Ever wondered what happens to a group of adventurers after they return, victorious, from delving into the darkest dungeons? According to Slugfest Games' new title, The Red Dragon Inn, they head for the nearest tavern and spend the night drinking, gambling, and trying to steal one anothers gold.

In The Red Dragon Inn, each player takes the role of one of four different adventurers. There's Zot, the crafty mage with his half-demonic pet rabbit Pookey. Gerki's the sneaky pickpocket whose sleeves are filled with poisons. Fiona is a tough-but-dim warrior maiden. And finally, Deirdre the elven priestess, whose goddess keeps her safe from villains. Each character has a special deck of cards tailored to his or her abilities. While several cards in each of the four decks are the same, each has a smattering of unique cards that help make the characters play a bit differently.

Each player gets a board with spaces for their decks and discards, as well as a spot for drink cards. The boards also have a circular track for keeping tabs on their fortitude and alchohol content. The markers for these two tracks start at opposite ends, and should they ever meet or cross, the player has passed out and is done for the night. Additionally, running out of gold will also eliminate a player from the game. The goal is to be the last player not passed out and/or with gold remaining in his or her coin purse.

A separate deck of drink cards is placed in the middle of the table, and one drink card is placed facedown on every players board. Each player gets ten gold coins, draws to a hand a seven cards and the festivities begin.

On a players turn, he can discard any number of cards and draw back to seven, play one action card, buy a drink for another player (adding another drink card to their stack) and then drink (by revealing the top card of his drink stack and resolving its effects). Mostly these drinks simply raise alchohol content, although some have surprising effects such as increasing fortitude or simply being a mug of dishwater and therefore (mostly) harmless.

Although there is a limit of playing one action card per turn, there are other cards marked 'Sometimes' and 'Anytime' in the decks. The 'Sometimes' cards can be played whenever the requirements printed on them have been met and mostly counter other cards. 'Anytime' cards can be played just as you'd expect - at any time, to get their effect.

While most action cards force opponents to take damage or drink up, each player also has several 'Gambling? I'm In!' cards in their deck. These begin a round of gambling where players ante gold and play additional gambling and/or cheating cards to gain the upper hand and force more gold into the mix. When all but one player has passed, or a special card that ends a round of gambling is played, one player collects the loot and the game resumes. There are also drinking contests that can break out, and various wild cards that get all players involved in the action.

A lot of the fun of The Red Dragon Inn comes from the fact that each character plays differently and has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Both Zot and Gerki are good at gambling, for example, with lots of cheat cards in their decks. Fiona has ways to get players drinking heavily, and she can even convert some of her own drinks into fortitude. Deirdre's goddess gets her out of a lot of trouble, and she can heal herself too. This creates various fortitude/alchohol 'limits' for each character. Knowing how each character deals with various threats is the key strategy to the game. Throwing fortitude damage at Deirdre or Fiona isn't likely to do much harm since they'll heal up - get them drunk instead, and save your damage cards for Gerki and Zot - they can't heal it but have ways to keep alchohol content low. If Zot or Gerki starts a gambling round, try to force it to end fast - it's likely he's got a handful of cards that will drain players of their gold if it keeps going around. It's the personalities of these characters that makes this game charming and fun.

The other outstanding feature of this game is the artwork. The cards feature full color illustrations that conjure images of Don Bluth's animation crossed with Japanese manga. It's very well done, and adds a lot to the flavor of the game.

The only potential drawback I can see to the game is the limit of four players. This is one of those games where the more people you can get playing the better it would be. Luckily, Slugfest has this complaint covered and are hard at work on a standalone sequel that can be combined with the original game to increase the player limit to eight. By the time it releases in 2008, fans should have these original four characters pretty well figured out and will be ready for some fresh faces (and maybe some new tavern staples; darts, perhaps, or brawls that get the rest of the patrons involved?).

The Red Dragon Inn is a great game to break out at the start of a game night to break the ice and get people in a good mood. It's easy to teach, plays quickly and most importantly, is simply a load of fun.

Manga? Bummer.

Maybe that's not the best comparison, it's just how the artwork struck me. You should really look at some of the pictures here on the BGG, there are a few of the cards and one of the box cover, they'll give you a good idea of what the art is like.

Nice review ...
Will buy once avail in the on-line store ...

and yeah, I like the artwork too ...

As a counter:

Manga? Coo, I'll have to do more research, check out the game to see if it's something I like, and perhaps give it a try.