Do you remember the collectible dice game Dragon Dice that TSR put out back in the 90s? I do. I had a bunch of those dice. I used to really enjoy that game.
But wait… Did you know that it’s actually still around, and still plays pretty much the same?
The rules have been streamlined and the game plays a bit quicker, but it’s otherwise much the same. The biggest change is the fact that it’s no longer just totally random packs of dice. Now you buy your forces by army or expansion type.
Disclosure: Thanks to SFR for giving us a playmat and a starter set so we could revisit Dragon Dice. Some links in this post are affiliate links. Using these links doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps support this blog and podcast. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Quick Nav Menu, Click to Jump to that section:
- What is Dragon Dice? (Game Info & Components)
- Playing Dragon Dice? (Rules & Gameplay Overview)
- Fully Enjoying Dragon Dice Requires a Commitment (Review & Overall Thoughts)
What is Dragon Dice?
The company behind Dragon Dice’s resurrection and continued longevity is SFR Inc. They own the rights to the original TSR game along with all the art assets. This has allowed them to reprint all of the classic material and also create new content for this venerable game.
For a game I thought was long dead there’s a ton of content out there.
The one specific bit of that content that I am looking at today is the two player starter set, Firewalker vs Treefolk. This is a small box that contains everything you need to jump into the world of Dragon Dice. It works as a stand alone game or as a core set to start you on an army building journey. Is also fully compatible with everything else Dragon Dice that is out there, old or new.
This starter set allows you to play two player games of Dragon Dice and includes a set of simplified introductory rules from designers Chris ‘Shep’ Shepperson and Lester Smith. The artwork for the game is from the late Jennell Jaquays.
In Dragon Dice you recreate an epic fantasy battle fought over three fronts. Your units are represented by different dice including D6 troops, D10 monsters, and D12 dragons. At the centre of each of the battlefield’s three fronts is a D8 terrain die. The first player to use their troops to control two of the three terrain dice, by rolling them up to eight, wins. You can also win by totally annihilating all of your opponent’s dice.
This starter set features two armies, Firewalkers and Treefolk, each with thirty health worth of units. This includes troops, two terrain dice. and two dragons each. What I thought was interesting is that the Firewalkers are a classic Dragon Dice army that has been around since the game first came out but the Treefolk are one of the new factions created by SFR Inc.
You can get a look at all of these dice, plus the fold out battlefield playmats and the simplified rules, by checking out our Dragon Dice Two Player Starter Set Unboxing Video on YouTube. In addition to what you get in the base set, I also show off one of SFR’s sweet vinyl playmats.
Many of the pictures in this review were from games played on the playmat. Be aware that this mat does not come with the starter set but is something you need to purchase separately.
As for the Starter Set, they managed to fit a lot into this little box, including forty dice, fold out maps, and a rather thick rulebook. The problem is that the box is so little that the rulebook comes folded in half, as are the playmats, and it’s going to take some work to make either lay flat. I left mine sitting under Gloomhaven for a week and they still won’t lay completely flat.
As for component quality, the dice are well crafted with etched symbols, so you don’t have to worry anything wearing off. The rulebook is clear, though detailed, which I think is because of the fact that people play tournaments of this game for prizes. I personally would have liked it if the two map halves were different, one for each army, but that doesn’t impact play at all.
What does impact play is the clarity of the iconography on the dice, but we’ll get into more about that later.
Playing Dragon Dice
To play a game of Dragon Dice with the Two Player Starter Set, each player chooses one of the two included factions and collects all of the dice for that army. They also split up the dragons evenly, two per player. Each player places a playmat in front of them so that the two are touching.
Players split their army of dice into three forces, one for each of the three battlefields. In the end each player will have a home army, a campaign army, and a horde army. Each player also selects one terrain dice for their home area and a perspective terrain die for the campaign area. This is done without the other player seeing what you are choosing and both players reveal their final choices simultaneously.
