set? Go!

Gameplay

There are only two game phases in River Dragons: the Programming Phase and the Action/Resolution Phase .

Programming Phase:
Each player chooses five cards from their hand and places them on the table in front of them from left to right in the order that player want the actions to occur. These are the actions a player can choose:

• Place 1 Stone – on an Island of your choice that doesn’t already have one.
• Place 2 Stones – on 2 islands of your choice as above.
• Place 1 Plank – between 2 stones. The Plank has to reach in length from one stone to another. If a Plank wont fit, it falls into the river and is lost!
• Place 2 Planks – as above.
• Remove 1 Plank OR 1 Stone – If a player must remove a plank it has to be a number that they don’t have in reserve.
• Move 1 – Move you player pawn from one plank or village space to another but only if it’s unoccupied. If you cannot move legally, you fall into the river!
• Move 2 – Move 2 spaces as above.
• Jump – Over another pawn that’s in your way. Again if you can’t, you fall in the river!
• Dragon – Playing a dragon card of a certain color cancels the action taken by the player of that color on this round.

Once the chosen cards are placed, they cant’ be moved.

Action/Resolution Phase:
During the Action/ Resolution phase, everyone reveals their first (farthest left) card at the same time. Then in player order, they are resolved (if possible). Once all players have taken their first action, the second card from the left is flipped for all players and play continues. This happens in player order for each card placed.

Once all 5 cards are flipped in the current round, The first player marker passes to the next player clockwise and players again choose 5 new cards for the next turn.

The game ends as soon as one player’s pawn safely reaches their destination village. That player wins and received a golden dragon from the King!

Components

One of the key attractions of this game is the family-friendly, cartoon-esque artwork with the wonderfully crafted components. The planks and pawns are made of wood and add to the simple, almost ancient ambience of the game.

Learning Curve

A game for ages 8 and up, the game is easily taught and played by this age group – and perhaps even younger depending on your child’s development.

Educational Value

River Dragons will help develop:

• Eye-hand coordination
• Strategic planning
• Decision making
• Player interaction
• Memory
• Patience and perseverance

River Dragons requires no reading skills. Each of the action cards adeptly pictures what effect that card has in the game. The vibrantly color-coded and numbered planks make the game visually easy to follow even for children as young as 6. But as you will see the game will test younger players in other ways.

For The Parent

River Monsters is easy to learn and is a good game for the kids, but the game’s mechanics can create a frustrating experience as well. The Programming and Action/Resolution phases each present a challenge for you as a parent in helping them succeed. Here are some tips:

• Even though the cards themselves have no text and depict the players’ actions clearly with illustrations, choosing the incorrect move may frustrate younger players. When a player makes a wrong move and “falls into the river,” that player must begin their next turn at their starting village. Like the game Sorry!, too much of this and a younger players will give up an move on to greener pastures. This is best handled with humor and a casual attitude. Take the game too seriously and your kids will too.
• Younger players must also balance the decision to play a card that advances them across the board, or in the case of “Remove a Plank/Stone” and the Dragon cards, whether to impede the other players. The latter is irresistible, even for adults. Children may need reminding that winning the race is the goal, not making other players lose. Keep it positive.
• During the Action/Resolution phase, the real charm of the game: the building of the plank bridges in 3-dimensions, can also be a downfall for younger players (and even grown-ups!). Three planks (the maximum) stacked on a stone are a bit unstable. Even though this is exactly the sort of tension and unpredictability that makes the game immersive, one accidental bump of a set of planks and the construct will tumble leaving everyone to sort it out. Parents may want to place the planks for the very youngest children, encouraging them in their choice, just to fend off inadvertent frustration or embarrassment.

Final Thoughts

Originally released in 2000 as Dragon Delta, River Dragons is in essence a simultaneous action selection game. Like the classic Robo Rally players “program” their turn in advance, and like Robo Rally, chaos ensues. This game, however, is very accessible to children and families in that the “chaos” is less adversarial and more… comical.

Overall, the game is charming and the artwork and design are very appealing. On a shelf next to other games, it simply beckons to be played. Reasonably easy to set up and begin, little explanation is needed even for the youngest of players. As game play progresses, everyone can immediately see the “collision” that is about to occur. With each player needing to get to the opposite side of the board to win, everyone very quickly gets in everyone’s way – blocking moves, stepping on other players’ planks and removing planks and stones to thwart the advance of the other players. Playing Dragons on other players always causes a groan, but you play them at the expense of advancing your own game.

From a complexity standpoint, every action card does have its specific limitations and consequences if it is played incorrectly. For example, a player cannot play a “Remove a Plank” action card unless they are missing that same numbered plank from their inventory. If not, the action is lost. The “Jump over another Pawn” is the most difficult action to play as the conditions must be perfect – otherwise “plop” you’re in the river and back to start. Many time the players will find – though no fault of their own – that their chosen action cannot be done. And this is the real action that the game provides. Chaos. The simultaneous action selection of 5 different cards in 5 different turns creates an amazing emergent interaction that is not random – but certainly seems that way. This unpredictable behavior of the game may cause frustration. The key is how you and your children are able to handle this.

Frustration is often a difficult emotion to negotiate in a game. After all, games are supposed to be fun. Even adults don’t always handle frustration well in games. So in this game parents have a real opportunity to set an amazing example of patience and learning how to “roll with the punches” (or “dragons” as it were). Good humor must be a part of the game as many, many times the moves that a player wants to make, cannot be achieved through the player interaction on the plank network. Helping younger players along with turn planning and even at times, plank placement will create a more enjoyable experience for everyone. And in this game, you must keep your eye on everyone. As soon as the chaos can ensue, a winner will hop right down off a plank into the winning village.

The mechanics and emergent behavior that River Dragons presents creates a truly enjoyable game experience and a great replay value. Asmodee has done well to reissue the game. A hidden gem for the family and even casual adult gamers!