An evil wizard has placed the Great Dragon, the protector of the realm, into a stony slumber, its fiery breath locked away in a ruby jewel called the Dragonheart. With the land's guardian imprisoned, trolls and and fire dragons run amuck, barely held in check by brave knights and canny huntresses.

As a disciple of the Great Dragon, it is up to you to free him. Or, as a minion of the evil wizard, you must see that the Great Dragon sleeps forever. Can you do it?

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 1 Plastic Great Dragon Figure
• 100 Cards (two decks of 50 cards, one green and one red)
• Rulebook

Object of the Game

In this game for two players, one player takes the role of a disciple of the Great Dragon and tries to break the spell on it, while the other player takes the role of the evil wizard's minion and tries to prevent the freeing of the Great Dragon.

To accomplish these goals, the two players take turns placing cards on the board in order to collect cards for their score piles.

Each card is worth from one to four points, and at the end of the game, the player with the most points succeeds at his goal and wins the game.

Setup

To prepare for a game of Dragonheavty players carry out the following steps:

1. Place Game Board: One player places the game board in the center of the play area.

2. Place Great Dragon: One player places the plastic Great Dragon figure on the game board, in the area to the right of the Petrified Dragon space and above the Dwarf space (see "Space Effects" on page 3).

3. Select Decks: Each player chooses one of the decks of 50 cards (the green deck or the red deck). Both decks are exactly the same, except for the color on the backs.

4. Draw Cards: Each player thoroughly shuffles his deck and then draws the top five cards from it without revealing them to his opponent. These cards form his starting hand. The players remaining cards form his draw deck, which he places facedown in front of himself.

5. Choose Starting Player: The youngest player chooses who plays first, and the game begins with the chosen player.

Game Turn

In Dragonheart, players alternate taking turns. Once a player completes all the steps of his turn, his opponent then takes a turn. Each turn is made up of the following steps:

1. Play Cards
2. Collect Cards
3. Draw Cards

1. Play Cards

During this step, the player whose turn it is plays one or more cards faceup to the game board. These cards must all have the same picture, and the picture must correspond to the picture of the space they are played to on the game board.

The player must reveal the point values of the cards to his opponent as he plays them. The player is not required to play every card he has with that picture; he may play only some of them if he wishes.

However, he must always play at least one card during this step and may only play cards to one space. Some spaces on the game board have a single card outline, while others have multiple card outlines.

The number of card outlines indicates how many cards are needed to activate that space's effect (see "Space Effects" on page 3). Space effects usually give the player activating the effect the ability to take cards from the board and place them in his score pile.

Not all spaces have an effect, however. No matter how many cards are placed in a space at once, the space effect only activates once that turn.

Any number of cards can be placed at once in a space with only one card outline. Cards in this type of space are placed in a stack so that only the top card is visible. Cards below the top card in this stack may not be examined. There is no limit to the number of cards that can be in this type of space at one time.

Example: A player can place as many Fire Dragon cards to the Fire Dragon space as he has, regardless of how many such cards are already there.

Spaces with multiple card outlines can only hold as many cards as there are card outlines. Players may not play more cards to those spaces than there are empty card outlines.

Cards in this type of space are placed in a slightly offset stack, starting with the topmost outline, so that all cards in the stack are at least partially visible.

Example: The Huntress space can only hold up to three Huntress cards. If one Huntress card is already in this space, a player can only play up to two more to it.

2. Collect Cards

During this step, the player collects cards from the game board, if possible. A player can collect cards from the game board if he has activated a space effect during the Play Cards step that allows him to do so.

He places these collected cards into his score pile. Straight arrows on the board provide guidance to players as to which space they can take cards from for their score pile.

Players may examine cards in their own score pile at any time.

Example: When one or more Fire Dragon cards are played in the Fire Dragon space during the Play Cards step, that player takes any Treasure Chest card in the Treasure Chest space during the Collect Card step.

Huntress, Knight, and Ship cards are also moved from the board during this step, when necessary. (See "Space Effects" on page 3).

3. Draw Cards

During this step, the player draws sufficient cards from his draw deck to fill his hand up to his maximum hand size (normally five cards). Once the player has refilled his hand, his opponent's turn begins starting with the Play Cards step.

Space Effects

This section presents detailed explanations of the space effects of each space on the game board and how those effects are activated.

Note: When a player activates a space effect, if there are no cards on the space a player is to collect cards from, he simply doesn't get to take cards from that space.

Treasure Chest: Playing cards to the Treasure Chest space does not trigger an effect.

Here accumulates the vast wealth of the dwarf, its glittering splendor luring both mighty fire dragons and sorceresses.

Fire Dragon: Playing cards to the Fire Dragon space allows the player to take all the cards on the Treasure Chest space (as indicated by the arrow on the board). He takes those Treasure Chest cards and places them facedown in his score pile.

