Get in, get the gold, grab a little more gold…okay maybe just one more piece of gol- OH NO! The dragon’s waking! Grab your gold and GET OUT!
What is Troll & Dragon?
Troll & Dragon is a push your luck game from LOKI.
You take on the role of daring Adventurers recruited by the King to bring him as many Gold and Diamonds as possible from the Monster Den while evading the Troll who wishes to eat you and the Dragon guarding his gold.
Players will take turns rolling dice to collect as much diamond and gold as they can before the Troll or Dragon catches them.
The player with the most treasure at the end of the game is the winner!
How do you play?
Troll & Dragon is as quick to teach as it is fun to play!
To start, hand each player an adventure pack and set the troll hand in the middle of the table along with the bottom of the box.
The bottom of the box will be used to hold the treasures players will be attempting to get on their turn. Pour all of the diamonds into the diamond grotto and the gold nuggets into the treasure cavern.
Players take their turn around the table with each turn having two phases.
On your turn, you’ll first enter the Diamond Grotto, taking all four of the white diamond dice and roll them. Resolve the dice according to the faces rolled.
Troll: The die is blocked and cannot be rerolled.
Diamond: if you roll one or more diamond faces, take that amount of diamonds from the grotto and place them next to your adventure pack, but not on it. These are not yet yours. Diamond face dice may be rerolled.
Door or Key: You can reroll these dice to try to find more diamonds or you may set them aside. To enter the Treasure Cavern you must roll both a door and a key. If you set dice aside they are blocked and cannot be rerolled.
The troll appears when all of your dice are blocked. When this happens you lose all of the diamonds you collected this turn. Place them on the troll hand.
If you wish to end your turn, before all of your dice are blocked simply say, “I’m leaving!” Then take all of the diamonds you managed to get from the box and place them on your adventure pack. These are now yours!
If you wish to enter the treasure cavern and rolled both a key and a door, then you may enter the second phase of your turn. Set the diamond dice aside and take the gold Treasure Cavern dice and hand the dragon dice to the other players.
Just like with the diamond dice, any time you roll a gold nugget, take the amount shown and place it beside your pack. Roll as many times as you would like until you wish to leave or the dragon wakes. Just say “I’m leaving!” Then add your gold and diamonds onto your adventure pack.
While you are rolling your gold dice, the other players will be passing the red dragon dice around, trying to roll two dragons. If this happens before you leave, the dragons wakes up, scaring you and the troll, forcing you to drop your treasures as you flee the cave.
If the players rolling for the dragon are successful, they will then take any gold and diamonds you were able to get, and and diamonds that are on the troll hand and share them amongst themselves, adding the treasure to their packs.
The next player then takes their turn.
The game ends when either one or both of the treasure locations is empty, or after an agreed upon number of rounds. It’s up to you!
What do we think?
For this style of game, the theme is just perfect and adds the right amount of excitement as players are trying to escape the cavern before getting caught.
Aiding the theme also are some really beautiful art and components. The diamond and gold pieces are nice little nugget-shaped treasures that sparkle really well and look great all piled up on your adventure pack. The dice are well sized with icons that are very easily distinguishable; important since you’ll be rolling them quickly.
Best part is it all fits in its compact box making it a great option for travel and will save you some shelf space!
We have had such a fun time playing Troll & Dragon. Push your luck games are always a hit in this house, but I love how Troll & Dragon keeps everyone playing even when its not their turn.
During the first part of your turn, you’re working against your own dice rolls, hoping to not get caught by the troll as you grab diamonds and search for the entrance to the treasure cavern. But once you enter the treasure cavern and begin to roll for gold, all of the other players will be working against you to wake up the dragon. This is such a fun and exciting part of the game as everyone frantically passes the dragon dice around the table hoping to thwart the active player and maybe score a little treasure for themselves in the process.
Now, while we the adults love push your luck games, kids don’t always feel the same. The main thing that makes this style so fun: risking everything to win or lose big, makes it pretty difficult for kids emotionally.
That’s not to say that kids won’t like this game. They’ll most likely be drawn in heavily by the theme and mechanics, I know my kids are. Just know that you’ll potentially have to work through some big emotions when the dice just don’t roll in their favor.
Troll & Dragon is recommended for players ages 7 and up. This is right on, not just because kids will need to process quickly and handle the stress of quick play, but their emotional intelligence also needs to be a bit more developed to really enjoy this experience. Learning to handle disappointment is a great reason for kids to play games though, and they’ll definitely be able to practice that while playing this one.
I played this with my three oldest kids, ages 7, 5, and 3 (This is far too young, he just wanted to be involved, so why not?) Our daughter, (7,) after the dragon waking on her turn, was able to handle the disappointment of watching her gems be divvied up by her competitors. My 5 year old son on the other hand? Let’s say he didn’t handle it with as much, (or any) grace. He might still be upset actually.
(Ironically enough, the far and away winner of that game was the three year old. Happy as a clam to lazily roll the dice and “visit the dragon” as he said. Possibly a life lesson in there somewhere.)
Overall I really like this game, both for its fantastic production, simple game play, and small footprint. If you love push your luck games you’ll definitely enjoy playing Troll & Dragon. Easy enough to teach in minutes; fun for a wide range of ages and skill levels.
While it’s geared towards kids, it’s been a huge hit at our game nights; we’ve even played it just the two of us and have had a great time! It’s another great addition to the LOKI lineup, and my personal favorite of the bunch. Perfect for those older kids who are outgrowing that younger age group and are starting to age into family weight games.
This earns two thumbs thumbs up from me!
Troll & Dragon will be released in August and can be preordered now!
A special thank you to the good folks at IELLO for sending us a copy of Troll & Dragon to review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.
Game Info:
Title: Troll & Dragon
Ages: 7+
Designer: Alexandre Emerit
Artist: Paul Mafayon
Publisher: LOKI
Published: 2018
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