Dragonwood

Mixing cards, dice, creature capture, and push-your-luck gameplay, Dragonwood offers a lot of fun and strategy in a game that’s still accessible to younger players.

Each player has a hand of cards numbered 1 to 10, in different colors. Five faceup cards are drawn from a separate deck, offering monsters to defeat, powerups, and special events. Each of these cards is captured by forming sets from your hand to power one of three attacks: striking, stomping, or screaming. A strike requires cards of any color in a sequence (4, 5, 6), a stomp uses matching numbers in any color (3, 3, 3), and a scream uses matching colors.

The number of cards you can play from your hand determines the number of dice you get to roll in an attack. For example, if your cards are 2, 3, 4, and 5, you get four dice to roll for a strike. If you’re going against the Angry Ogre, you have to roll 12 or above to capture him.

The combination of dice and card play plus fantasy adventuring and whimsical, high-quality art make Dragonwood a sure winner for family game night. – Thomas L. McDonald