Drachenherz

Heart of the Dragon

By Rüdiger Dorn
Published by KOSMOS, © 2010

For 2 players, age 8+, taking about 20 minutes

Unofficial translation (v.1) by Steve McKeogh

CONCEPT
Once upon a time, the Great Dragon kept watch over the destiny of an entire people.
But an envious sorcerer turned him to stone and locked his breath of fire into a blood-
red jewel called the ‘Heart of the Dragon’. In this fabulous but dangerous time, brave
princesses must fend off heroes as well as trolls whilst enchanting the stone dragon and
gathering valuable treasures. Mighty fire-dragons also desire this treasure and they in
turn are pursued by skilful dragon huntresses. Only the dwarves keep out of all these
goings-on and occupy themselves in their own concerns.

AIM
The players lay cards on the spaces of the board. By doing this they can collect other
cards from adjacent spaces, which will gain them varying amounts of fame. Whoever
has achieved the most fame by the end of the game will be able to break the curse and
free the Great Dragon.

CONTENTS
1 board
100 cards (2 identical sets of 50 cards)
1 dragon figure

PREPARATION
• Lay out the board on the middle of the table.
The players sit opposite each other.
• Place the dragon figure next to the picture of the stone dragon.
• Each player takes a set of 50 cards and shuffles them. Each player takes the top 5
cards from his set for his starting hand. The players place their remaining cards in front
of them as a face-down draw-pile.
• The youngest player decides who will start the game. Turns are then taken alternately.

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PLAYING THE GAME
• On his turn, a player plays one or more cards with the same picture. He then draws
cards to make his hand back up to 5 cards.
• The cards are always placed on the space that shows the same picture as the cards.
• On some spaces the cards are accumulated in a stack, so that only the card on top
can be seen.
Example: On the fire-dragon space, any number of fire-dragons can be accumulated.
• On other spaces, the cards are laid out slightly staggered, so that the players can
always see the number of cards of this type that have already been placed.
Example: A total of three dragon huntresses can be laid out.
• Placing cards can trigger actions.
• Actions triggered by cards that are placed as a stack take place immediately – except
for the treasure chest and the stone dragon which do not trigger an action.
• Actions for cards that are placed staggered are triggered once there is the exact
number of cards laid out as indicated by the printed outlines for that space.
• If there is an arrow pointing away from the space where the player has placed cards,
he collects all the cards from the adjacent space to which the arrow is pointing. These
have varying values in the form of fame points.
Example: With the fire-dragons, the player takes all the treasure chests.

THE CARDS IN DETAIL

Treasure chest: No actions are triggered by placing treasure chests.
Immeasurable treasures accumulate here and their sparkling splendour attracts the
mighty fire-dragons. The princess also has her eye on these riches.

Fire-dragon: The player takes all the treasure chests that are laid out and puts them
face-down in front of him.
The fire-dragons swoop down from a great height on to the treasures and steal them
away in their grasping claws.

Stone dragon: No actions are triggered by placing stone dragons.

The stone dragon stands there silently demanding that he and his time should not be
forgotten. For now, the Heart of the Dragon keeps watch instead, until the day when the
curse can be broken and the Great Dragon can return to life.

Princess: The player takes either all the laid out treasure chests or all the laid out stone
dragons. Even if he plays more than one princess he can only choose one of the two
stacks. He puts the cards face-down in front of him. If the player takes the stone
dragons he also takes the dragon figure and stands it in front of him. If the other player
currently has it, he must now hand it over. If the player already has the figure in front of
him he simply keeps it there. The function of the dragon figure is explained on page 4.
A princess who knows what she wants: the treasure for her people and the magical
Heart of the Dragon for herself. She enchants the Great Dragon so that she can use the
magic of the Heart of the Dragon for herself.

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Troll: The player takes all the laid out princesses and puts them face-down in front of
him.
He is a monster. Incited by the evil sorcerer, his menace is directed solely against the
princess.

Dwarf: The player who places the fourth dwarf takes all four dwarves that are laid out
and puts them face-down in front of him.
The dwarves are more interested in searching for treasure than in actually becoming
rich. Once they have found enough treasure, they pack it into a mighty chest and flaunt
it on the highest mountain where it can sparkle all around. But whenever four of them
end up together, they down tools and rush off to the nearest tavern.

Hero: The player who places the second hero takes either all the laid out princesses or
all the laid out trolls and puts them face-down in front of him.

Afterwards put the two heroes face-up below the ship.

Note: The board does not have an actual space below the ship but a curved arrow
points to where the cards can be placed next to the board.
Wherever there is a monster, there will be a hero. And this makes life hard for the trolls.
If he cannot go after the trolls, he will take the princess to safety – whether she wants to
go or not.

Dragon huntress: The player who places the third dragon huntress takes all the laid
out fire-dragons and puts them face-down in front of him.

Afterwards put the three dragon huntresses face-up below the ship.
They bravely take on the fire-dragons, which have been sent out by the evil sorcerer to
steal the dwarves’ treasure and cause unrest in the land.

Ship: The player who places the third ship takes all the cards that have been put below
the ship (dragon huntresses and heroes) and puts them face-down in front of him.

Afterwards put the three ships in a face-up stack next to the board. The second time that
three ships are laid out put these cards in a second stack next to the first one. In this
way the players can always see how far they are into the game. The game ends as soon
as a third stack of ships is put next to the board.

Note: The icon of a bow and a sword on the ship cards is to remind the players that the
dragon huntresses and the heroes can be collected with the ships.
Distant lands, new adventures. These tempt the heroes and the dragon huntresses.
When their work is done they go on board the ship, and when the third signal rings out,
the ship sets sail.

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FURTHER RULES
• If a player would be entitled to take cards from the board but there are none on the
appropriate space then he has bad luck and goes without.
Example: The player places a troll but there are no cards on the princess space.
• For spaces that require a certain number of cards to trigger the action, a player cannot
play more cards during a turn than the number needed to reach the required total.
Example: If there are already 2 dwarves laid out, then no more than 2 dwarves can be
added. A player cannot play 3 dwarves, and a new set cannot be started with the third
dwarf on that same turn.
• The players cannot look through the cards that are in face-up stacks, whether on the
board or below the ship.

THE DRAGON FIGURE

The player who has the dragon figure always makes his hand back up to 6 cards at the
end of his turn.

Important: Once a player has to hand over the dragon, his hand limit is once again 5
cards. The other player immediately removes a card from the player’s hand, and,
without looking at it, puts it face-down on the player’s draw-pile. The player will therefore
get the card back again the next time he draws a card.

END OF THE GAME

The game ends when the ship sets sail for the third time. There will now be three stacks
of 3 ship cards next to the board. The other player now has one more complete turn.

The game can end early if one of the players takes the last card from his draw-pile. If
that player does not place the third ship card on his next turn (either because he cannot
or does not wish to) the game still ends at the end of that turn. However, the other player
still takes one final complete turn.

The players now put their remaining hand cards back into the box. They then add up the
fame points on the cards that they have collected. The player who has the dragon figure
stood in front of him gains an additional 3 points.

The player with the highest total is the winner. If there is a tie, the player with the dragon
figure is the winner.