Despite the dice looking similar, and all of an army’s dice being the same set of colours, they are actually split up into various unit types. The unit types in the starter set including Heavy and Light Melee, Cavalry, Missile, and Magic. The main face of each die indicates its type.
Each troop die type features a different mix of symbols representing magic, missile, melee, manoeuvre, and saves. The face of each die is wild and counts as whatever you are trying to roll for. The size of each die indicates it’s health and strength, small dice are one health, medium are two, and large are three. The larger the die the more symbols you get on each side, and the face counts as multiple wild symbols equal to its size.
Each army in this starter set also includes two monsters, these are D10 dice and have a strength of four and thus four health. In addition to the basic symbols, monster dice include special action icons or SAI’s each of these does something different and you are going to have to look up a chart in the book to figure out what each of those are. For example the Treefolk Redwood has the trample ability which counts as either four melee or four manoeuvre symbols when rolled.
Everyone’s revealed armies are placed into the appropriate battlefields. The game starts with each player rolling their entire Horde Army. The player who rolls the most manoeuvre symbols has a choice. They can use their chosen terrain die for the Campaign Battlefield or they can go first. If they go first, their opponent then gets to use their terrain die.
In case it wasn’t clear, the actual monsters are unique to the army you are playing and each faction has its own set of monster dice. I don’t know if these are randomized in the starter set, but both of my Treefolk monsters were the same.
Play now alternates between the two players until someone wins the game by either controlling two of the three battlefields or by eliminating all of their opponent’s forces.
On a player’s turn, they get to activate two of their armies. Note an army is all of the dice in one battlefield or in the players reserve, and not just a single die. When activating an army in one of the three battlefields you first have the option to try to manoeuvre.
This is how you change the value on a terrain die, and one of the ways to win is to control two terrain dice rolled up to their last spot, an eight. When maneuvering you can choose to roll a die up or down. While you need to roll them up to control the area, you may instead want to roll a die down to make it harder for your opponent to take control or to allow you to do a specific action. You don’t need to declare which way you plan to go when you announce you are manoeuvring.
When you declare you are going to maneuver, the opponent gets the option to oppose. If they choose not to oppose, you just change the die. If they do oppose then both players roll their armies at that battlefield. If you get more maneuver symbols than your opponent, you get to roll up the die. When rolling watch for special symbols that can cause additional effects.
When completing a maneuver, if you roll a terrain die up to eight you now control that terrain and move it towards your side of that battlefield.
Next the active player can take an action with their activated army. This action must match the action currently showing on the terrain die where they are. One advantage of controlling a battlefield is that you get to pick any of the three actions. Terrain dice also have different types and each gives you an in game advantage of some type for controlling them. For example, controlling a Tower lets you use missile attacks against any army, and controlling a Town lets you recruit and upgrade troops.
The three actions in Dragon Dice are Magic, Missile, and Melee. For each of these you roll your army and count up the number of matching symbols, watching for any special symbols. Remember that a die’s face counts as whatever it is your are rolling for at the time.
Magic is the most complicated part of Dragon Dice. For each magic result you roll you generate spell points which can then be spent to cast one or more spells. Each army is made up of two colours representing different elements. Each element has it’s own spell list. Spells do all kinds of things like automatic damage, automatic defense, changing the terrain die, healing and resurrecting troops and more.
Missile actions are targeted on either the opponents army at the location you are at or at an adjacent battlefield. Each missile result counts as one health worth of damage. The targeted opponent’s army is rolled with them hoping for saves. Each save result, negates one damage. Any damage leftover has to be taken by the opponent moving dice by moving dice to the graveyard. It is up to the target to decide how this is split up but damage can’t be split among dice if it would take one or more out.
For example you can’t assign two damage, one each, to two different strength two troops, instead you would have to take one out.
Melee attacks are similar but can only be targeted at the army at your location. You roll your dice and count the melee results and your opponent rolls their dice looking for saves. After damage is taken the opponent gets to counter attack, rolling their remaining dice looking for melee results and you need to roll your dice looking for saves.
