Dragon Dice® Rules

In the game of Dragon Dice®, you use dice to represent armies of different fantasy races and monsters which battle to control essential pieces of terrain. Any number of players can share in this struggle. The first player to capture two terrains immediately wins the game. A player also wins if they have the last surviving unit(s) in play.

The best way to learn Dragon Dice® is to play it. Rather than trying to learn the rules by just reading them, get out your dice and follow the instructions step by step. In no time at all, you'll be commanding armies like a pro.

The dice are the building blocks of the Dragon Dice® game. Units, items, dragons, and terrains are all represented by dice of various shapes and colors. You can tell what a die is by how many sides it has, and what colors it contains. Here is a summary of the various dice of Dragon Dice®:

There are a few things you should know before you start your first game. Once you've got these concepts mastered, they will help you understand the rules as you play through your games. The following terms are referred to throughout this rulebook:

Term used to denote the fantastical entities represented by units in the game. Coral Elves, Goblins, and Scalders are examples of races. Eldarim of all colors are a single race. Dragonkin of all colors are also a single race.

Any six-sided or ten-sided die of a race is a unit. The six-sided units come in four sizes: Small (16mm), Medium (18mm), Large (20mm), and Champion (22mm). A ten-sided unit is called a monster.

Items (the four-sided dice) and artifacts (the ten-sided dice not of a race) are collectively known as items. The four-sided items come in four sizes: Small, Medium, Large, and Medallion.

Units and dragons have a specific amount of health which determines how much damage it takes to kill them. Small units have one health (one point of damage kills a small unit). Medium units have two health. Large units have three health. Champions and monsters have four health. Dragons have five health. White dragons have ten health.

Units and items both have point values based on their die size. Six-sided and ten-sided units have a points value equal to their health. The points values for items, artifacts, and medallions are defined in the Advanced Rules.

The symbols on the faces of each die are called icons. There are two types of icons on units and items: Action and ID.

Action icons

There are two types of action icons: normal action icons and Special Action Icons (hereafter referred to as SAIs). These tell what actions a unit or item can perform in the game. For example, if a unit has an icon of a bow on one face, it generates one missile result when that face is rolled.

ID icons

These serve to identify the units. For example, an icon of a Dwarf wearing a feathered cap on a small die identifies it as a “Crossbowman”. An ID icon always generates whatever results you are rolling for. If you are rolling for saves, ID icons generate save results; if you are rolling for maneuvers, they generate maneuver results; and so forth. Furthermore, each unit's ID icon generates a number of results equal to its health or points. Artifacts also have an ID icon which generates four results.

The colors of the units represent the magical elements that make up each race. The colors of the items, terrains, and dragons represent the magical elements that make up each item, terrain, or dragon.

The Elements

The following table shows the five elements and what they represent:

In addition, the following two colors are also used alongside the elements:

Colors and elements of the races

The following table shows the different races and which elements each of those races represent:

Colors and elements of the terrains

The following table shows the different terrain and which elements each of those terrains represent:

The faces on each terrain die are numbered from 1 to 8, and also feature an icon. The numbers represent the distance between armies whereas the icons represent which action may be used to engage an opposing army at that distance. A low number showing on a face means the armies are very far apart, while a large number means the armies are very close.

When an army maneuvers a terrain to its eighth face it captures that terrain. If you capture two terrains, you win the game. A terrain is only considered captured when it is on its eighth face.

At times, units need to pull back and regroup, or move to another terrain. They must first retreat to your Reserve Area. The units in your Reserve Area form your Reserve Army.

All of your units and items at a single terrain or the Reserve Area form an army and are called: Home Army: This army is at your Home Terrain. Horde Army: This army is at another player's Home Terrain. Campaign Army: This army is at the Frontier Terrain Reserve Army: This army is in your Reserve Area.

A player’s force is all of his or her armies and units combined. At the start of a game players agree to a point value for their total force size and use that to select their forces. Any dice in in your summoning pool are not part of your total force size.

Units that take damage equal to or exceeding their health are removed from their army and placed in your Dead Unit Area (also referred to as DUA).

Dead units may be buried. Buried units are removed from the Dead Unit Area and placed in the Buried Unit Area (also referred to as BUA).

Some effects allow you to promote your units to other units which have more health. Promotion is detailed later in these rules on Page 31.

Some effects allow you to recruit a unit to an army. To recruit a unit, simply move a one-health unit from your Dead Unit Area (DUA) to the recruiting army.

This is where dragons, Dragonkin, and minor terrains are put at the start of the game. The Summoning Pool is kept separate from the Dead Unit Area (DUA) and Buried Unit Area (BUA).