Dragon Dice is a 1995 collectible dice game originally made by TSR, Inc., and is produced today by SFR, Inc. It is one of only a handful of collectible dice games produced in the early 1990s. The races and monsters in Dragon Dice were created by Lester Smith and include some creatures unique to a fantasy setting and others familiar to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
The game simulates combat between armies of fantasy races for control of a young world named Esfah. Dragon Dice classifies magical power by element: air, earth, fire, water, and death. Nearly every race in the game is composed of two of these elements. In the original edition, dragons and dragon-related dice (Dragonkin) were all composed of a single element each. However, SFR has since released "hybrid" dragons representing each two-element combination, in addition to white and ivory dragons (where ivory represents no elemental affinity and white represents affinity with all elements).
Dragon Dice was one of the last original games produced by TSR, and an unexpectedly high return of unsold units contributed to the financial crisis that resulted in the sale of TSR to Wizards of the Coast.
Premise Dragon Dice is set in the fictional world of "Esfah." Esfah was created by the goddess Nature, and the Father of All. These two deities had several children, each of whom represented one of the major elements described by Plato (Fire - Firiel, Earth - Eldurim, Wind - Ailuril, Water - Aguarehl), and one of whom was named "Death." After Nature's children created two races, the Coral Elves (Selumari) and Dwarves (Vagha), Death created its own set of races, the Goblins (Trogs) and Lava Elves (Morehl), bent on causing mischief and discord. Nature and her children became enveloped in a continuing war with Death, each causing the birth of several new races, including the Amazons, Firewalkers, Undead, Feral, Swampstalkers, Frostwings, Scalders, and Treefolk. Players, acting as army Commanders, assemble race units and compete against each other in a battle on selected terrain. Commanders may summon Dragons, representing the cardinal elements, which attack each other and all other creatures. Legendary units, Dragonhunter and Dragonmaster leaders of The Eldarim, each holding the power of one of Esfah's elements, grew within the ebb and flow of the war.
Players then use their dice to represent either the forces of Good or Evil in this setting. For example, you could be anyone from the Coral Elf Commander, leading your army on a path to destroy Death races, driven by that which stole your peaceful existence and attacked Mother Nature, to the Treefolk General, leading a harmonious balanced life in Water and Earth. Or, maybe you just want to light stuff on Fire raging in tumultuous Air tides.
Goal The goal of a standard game of Dragon Dice is to capture two of any of the terrains being fought over. This is achieved by one player's armies controlling two terrains that have their terrain die turned to the eighth face, as explained below. The game can also be won if a player has the last surviving in play. Any number of players can share in this struggle.
Types of dice
Units Any six-sided die or ten-sided die (see Monsters, below) that belongs to a race is a unit.Page 3 of the Dragon Dice rules. The color(s) of the dice identify each race and represent the elements that comprise each. The dice come in four sizes, each corresponding to a particular amount of "health" from 1 to 4 points. One side on each unit die has an ID icon, which identifies the unit and generates results equal to the health of the die towards whatever action is being rolled for. The remaining sides have either normal action icons (representing magic, maneuvers, melee, missiles, or saves) or special action icons (SAI) that generate special effects or results. Generally, the more health a unit has, the more icons it will have. Units are also divided by class as well as size, reflecting their specialty. Most races have five classes of unit, plus monsters (or champions for the Eldarim), but while most races share a number of classes (Cavalry, Magic, Melee), some are unique to certain races (Light Magic, Light Melee, Light Missile).Summary of the icons of each race on pp. 65-77 of Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a.
MONSTERS are ten-sided dice that are units and have a single icon on each face which generate 4 points of effect (i.e.: 4 results) with the possible exception of some SAI effects. Monsters are part of a player's army and each one counts as four points of health.Page 21 of Dragon Dice rulesm version 2.6a.
Players build armies of units to a predetermined amount of health. The standard game is 36 points of health, but smaller and even larger games are not uncommon.
There are other six-sided dice that are mono-colored called Dragonkin that are not considered units.Page 52 of the Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a. There are other ten-sided dice that are mono-colored called artifacts that are a type of magic item.Page 54 of the Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a Both are part of the Advanced Rules.
Terrains TERRAINS are eight-sided and have two colors that indicate what elements comprise the terrain. For example, a Swampland terrain is green and gold, showing it is made of earth and water. Each face of a terrain die is numbered and has an icon for missile, melee, or magic. The number and the icon shown indicate how far apart armies at that terrain are. If a Magic icon (starburst) is showing, then the armies are so far apart they can only cast spells. A Missile face (arrow) means they are close enough to shoot at each other, and a Melee icon (sword) means they are close enough for hand-to-hand combat to take place. Each player brings two terrains to the game, one Home terrain and one proposed Frontier terrain. Some races gain benefits such as extra maneuvers or saves if they are at a certain terrain. The goal of the game is to control two such terrains by "turning" them to the 8th face. An army capturing an 8th face also gains double maneuvers and double saves. The eighth face of terrains has one of four special icons: City, Temple, Tower and Standing Stones. Each gives an additional bonus to the army that possesses them.