After activating two armies, the active player has the option to move units to and from their reserve. They can move any number of units from any of the battlefields to their reserve, and they can move any units already in reserve to a battlefield. Note you cannot move units directly between battlefields (except with some spells).
All of the units in reserve count as a single army and can be activated. The only action they can take is to roll for magic. They are considered too far from the front lines for melee or missile attacks. In addition the spells they can cast are limited.
That’s pretty much all you need to know to get the general gist of how Dragon Dice plays. Play continues with the next player activating two armies and only ends when one player controls two out of three terrain dice or all of their opponents troops are wiped out.
There is of course a lot more minutia to Dragon Dice. There really are a ton of spells included even with this starter set, and they allow all kinds of different options and strategies. One of these lets you summon dragons. Dragons are represented by D12 dice and are placed on a Battlefields where they will attack both players armies each turn. Dragons can be attacked by either player and there’s some potential reward for fighting them.
Also be aware that this starter set features simplified rules. Once you know the game you can check out the full Dragon Dice rules at SFR’s site and even pick up a separate, printed rulebook if you wish. The full rules include army specific abilities that make the terrain dice more important (I was shocked these rules weren’t included in the starter), rules for magic items, new types of dice, more spells, and more.
Finally, I need to mention the army building and collectible aspect of Dragon Dice. The Two Player Starter Set comes with two complete armies but there are now fourteen different factions available. You can get kicker packs for the armies in this box, or any of the other factions. There are also expansions like magic items, minor terrain, Dragonkin, White Dragons, and more.
Unlike the original TSR version of the game, you can even mix and match factions. Though be aware that when using the full rules there is an advantage to playing the same or similar colours.
The good thing about how SFR is doing this is that you no longer have to buy blind packs containing random dice split over all of the armies and expansions. While the packs are still randomized and there are still collectible aspects including die rarity, at least you always know what faction you are getting, (or what die types with the expansions).
When getting into Dragon Dice you can start the game with this starter set, or perhaps even better pick up the Make Your Own 2-Player Starter. It comes with four dragons, four terrain and two kickers for two armies of your choosing. Each kicker includes seven troops and one monster. You can add in rulebooks and playmats for $1 each.
Fully enjoying Dragon Dice requires a commitment
The important thing to know about Dragon Dice is that it’s basically a miniature battle game that uses dice. It’s an army building game that includes all of the purchasing of expansion packs, trying to get the perfect force, and a changing meta based on what factions you and your opponents are playing.
While this is no Warhammer, really enjoying Dragon Dice involves committing to it. You need to learn the different unit types, the various monsters, and the different dragons. You need to figure out which terrain dice work best with which army, interesting combos between different factions, and more.
Of course Dragon Dice has a huge advantage over miniature battle games by not having any actual miniatures. There’s nothing to assemble, no scenery to make, and you don’t need a huge table to play. That alone makes this a great game for people who like miniature wargames but don’t enjoy all the extra stuff that goes along with them.
Before diving all the way in to Dragon Dice, you should figure out whether this game is for you or not and that where the starter set shines. This box gives you two full, very playable, armies, and a set of rules that gives you a great feel for the overall game. While it lacks all of the small details and depth of the full rules, it’s more than enough for someone to be able to tell if the game is right for them or not.
The biggest issue with Dragon Dice is its initial learning curve. There is a lot going on in this game. It has quite a few moving parts and a ton of symbols to learn and get used to. It also doesn’t help that there’s really not any onboarding or ramping up in this game. The first decision you need to make is how to split up a set of dice you probably know nothing about.
Something else that really hurts with this is the symbols on the dice themself. For whatever reason, for thematic impact maybe, TSR decided that despite the fact that there are only four basic symbol types they would make each of these symbols unique for each army.
