I feel every game with enough room to grow deserves a sequel. A second edition.
Not every game designer takes that direction, though. And I get why. Once a game already works, touching it again is risky. You can easily overdo the changes, lose the balance, or poke the core of the game in places that should have been left alone.
But when a second edition is done right, it does justice to the original idea and lets the game become a fuller version of itself.
That is exactly why Dragon vs Kingdom has been such an interesting one to return to.
The first edition already had a strong identity. You build as the Builder, burn as the Dragon, pass sheets around the table, and keep switching between protecting kingdoms and becoming the thing kingdoms are afraid of.
So when the second edition came along, the question was not whether the game needed fixing. It was more about what Chris and Parker could add without disturbing that core. Turns out, quite a bit.
The hex grid, the new Dragon types, the new Kingdom sheets, and the possible combinations give the game a proper leap without losing what made it work in the first place. I have already poured my heart out about all that in my detailed review, because the changes here are absolutely worth talking about.
But alongside that, I wanted to look at the game from the perspective of its creators.
So far, I have talked to four game designers about what went into creating their games, and I noticed how much you folks enjoyed these little peeks into their design process. I had a blast too!
So here we are again with another Behind the Scenes special.
I asked Chris Backe and Parker Simpson to share what went into bringing the second edition of Dragon vs Kingdom to life.
Chris Backe:
"Two things I love about print-and-play games are their simplicity and their modularity. I think it was Dungeon Pages that really got me thinking how to create more ways to play from one of my favorite tricks of math: Multiplicative combinations.
In the 2nd edition, there are now 3 different types of dragons you can control and 3 different ways to score points as the kingdom builders. You can mix and match any way you like, giving you 9 different ways to play. The types of dragons correspond to the map sheets, while the score sheets correspond to how the builders score.
Three types of dragon sheets: the OG dragon themselves, the dragon mama and their fire-breathing baby, and a SWARM OF DRAGONS (you play FOUR different dragons all out to create chaos).
Three types of score sheets for the builders, each with a trio of ways to score points. Each sheet lets you draw a Tower (some guaranteed points when you draw it, plus the chance to attack the Dragon), but from there the sheets start to differ…
Testing all 9 combinations took longer than I'd like to admit, but it was great to see different strategies come out each time. A tactic that might work on one combination won't necessarily work on another combination, so you'll have to experiment and adapt as you play.
The hex grid was Parker's idea, so I'll let him take it from here...”
Parker Simpson:
"One of the major parts of Dragon vs Kingdom is flying your dragon around the map. In the first edition something about being able to move both orthogonally AND diagonally on a square grid didn’t always click for folks, which caused the same explanation to come up often when teaching new players.
Measuring was another stumbling block as players need to frequently judge distance throughout the game when scoring certain buildings and when attacking the dragon. We initially used center dots on each space of the grid and used the verbiage of ‘counting dot to dot,’ but this still resulted in similar hang ups.
So moving from a square grid to a hex grid was a transition that took a bit of thought. On one hand, it would radically simplify moving/counting spaces since each side of a hex is connected directly to all adjacent spaces. On the other, we were worried that this might break some of the other mechanisms in the game. Any time you change something major in the development process of a game, you risk having a cascade effect of things that have to be adjusted. Thankfully we were still in the process of refining the new building types for the kingdom expansion, so we could be flexible with things as we went. Not much had to be tweaked thank goodness!
One last note, it was a blast working with Chris to develop fresh additions! Helping him expand on Around the World in 15 Minutes and now Dragon vs Kingdom have both been great experiences. Brainstorming all sorts of wild possibilities for different types of dragons and buildings took us to some interesting places in the design process. I’m incredibly pleased with how the second edition has turned out and it’s a pleasure to work with such a prolific designer!"
Dragon vs Kingdom has easily been one of the spotlights of my Micro May, and the Kickstarter campaign now has under 5 days left.
Check it out while you still can, especially if a role-flipping pass-and-play with dragons and kingdoms sounds like your cup of tea!
- Tas.
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