In The Year of the Dragon
In The Year of the Dragon is a game designed by Stefan Feld and published by Alea.
Players take on the role of Chinese rulers around the year 1000. The game plays out in twelve rounds, with each round representing one month in a year that seems to go from bad to worse. Disease, drought, and attacks from the Mongols may claim lives, but make sure you have enough money to offer a tribute to the Emperor.
The game play is easier than it may appear. Every player has a set of "person" cards. Each round, you choose one action (most of which call on your workers' abilities) to help you prepare for the months ahead. Then you play one person card, recruiting that person and placing him into one of your palaces. Each person brings different skills and abilities to help you ride out the year. (Farmers help you gain rice to survive a drought month, Tax Collectors raise money, etc.) At the end of each round, that month's event is triggered, which may cost you some of your workers, some money, or give you points.
Careful planning is the key to surviving "the year of the dragon," but survival alone may not win you the game.
Number of players: 2 - 5
Game duration: 20 mn
Complexity: 3 / 5
Play In The Year of the Dragon and 959 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Play In The Year of the Dragon and 959 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Round Order
The game consists of exactly 12 rounds, symbolising the 12 months in the Year of the Dragon. The player order for the round is determined by the marker positions of the Persons track. Each round consists of the following 4 phases, in order:
1st Phase: Choose an Action
- If you choose an action in the same grouping as another player has already chosen, you must pay 3 yuan.
- You may also choose no action and fill your personal money supply to 3 yuan.
2nd Phase: Choose a New Person
- If you do not have available space in any palaces, you must discard a different person before placing your new person.
- You need a card with the given role of the person you want to take or the wild card
- Gain positions on the Persons track a number of spaces equal to the value of the new person you selected.
3rd Phase: Event
- After the event resolves, any palaces which are unoccupied lose 1 floor.
4th Phase: Scoring
1 point for each:
- Palace
- Court lady
- Privilege (small)
2 points for large privilege
Events
Peace
- Nothing happens
Imperial Tribute
- Each player pays 4 yuan
- For each yuan a player is short, release 1 person
Drought
- Each player must turn in 1 rice tile for each inhabited palace
- From each unsupplied palace, release 1 person
Mongol Invasion
- Each player scores points equal to the helmets on their warriors
- All the players with the fewest must each release a single person
Dragon Festival
- Players get 6, or 3, victory points for the most, or the second most, fireworks
- Scoring players then turn in half of their tiles to the supply
Epidemic
- Each player must release 3 persons, 1 fewer per mortar on their healers
Actions
Taxes
Take 1 yuan from the supply for each coin symbol (on the action card and the player’s tax collectors)
Build
Take 1 palace floor from the supply for each hammer (on the action card and the player’s craftsmen), then build the new floors; no palace higher than 3 floors
Harvest
Take 1 rice tile from the supply for each rice sack (on the action card and the player’s farmers)
Fireworks Display
Take 1 fireworks tile from the supply for each rocket (on the action card and the player’s pyrotechnists)
Military Parade
Move 1 space on the person track for each helmet (on the card and the player’s warriors)
Research
Move 1 space on the scoring track for each book (on the action card and the player’s scholars)
Privilege
Pay 2, or 6 (or 7 depending on new or old edition rules), yuan to the supply and take a small, or large, privilege tile from the supply accordingly
(No action)
Take up to 3 yuan from the supply to bring your total yuan to 3
End-of-game Scoring
Person
- 2 points each
Monk
- [number of Buddhas] x [number of floors] points
Rice and Fireworks
- Each player sells back to the supply all of their rice and fireworks tiles for 2 yuan each.
- Afterwards, each player earns 1 victory point for every 3 yuan they possess.