Directed by the evil wizard, fire dragons plunge from a great height to carry off dwarf treasure in their huge claws.

Petrified Dragon: Playing cards to the Petrified Dragon space does not trigger an effect.

The petrified dragon sits in silent accusation against those who abetted his imprisonment and do ill in his absence. The Dragonheart alone flickers with life, until the day the spell that transformed the Great Dragon can be undone.

Sorceress: Playing cards to the Sorceress space allows the player to take all the cards on the Treasure Chest space or all the cards on the Petrified Dragon space (as indicated by the arrows on the board).

Regardless of how many Sorceress cards he plays, the player may only take the cards from one of those two spaces, not both. He places the cards he takes facedown into his score pile.

If the player takes at least one Petrified Dragon card, he also takes the Great Dragon figure (seen at right) and places it in front of himself. Possessing this figure gives the player a hand size of six cards.

If the player takes the Great Dragon figure from an opponent, the opponent must reduce his own hand size down to five cards.

In order to accomplish this, the new possessor of the Great Dragon figure takes a random card from his opponent's hand and, without looking at it, places it on top of the opponent's draw deck. The opponent will, thus, draw the card again when he draws next.

The sorceresses know what they want: great wealth and the magic of the Dragonheart for themselves. They work their craft on the petrified dragon to unlock the secret of its powers.

Troll: Playing cards to the Troll space allows the player to take all the cards on the Sorceress space (as indicated by the arrow on the board). He takes those Sorceress cards and places them facedown in his score pile.

A monster it is. Incited by the evil wizard against the sorceresses because of their meddling, the troll only threatens them.

Dwarf: The player who plays the fourth card to the Dwarf space takes all four cards on the Dwarf space. He places those Dwarf cards facedown in his score pile.

The search for wealth drives the dwarfs, not the possessing. Once they have uncovered enough, they display their discoveries on the highest mountaintop to sparkle in the sun. When four dwarfs meet, they regale each other with stories of their finds while they are deep in their cups.

Knight: The player who plays the second card to the Knight space takes all the cards on the Sorceress space or all the cards on the Troll space (as indicated by the arrows on the board).

Regardless of how many Knight cards he plays, the player may only take the cards from one of those two spaces, not both. He places the cards he takes facedown into his score pile.

Afterwards, the two Knight cards are placed faceup in a stack below the Ship space.

They are not actually placed on the game board. Instead, a curved arrow indicates the place below the game board where they are to be placed.

Where there's a monster, there's a knight to fight it. Most often, the monster is a troll. When no trolls are about, the knights carry sorceresses to safety, whether the sorceresses want them to or not. Both trolls and sorceresses alike find them inconvenient.

Huntress: The player who plays the third card to the Huntress space takes all the cards on the Fire Dragon space (as indicated by the arrow on the board). He places those Fire Dragon cards facedown in his score pile.

Afterwards, the three Huntress cards are placed faceup below the Ship space (in the same pile as the Knight cards are, as previously discussed). They are not actually placed on the game board. Instead, a curved arrow indicates the place below the game board where they are to be placed.

Huntresses bravely stalk the fire dragons, minions sent by the evil wizard to cause unrest in the land and steal the treasures of the dwarfs.

Ship: The player who plays the third card to the Ship space takes all the cards below the Ship space (Knights and Huntresses) and places them facedown in his score pile.

Afterwards, the three Ship cards are placed in a faceup stack next to the game board. The second time three Ship cards are on the board, they are placed in a faceup stack next to the first stack of Ship cards.

The third time three Ship cards are on the board, they are placed in a faceup stack next to the other two stacks of Ship cards. This act signals the end of the game.

Note: The "bow and sword" symbols on the Ship cards (seen at right) remind players that the Ship space allows Knights and Huntresses to be collected.

Distant lands and new adventures call the knights and huntresses. Once their work in this land is done, they board their ships and, when the time is right, set sail for the next challenge.

End of the Game

Players alternate taking turns until the game ends. Usually, the ending of the game is signalled by the placing of a third stack of Ship cards next to the board.

After the end of the turn of the player who placed the third stack of Ship cards, his opponent takes one final turn. After that, the game is over.

However, the game can also end before the third stack of Ship cards is placed if one player is unable to draw any cards from his draw deck. The turn in which the player has no cards to draw is his final turn. His opponent then takes one final turn after that.

Once the final turn of the game is over, the players return the remaining cards in their hands to the box. Those cards have no value. Then, each player totals the point values of the cards in his score pile.

The player who possesses the Great Dragon figure then receives three points.

The player with the highest point total wins, freeing or keeping the Great Dragon petrified, depending on whether the winning player was green or red. In the case of a tie, the player with the Great Dragon figure wins.

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