Troll & Dragon
Designer: Alexandre Emerit // Publisher: LOKI // Ages: 7+
Troll & Dragon is a push-your-luck game where players take turns rolling dice to collect as many diamonds and gold before they are caught by the Troll or Dragon.
Gameplay Overview: Roll Dice, Collect, Stop before it’s too late
During a player’s turn they go through two possible phases: stealing diamonds from the troll, and then possibly stealing gold from the dragon.
The game box has two rooms, the troll room with diamonds and the dragon room with gold. The player starts in the troll room and rolls 4 troll dice. For each diamond face they roll, they collect a diamond. When a troll face is rolled, that die is locked and can’t be rolled any more. The player can re-roll over and over again, collecting as many diamonds as they can until all 4 dice are trolls, at which point they lose all their diamonds to the troll. Players can stop at anytime, ending their turn and keeping the diamonds they have collected up to that point. The dice also have a door and a key face. If the player rolls both the door and key, they can stop and enter the dragon room. They secure all the diamonds they have collected, put away the troll room dice and pick up the 2 gold dice.
In the dragon room they must now roll the gold dice as fast as they can, collecting any gold every time the dice show a gold face. The gold dice has mostly blank faces and a couple of gold faces. While the active player is doing this, the other players are taking turns rolling the 2 dragon dice, declaring out loud when each dragon face appears. Once the dragon face appears on both dice, the active player loses all their collected gold, unless they declared “I’m Leaving” before the 2 dragon faces show.
If the active player fails to declare “I’m Leaving” before the dragon faces show, they lose all their collected gold to the other players. Also, the Troll is terrified by the dragon and drops any diamonds he collected from previous player turns. These dropped diamonds also split among the non-active players.
The game ends when a room of treasures is empty and all players count their loot; diamonds are worth 1 point and gold are worth 3 points. (Flip over your player board for some help counting the golds in 3s)
Impressions
Theme: The theme is fun and exciting as players choose from a selection of characters. The art is incredible and strongly lends to the overall experience. The theme jsmust seems perfect for a push your luck mechanic.
Components: Like our previous review of a LOKI game (SOS Dino), the components are incredible. The diamonds and gold are a joy to hold and you really feel like you collected something precious. The dice are chunky and colourful and everything fits into a compact box making it great for travel.
Age Range: The box says 7 and up, but as you can tell by the gameplay description, the game is very simple to understand. We think the age suggestion is more focused on emotional readiness. As with any push-your-luck game, you have to be mentally prepared for a strong dose of disappointment. If you collect a lot of treasure and have some bad luck you can lose it all, which can be heart-breaking at any age, but young gamers won’t be able to handle the disappointment as well. Our 6 year old handled it quite well, but it took a few tries for her grasp the idea of pushing her luck.
Strategy/Luck: There is hefty amount of luck in this game, but it’s upfront about it so everyone goes into it knowing that. The good thing is that every age is on equal footing and anyone can win. In fact, our 6 year old often wins because she plays conservatively, stopping once she sees one dragon die. Where as I will push 1 or 2 more rolls thinking what are the chances both dragons get rolled consecutively. I often leave empty handed and my daughter laughs at me.
Duration: The game plays extremely quick. Although the rules indicate to stop when a room is empty, you can determine when you want to stop to make it a shorter game. Or even agree upon a certain number of turns before you start.
Player Interaction: We absolutely love how the other players work together as the dragon against the active player. This is he highlight of the game. It gets everyone involved even when it’s not their active turn. It also provides a way for non-active players to collect treasures if they are able to wake the dragon in time. It’s rare to see a push your luck game involve other players so well, so its a refreshing twist.
Verdict: Fast-paced trills and roller coaster emotions
Push-your-luck games often don’t go over well with young children. Adults love it. They love the suspense and drama of risking it all and treading on thin ice. However, kids take disappointment very personal and it can be off-putting. Troll & Dragon makes it easier to handle the frustrations of risk and loss, providing a great learning opportunity for kids to understand general risk management. In a game like this bad luck happens often and evenly among all players. Witnessing bad rolls happening to another player helps them understand risk and how to deal with it. It provides ample opportunities to practice managing emotions which is one of the largest obstacles parents face when playing games with their kids.
Overall, the game is a fast-paced thrill ride for adults and kids. Older children will enjoy it best. While younger children will need to play with a parent at first to get used to the push-your-luck style of gameplay. In the end, the experience will make them better overall gamers, but it might be an emotional start.
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* Troll & Dragon was generously provide for review by Luma Games, the exclusive Canadian distributor of Loki Games. If your local store doesn’t carry Loki’s line of games, ask them to contact Lumagames.ca