Dragonkeepers Review

I’d love to be able to cast spells and use magic in my every day. Imagine all the things I could do! Housework would be done in the flick of a wand and work would be completed in seconds. More time for gaming! More time for fun! I could also herd dragons. Yes. Dragons. I said it. Instead of hens and alpacas, we could have dragons on the farm, and that would be so much cooler! And, having seen the dragons in Dragonkeepers, these are the dragons I would want. The fact herding them gains me points is almost a side bonus. And not to rip off a very famous card game system, I want to catch them all!

So what is it? It’s a card drafting, set collecting push your luck style game for 2-4 players age 8+ that lasts around 20 minutes. And speedy playtime means it’s an awesome game squeezed into a small timeframe. But that also means that one game is never enough!

So back to those dragons! We are magicians and there’s an extra special spell book that will let us herd some epically lovely dragons. I have termed them Cutagons because every time I see them I can’t help but go “aaawww”. They look like dragons and farm animals fell in love and had babies. Oh and on their way into the world each one got hit with every branch on the adorable-tree!

Herding is good because it means we gain victory point scoring amulets, pearls, dragon eggies, and shields!

Cutagons

Simple to learn, there are four dragon suits (get ready for my own informal renaming): White Pasture Dragon (Billy-Gons!), Blue Slate Dragon (Rocky-Gons!), Red Fur Dragon (Moo-Gons!) and Green Swamp Dragon (Goo-gons!).

The spell book is folio, and the pages are two stacks of cards. The top page of one stack shows the suit of dragon to be herded. The other page shows the number of that dragon you need to lay down in order to cast a spell and gain the reward shown on the page. On your turn you can take 1-3 cards. And if you have the correct number of dragons in the required suit as shown on the spell book, you can lay those dragons down and get some goodies! The values of the amulets you are building for end game VPs increase over the course of the game too (as do the pearls), so timing is very important in this game!

But, when you take a page and add it to your hand in Dragonkeepers, it is instantly replaced. You can also place a card from your hand directly onto the spell book! This means that the pages (cards) of the book are constantly changing! This means that the dragons which need to be herded this round changes in terms of breed and number! And as you can take up to three cards on your turn and return cards back to the stacks, the power to manipulate the active spell is in your own hands!

The trouble is, you’ll need to sacrifice cards you might need to lay those very same dragons down for points!. Plus, at the end of your turn, if opponents can also complete the spell on show (they can't manipulate it), they can herd those dragons from their own hand and gain the rewards too! Oh and as you can only collect one of each breed of dragons, you’ve got to decide whether to collect early on or try to go for a bigger herd later on. Just to add something else into the mix, once you have three dragon suit piles in front of you, the one in the middle can’t accept any more dragons! So working out where to place your herds in the first instance is important too!

The game ends when there are a specific number of amulets completed (scaled for player count). The winner is the player who has scored the most points across amulets, pearls, eggies, and shields.

Final Thoughts

We loved Dragonkeepers from the get-go. It’s fast, fun, and feels fresh! The rules are simple, but the synapse sizzle really starts to emerge after just a few games. Balancing the need to take cards against using them is omnipresent. As is knowing that later rewards will be worth more……if you can get to them before other players trigger end game that is! Plus, knowing you might be creating opportunities for others to score on your turn adds another fiery dynamic. Last game, I boxed myself in maxing out a dragon suit mid game, so next time we play I am definitely going to think more carefully about where to position my herds.

It’s also very obvious that I think this game is super cute – I am in love with the illustrations. I didn’t mention it earlier, but there’s also an expansion in the box comprising special treasure chest tiles enabling special abilities! I don’t think the base game needs them specifically, but they will definitely add to the decision dilemmas when added into the game play. And more synapse sizzle is always a good thing for us!

Editors note: This post was originally published on November 15th 2023. Updated on March 6th 2024 to improve the information available.