SFR released the "Battlefields" expansion in August 2010, featuring two new terrains: Feylands (green/red) and Wastelands (blue/red). Four new 8th face icons were also introduced that can only be used at the Frontier location: Dragon Lair, Grove, Castle, and Vortex. Minor terrains (smaller eight-sided dice) were re-released as part of this expansion.
Dragons DRAGONS are twelve-sided and of a single (or two mixed) . Each face has the image of a dragon part that will show what action the dragon takes when rolled against an army. Dragons must be summoned to a terrain through the use of magic. Players do not control dragons they summon, so bringing one into play can be risky since the possibility exists that it may attack the very player that summoned it. One dragon is brought to the game for every 24 health of units in play. Thus, in a 48 health game players would bring two dragons. SFR has released ten 2-colored HYBRID DRAGONS, 5 Ivory/color hybrid dragons, and a white dragon in both wyrm and drake forms. With the advent of these hybrid dragons, the total number of dragons is 44; 5 each of elemental wyrms and drakes, 10 each of hybrid wyrms and drakes, one each of ivory wyrm and drake, and one each of white wyrm and drake.
Expansions Introduced by SFR 2009: "Acolytes of the Eldarim": This fully expanded race now includes 1-health commons, 2-health uncommons, and 3-health rares, along with new racial abilities and spells.Page 25 of Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a. Like the DragonHunters and DragonMasters, these dice are monochromatic, and available in black, blue, gold, green, or red. (Upon closer inspection, the dice themselves are a combination of ivory and the main color, which distinguishes them from Dragonkin.)
2009: "Dragonkin Expansion" re-releases the Dragonkin, which are 6-sided one-color units that can be summoned to a terrain and fight with the army there. Dragonkin come in 1-health commons, 2-health uncommons, 3-health rares, and 4-health Dragonkin Champions. Dragonkin will not fight against a dragon of the same color. For every full three points of other units a player brings to a game, he is allowed (but not required), to bring one point of dragonkin. Dragonkin are part of the Advanced Rules and start in the Summoning Pool.Page 52 of Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a.
2010: "Battlefields" includes two new basic terrain types, the Feylands (Fire and Water) and the Wastelands (Fire and Air). The terrains printed in white ink have the same four 8th Face types (City, Standing Stones, Temple, Tower) and are a part of the basic game. Also released as a part of this expansion are minor terrain versions of these new terrains (as well as Coastlands, Flatlands, Highlands, Swamplands). These minor terrains represent lesser objectives that may give your army a needed boost if you're willing to take a risk. Minor terrains are part of the Advanced Rules.Page 50 of Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a.
The Battlefields expansion also contains special terrains printed in gold ink with new 8th Faces: the Dragon's Lair, Grove, Castle, and Vortex. These special gold-printed terrains can only be placed at the Frontier. They can never be home terrains, so there will only be a maximum of one special terrain in play during a game. Otherwise, special terrains act just like normal terrains, except that their icon progression is set by the eighth face icon, not by their elemental colors.Page 51 of Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a.
2011: "DragonCrusader and DragonZealots" are Eldarim Champions (along with DragonLords / DragonMasters and DragonSlayers/DragonHunters) and have the ability to control dragons. Each DragonCrusader or DragonZealot that rolls its SFR logo allows the acting player to control one dragon. The dragon may be held motionless (i.e.: it is not rolled) and the army can attack it normally. Or the dragon may be made part of the attack against other dragons.Page 26 of Dragon Dice rules, version 2.6a.
The Races Each of the races of Dragon Dice has unique icons representing the basic action types - for instance Missile is a bow for Coral Elves, a slingshot for Goblins, and a flintlock pistol for Lava Elves. Each race also has access to different special icons on their rare or monster units. Beginning with Firewalkers, each later race also had unique spells using their magic color that only they could cast.
Coral Elves (blue and green) are peaceable sea-dwelling elves who travel in flying "coral ships". Dwarves (red and gold) are stalwart warriors with horned helmets, two-headed axes and shields. Goblins (gold and black) are disgusting, ravenous creatures who ride wolves or leopards and cast curses. Lava Elves (red and black) are fierce death-mages who wield pistols and rapiers. Amazons (ivory with purple icons), the game's only humans, cast magic based on the terrain they are stationed at. (Per Chuck Pint, President of SFR, Amazons are WHITE units, NOT IVORY) (Per the rulebook, "Amazons are ivory, which signifies that they are not inherently any specific aspect...") Firewalkers (blue and red) are warriors from the sun who flew to Esfah to join its battles for sport. Undead (black and ivory with green icons), the reanimated dead, can use only death magic. Ferals (gold and blue) are various races of humanoid beasts or birds who fight with stone knives. Swamp Stalkers (green and black) are hideous snake-people who mutate other races into themselves. Frostwings (black and blue) are furry flying creatures with an affinity for ice. (As the last TSR-published "kicker" pack, Frostwings were underprinted and have become atypically rare.)