SFR has kept that up, keeping all of the original symbology and creating new symbols for their new factions. Far too many of these symbols look similar and you will find new players struggling to figure out if that stick looking thing is a melee club or a missile arrow.
I admit, having unique symbols for each army is kind of cool, and once you do make out what is what, they are well designed, but as for playability it would have been so much better if there were standard symbols for melee, maneuver, missile and save. This would make army building easier. I would also make it easier to calculate roll totals for both player’s and to figure out what is what from across the table.
I got into Dragon Dice back when it was first released, I played it with my dad who enjoyed the game and helped add to my collection. I played with some of the local gamers and brought it out to the local RPG club (though I was the only one that actually owned any of the dice).
I have fond memories of the game from back then and I was surprised to learn I still enjoy it now.
The game of Dragon Dice that is available now, from SFR, is basically still the same game it was from TSR back in the day. The overall gameplay and overall feel is the same. I feel like I’m fighting a war on three fronts, attempting to outmaneuver my opponent, and rolling a ton of dice! Who doesn’t like rolling a big handful of dice?
Even better, SFR has added new content to the game, including new factions and new die types. They have also worked on balancing it and clarifying the rules. The game plays quicker and army building and adding expansions is so much better now. I also greatly appreciate that I can use all of my old dice with the newer rules. The fact that Dragon Dice is fully backwards compatible is a huge thing for people like me who still have their old dice.
By being this close to the original, SFR’s Dragon Dice feels like a game from another time. There are some over the top, somewhat ridiculous things, in this game, like the fact that each army has its own set of symbols. Plus the randomness factor is quite high. The basic gameplay is a mix of very simple to downright fiddly, especially when you get into spending spell points on various spell lists. To use an RPG term, this game has a lot of crunch.
Dragon Dice is very much a game you need to deep dive and get to know it. The more you play, the quicker games get, and even through the spell lists are long you are going to have your preferred spells that you come back to time and time again. One play of this game isn’t going to give you the feel for all the depth here, and that means it’s not going to be for everyone.
Overall I’m glad I stumbled into the SFR Dragon Dice booth at Origins. This game scratches a nostalgic itch for me and ended up being even more fun than I remember it being. The problem is the commitment required if I wanted to explore the game further. Even grabbing my old dice I would be hard pressed to make a good army out of what I have.
I admit I’m tempted to dive into it more. I find myself thinking, maybe I could just pick up some kickers to fill up my old Goblin army, or grab some terrain better fitting the dice I have so I can take full advantage of faction abilities and combos. What stops me is the fact that, so far, I’m the only one locally that has shown any interest in the game, and like any good wargame, you need other players around you who are also into the game for you to be able to truly enjoy it.
Part of this is the difficulty in hooking new players on Dragon Dice. It can be a deep pool to dive into and just tossing a faction at a new player is a good way to make them not want the game. The best thing I’ve found is to have new players watch experienced players play through a game or at least a couple of rounds.
If you can never have enough dice and shiny plastic math rocks are your jam, you may want to check out Dragon Dice just to get some cool unique dice. It was the appeal of the dice that got me into this game in the first place. Though do be aware these aren’t standard dice. They don’t have any numbers on them. You can’t just roll up to a D&D game with some Dragon Dice to use for rolling damage.
Do you have fond memories of Dragon Dice? This is a great way to dive back into the game and it’s fully compatible with any old sets you may still have. You may want to see if you can find other locals who are interested though, or else those dice, new and old, may just end up gathering dust.
Everyone else is going to have to make up their own mind in regards to Dragon Dice. This is a bit of a lifestyle game. While it does not require the investment of a collectible card game or a full on miniature game, it’s an army building wargame that rewards rules knowledge and having a curated collection and a local player pool.
That’s it for our review of the Dragon Dice 2 Player Starter Set Firewalker vs Treefolk, a starter set for a classic game that’s still going strong (which was a surprise to us!).
What’s a game you discovered is still going that you thought was long dead? Tell us all about it in the comments.
